Amp.
JVM
Sep 4 2007, 04:50 AM
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Okay chappies. Some of you may remember that I ended up buying a hot rod deluxe tube amp. This is my first tube amp, so I don't have any experience with them. But I know it's kind of messed up. When it got here (of course, it was advertised as in perfect working condition, but thats what you get), any time I turned most of the knobs, and especially the treble knob, it would crackle like hell. In fact, when I had the treble knob turned up anywhere past 0, it simply would not amplify.

I used some electrical cleaner on the pots and it cleaned up the crackle and fixed the problem with the treble knob, and I thought everything was good, but the distortion channels still didn't sound good. I thought everything was okay though, but obviously not.

Just today I cranked it up a bit, and the speaker began moving without me playing, just thumping constantly even when I had my hand dampening the strings. There's also a lot of stuff going on like, when that happens it sounds pretty messed up and i get kind of a rotary effect when I DO play (which was a bit cool at first but then was not tongue.gif). If I turn it to standby and back, it fixes it, but if I play slightly loud bass notes it will happen again. With the volume down a bit this doesn't happen.

Also when I don't have my hand dampening the strings I get a huge amount of fuzz and when I slightly touch any metal part of the guitar it tones down a bit, surely thats a problem.

Anyway I'm a bit bummed because I was excited for this amp, which I know can be a good sounding amp, but apparnetly not this one. Any tips/insight to what might be the problem, and if it can be fixed? I'm probably going to take it to a tech sometime.

[edit] this is on either of the two dirty channels, the clean mostly works fine as far as I can tell... so far.

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This post has been edited by JVM: Sep 4 2007, 04:52 AM


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MickeM
Sep 4 2007, 05:08 AM
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QUOTE (JVM @ Sep 4 2007, 05:50 AM) *
Also when I don't have my hand dampening the strings I get a huge amount of fuzz and when I slightly touch any metal part of the guitar it tones down a bit, surely thats a problem.

That's normal when you're in a room full of electric distrubances.

The rest of the stuff, never experienced anything like it. I would return it if I was you.
Rotary effect by default... that sounds wierd.

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Andrew Cockburn
Sep 4 2007, 05:09 AM
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Theres a lot of stuff that can go wrong with tube amps that sounds disastrous but can be fixed up relatively easily. Probably what you should have done when you priced up the amp is include a service by an amp tech and a new set of tubes (tubes are regarded as a consumable BTW, they last different amounts of time depending on how hard and often you play it). Replacing tubes is also a job for an amp tech.

Long story short, I would suggest you get it serviced, or (and this is a perfectly serious suggestion) if you are that way inclined, get a decent book about tube amps and/or do some research and see if you can fix it up yourself. Tube amps aren't actually that complex inside.

Oh, and if the guy claimed it was in perfect working order, give him negative feedback so he doesn't do it again!

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MickeM
Sep 4 2007, 05:12 AM
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QUOTE (JVM @ Sep 4 2007, 05:50 AM) *
Any tips/insight to what might be the problem, and if it can be fixed? I'm probably going to take it to a tech sometime.

Got me wondering... did you get it off of eBay or something, used? When I said "return it" I was assuming it was new. I don't know how it works on eBay but if that's the case it sounds like you got yourself a limping pony.

Even when getting a new tube amp some people are picky (not me because at the stores over here when you're not allowed to play loud how could you) about the sound and can try several amps of the same brand and model before they find their sound.

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Saoirse O'Shea
Sep 4 2007, 06:55 AM
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From: Espania - Cadiz province
QUOTE (MickeM @ Sep 3 2007, 10:08 PM) *
That's normal when you're in a room full of electric distrubances.

The rest of the stuff, never experienced anything like it. I would return it if I was you.
Rotary effect by default... that sounds wierd.


As with MickeM - that bit does sound like a ground loop Or a short somewhere.

Overall I'd pretty much recommend the same as Andrew and get it off to an amp tech for a once over. Don't think all the issues are down to old tubes (and Andrew isn't suggesting that btw - more that any amp needs new tubes and if you don't know the provenance then replace) though- sounds more then that to me. More like shorting. I'd get it off to the shop asap m8.

On a lighter note if you have a self biasing amp you can replace the tubes yourself... If it's not self-biasing and you don't know what you are doing then an amp tech. Some amps you can adjust the bias from the board or outside the case btw - if you know how to read a multimeter - changing the bias can have an interesting effect on tone - and tube life - and some amps notoriously come supplied with the bias arguably set too low (Framus are an example).

Cheers,
Tony

Just remembered - years ago I had a transistor H/H 50 amp. Developed sort of similar problems - diagnosed as a short on the input jack. Might be different here but looks like the problem isn't confined to tube amps...
Cheers,
Tony

QUOTE (MickeM @ Sep 3 2007, 10:08 PM) *
That's normal when you're in a room full of electric distrubances.

The rest of the stuff, never experienced anything like it. I would return it if I was you.
Rotary effect by default... that sounds wierd.


As with MickeM - that bit does sound like a ground loop Or a short somewhere.

Overall I'd pretty much recommend the same as Andrew and get it off to an amp tech for a once over. Don't think all the issues are down to old tubes (and Andrew isn't suggesting that btw - more that any amp needs new tubes and if you don't know the provenance then replace) though- sounds more then that to me. More like shorting. I'd get it off to the shop asap m8.

On a lighter note if you have a self biasing amp you can replace the tubes yourself... If it's not self-biasing and you don't know what you are doing then an amp tech. Some amps you can adjust the bias from the board or outside the case btw - if you know how to read a multimeter - changing the bias can have an interesting effect on tone - and tube life - and some amps notoriously come supplied with the bias arguably set too low (Framus are an example).

Cheers,
Tony

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shredmandan
Sep 4 2007, 07:03 AM
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From: Tennessee , USA
QUOTE (MickeM @ Sep 4 2007, 12:12 AM) *
Got me wondering... did you get it off of eBay or something, used? When I said "return it" I was assuming it was new. I don't know how it works on eBay but if that's the case it sounds like you got yourself a limping pony.

Even when getting a new tube amp some people are picky (not me because at the stores over here when you're not allowed to play loud how could you) about the sound and can try several amps of the same brand and model before they find their sound.



The one bad thing about returning on Ebay (if they even offered a return polocy) is YOU are stuck with the shipping Price to ship it back.Being a big amp like that it could cost you upto $100.00 US to ship to guy pending on where in the states it is and if it's over seas forget about it.

I think it could be caused by the tubes though,you said this is your first tube amp and maybe your not really familier with them.There's something called (bias) saturating ?? lol the tubes something like that were you might have to have a pro adjust them or it could need new tubes.Anyway best of luck getting it worked out and hope it works out for you.

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This post has been edited by shredmandan: Sep 4 2007, 07:04 AM


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