Tried to fix my own guitar amp on a Tuesday night and the smoke alarm went off at 11 PM

I was in my garage in Portland trying to replace a bad capacitor on my 1974 Fender amp. Figured I'd watched enough YouTube vids to handle it. Well I soldered the wrong leg and something sparked real bad. Smoke filled the whole garage and the neighbors probably thought I was cooking meth. I unplugged it fast and just left it on the curb for scrappers the next morning. Cost me $40 for parts and a whole night of coughing. Anyone else ever ruin something good by trying to DIY fix it?

2 comments

2 Comments

campbell.robin1mo ago

Did you at least get a good story out of it before the smoke detector woke up the whole neighborhood?

juliawalker1mo ago

Laughing out loud at the whole "cooking meth" comment because that's exactly what my neighbors probably thought too. At least your story ended with a bang, mine just fizzled and smoked like a dying firework. Honestly, the best part of that whole disaster was waking up the next morning and seeing the charred remains of my project sitting on the curb like a monument to my own stupidity. I bet the scrappers thought they hit the jackpot, but really they just got a crispy pile of bad decisions and melted solder. At least you didn't electrocute yourself, so that's a win in my book, even if your ears are still ringing from the smoke alarm.