If the crackling coincides with playing, playing loud, or smacking the top of the amp, its a bad solder joint. Try plugging in a guitar cable, turn up all the amp s volume, gain and master volume controls up a little and touch the tip of the guitar. If after safely lifting the ground you still hear humming, the problem is likely at. Vintage tube amp static in one channel steve hoffman music. My carvin r600 bass amp would make this annoying crackling noise after being warmed up. The higher you crank up the gain on your amp, the more noise its going to make. This reduces the chance for noise and crackling as well as provides the best sound and reliability. If the level of the noise is controllable in any way by the setting of the volume or tone controls, then theres a good chance that the symptom is caused by a preamp tube and not an output tube. Oct 06, 2018 coming in after this has been getting answers for well over a year. After that you need to play it loud for a bit to get a tube amp really started. However, if i let the amp sit for 20mins, the crackle will come back during warm up.
There is a crackling sound that happens all the time or sporadically. More than likely you have a bad power tube or possibly a bad phaseinverter tube. On a vintage amp intermittent crackling can be caused by a few different things. Dec 07, 2015 i put in new power and pre tubes mesas still some pops and crackles until it warms up, but the amp sounds so sweet now. Solder joints came loose and become hearable after warming up and the circuit boards moves a little due to the heat of the tubes. It had all valves and caps replaced and aligned etc. Turn the stereo off, then quickly turn the volume knob back and forth for about a minute to get rid of most of the grime that is causing the static. Also the tube knob would have no effect on tone when turned.
Distortion after warm up can also be caused by the speaker itself. Warmup time for amps and preamps audiogon discussion forum. It disappears after a few minutes, its as if it needs to warm up. Ill take the amp to an amp tech in the new year and get the power supply caps checked. None of the pots are noisy, so the amp is quite usable. This might help, before the crackling noise started, i turned the amp off on standby and moved from 2 output tubes to 4 output tubes with barely no cooling down. Lastly try your guitar through a different amp to make sure it is not having a problem with a pick up going bad. After inserting each tube, power up the amp and check the light bulb. This video demonstrates general troubleshooting tips for tube amps. In my experience this is a matter of a couple of minutes, give or take. Solidstate amp crackling to the point of being useless discussion in amps and cabs bg started by. No amount of idle warmup time will get you there either, you just have to hit it hard. The warm up period is for the tubes to get up to operating temperature. A constant crackling noise,or crackling that comes along after playing for a while is not the same thing, and you would be able to turn the pot, etc down and solve the.
Since the level of the noise doesnt change when you turn up, the problem is probably not in the preamp section of the amp or the preamp tubes. This step by itself will greatly increase tube life. Then, one by one, replace each preamp tube and see if that alleviates the problem. If the noise persists, replace the phase inverter tube. The bottom line here is that there are a lot of things that can make an amp crackle. Dec 17, 2009 standby is a state of equilibrium for your amp. Does the crackling get louder as you turn up the amp.
This is from a fender hot rod deluxe whose first stage preamp tube have gone bad and it crackles. Id focus on the small tubes first and the el34s after. While a typical 2watt resistor used by many companies as an output tube screen grid resistor will function fine under most normal operating conditions, that resistor may be pushed past its capabilities by constantly playing the amp at very high volumes or by an output tube shorting. If i end up killing it, ill be on the lookout for a preamp to use with the power amp section. For example say you have the amp on your bench with the back panel off and the amp plays fine. Occasionally the heater or filament opens up, completely shutting off the tube. Antique radio forums view topic distortion after warmup. The only reason that the very first guitar tube amps featured a standby switch is because they didnt really know what they were doing, and nobody since has really bothered to remedy this. All you need to do is put one of the tubes you took out back in its original socket, power the amp up, let the amp warm up for 30 seconds and then take it off standby. Id try swapping out one at a time and see if the noise goes away. I usually let my tube gear warm up for at least 15 min and usually 30 min before using it. How to fix a crackling tube amp top tube amplifier.
Lastly, there is one possible source of potentiometer crackle that is not caused by a dirty or defective pot. Use of this feature during short breaks versus using the onoff switch will increase tube life. This is a common sense tip, but make sure your amp tubes and components have fully adjusted to room temperature before turning the. It does go eventually and its not a continuous issue, there will be bursts of loud crackles.
Need help, crackling vol knob on amp macrumors forums. They have a platinum tube on the anode that accelerates the flowing electrons and then they go through an infrared warming device and this gets the electrons up to a perfect 210 degrees. For the purposes of troubleshooting, you can install a new set without rebiasing the amp, but if they are indeed the cause of the noise then you should definitely take the amp in for biasing. You figure the owner is crazy or it was a fluke and the tube socket cleaning you just did cleared it up. The output transformer of a tube amp expects to see a certain impedance on the tube side of the tranny, and a reflected impedance on the speaker side.
When i switch my amps on, wait some minutes to head up, and turn on standby i get crackling, popping noises that gets louder and louder until im forced to. Replace the power tubes one by one with a known good tube. At first i thought a tube had gone, but a amp technician has changed the tubes twice, and when i came back the third time, he gave up. Let the tubes warm up about 30 seconds before you turn on the second switch. It worked perfect for a couple of months but it had a few crackles while warming up 24 minutes max and then they would quit. I found out that tube amps are really the old ones with crazy dangerous voltage inside, not solid state like this is. If you are not experiences with highvoltage electronics, after your initial tube tapping test, find an experienced tube amp tech preferrably one old enough to have lost a few teeth.
Only use the standby switch when warmingup of the amp dont use it as a beer break switch. Before we get into the fact that qc isnt always the best at kendrick, this particular amp climax was one of the good ones and played by a pro for a few years. With all the tubes in their sockets, the tube covers off, and nothing plugged into the amp inputs, turn the power on and crank all the controls up to maximum. Tried it a couple time after letting my amp cool down and still the same, and it gets worst on the 4 output tubes.
In our case today, the amp sounded fine as soon as it was warm enough to pass sound. Jun 17, 2015 it a vintage valve radio and it crackles loudly but after a few hours it settles down. Most guitarists are fairly fanatical about the tube amp. It doesnt matter where the volume is set or what channel is on. Why is my electric guitar amp making crackling sound when. Defective plate or cathode resistors can cause constant static, crackle and pop noise. This one only has up to 36 or so volts, itll hurt, but shouldnt kill. Also after you turn it on but before they get to hot to touch give ea tube a little wiggle and see if you get crackle out of them. Also, i can get a little clean sound out of the amp toward the end of the warm up cycle, but it immediately drops and the crackling begins again. This is a preampradio connected to a separate power amp all tubes. The higher the resolution of your system, the more noticeable the warm up.
Tube amplifier care 12 habits that extend the life of. There are many other possible causes and some may be visible but in short just look for parts that are discolored or burnt. At least i have gone from thinking a had a broken amp to one that i. The amp is completely dead if the amp is completely silent no speaker hum or hiss at all then the problem can be just about anywhere in the amp but you should suspect a bad tube, blown fuse or the power supply in that order try a new rectifier tube. Continue this process with each tube individually until you see a tube arc, start glowing unusually bright orange or you blow a fuse. The crackling wasnt loud, and it continued even as i turned the amp s volume knob all the way down. Dec 03, 2009 a solid state amp will not over heat unless a component is damaged or there is a fault in the ac. This lasts for about 5 minutes or so and then goes away. If your amp uses tube rectification in its power supply, a shorted rectifier tube can cause a fuse to repeatedly blow. I have a crackling sound from my amp when i first turn it on. For short breaks, simply turn down the volume control or mute switch if you have one and dont use the standby switch, so there is not that nasty pop in the house sound system that could damage speaker drivers. If playing heavy, or just loud enough on clean for about 4060 minutes, it start making crackling noises and has sudden volume drops. My airline amp just started making crackling sounds when i turn it off.
Ive had this happen on a couple of amps, where a capacitor came loose and the vibration of loud notes made a loud crackle. By guest, 9 years ago on how to play guitar beginners. Coming in after this has been getting answers for well over a year. Only happens during the first few minutes of warm up and disappears. How to power up a tube amp after a long time in storage. Got to band practice in the evening and it sounded very thin and was breaking up very early. A lot of guitarists falsely believe that warming your tube amps up with the standby switch is necessary to avoid putting wear and tear on your tubes. From my experiences with tube amps, if the crackling is random, it could be a preamp tube or two. If you still have the symptom, you should next replace the output tubes. Just a sound comparison between a good and a bad preamp tube when the crackle effect appears. Tube problems that wont show up on a standard tube tester can be diagnosed in the amp. It will take a little more time after warmup until everything inside the amp is working. A few minutes after being being turned on, the mission amp worked just fine and would probably be quite satisfactory, but i dont consider this sort of behavior as a plus characteristic for an amp.
Crackling tube when warming up tube amp information, guitar. Does a crackling sound mean a power tube is going bad. A bad cap is less likely in a tube amp because these coupling caps will be small film or ceramic caps that rarely fail, but when it happens you will not solve the problem by replacing or cleaning the pot. Just click on the appropriate links, making the appropriate tests as needed. The speaker remains inactive, but preamp and poweramp tubes are given a warmup before being subjected to heavy use. I seem to remember the discussion pointing to a preamp tube causing this. Tube amps do require some warm up for 20 minutes or so, but then i see no reason to get a tube amp. Feb 09, 2011 some tube amps take 30 minutes or so before they really sound right and then get even better after an hour. Its a longstanding debate about what the standby switches on fender amps are used for. If youre just worried about crackling coming from the tubes themselves when you turn onoff the amp, this is usually just a normal sign that they are warming up and changing temperature typically not a problem that needs addressing. The 2 most common causes of crackling noises are pre amp tubes or old failing resistors, since you bought the amp used, theirs a pretty good chance the pre amp tubes are the original factory tubes and are getting tired, if you know a good tech or shop it wouldnt be a bad idea to take it in and have all the tubes replaced and the bias.
Play through the vibrato channel and test the amp after every tube swap. After that the amp on the clean channel began having a low humming bassy noise, and the distortion channel started having cracks and pops, and overall noise as it was getting turned up. When i turn it on everything works fine, but after heating up whan ive played for 1530 minutes it starts crackling and buzzing, probably a. Pre amplifier tubes can also cause a hum or other bad noises, like crackling or ticking. Or maybe ill get lucky and just need to replace the audio capacitors i only see 4 in pre amp and 2 in amp. The vintage fender, magnatone, ampeg and other tube amplifiers that have come to be prized by rock and roll players have all seen enough use and age to suffer from these symptoms. Generally that means power it up first and by the time everything thing else is up and i am ready 30 min have passed.
But after a certain point, about 20 minutes in, suddenly the tone changed in a noticeable way it became thicker, richer, and less harsh. In the standby position, the amplifier is off, however power is applied to the tube filaments so as to eliminate warm up time, provided the onoff switch is on. If you find that the fuse blows after replacing one of the power tubes, and still blows when you install a known good power tube, you could possibly have a blown output transformer. Its a pretty loud popping and independent of channel volume. When i went to the store where i bought it, its still under warranty, the. After about 40 seconds, the tubes should be sufficiently heated for. My integrated tube amp makes a popping noise on start up occasionally. Btw, i forgot to mention ive removed all other tubes from the pre amp except the audio output and power. When i turned the amp back down to reasonable levels i could hear a crackling sound.
Hi folks, one of my consonance monos is playing up. Back on topic, i ordered up a couple 10k linear pots for the amp, got em from jameco. It a vintage valve radio and it crackles loudly but after a few hours it settles down. Last crackling pre amp tube i had ended up squealing and shrieking a week later. I have had this problem before with my sons peavey valveking 212 amp. Thats why sweetwaters own tube amp expert, greg bowers, decided to clear things up and end the debate once and for all. That is not the case at all i strongly prefer tube amps and suspect i always. You can actually see it happen in the tubes as well. It occurred a few times, randomly, as i was watching tv which i use my system for. I have a similar problem with a crown amp, and on another forum the first thing some idiot said was to clean the volume pots. Earlier this week i heard a crackle or popping noise coming from my speakers.
My amp is making crackling noises and drops in volume. There is something about the glow of hot glass and the imposing sight of weighty iron through the grille that seems to sum up so much of whats cool about the electric guitar. If i tap the top of the amp, it gets it out of its system, so to speak. Check out the tube amp faq page at sweetwater the worlds leading. This is an all tube head with quad of 6550 in power, 5751 in pi, 12ax7 in v2 and v1. Solidstate amp crackling to the point of being useless. The most probable cause of this crackling noise is due to the accumalation of dust on your electrical components associated with your amp.
While its perfectly normal for a tube amplifier to produce fairly. Even problems that you wouldnt associate with tubes could be the tubes. Or it could be the small signal tubes ie the 12ax76n16n3 etc or whatever tubes is used for inputsplitter needing to be replaced. If a capacitor that is feeding or fed by a potentiometer has gone bad, it may allow dc current to pass through the pot. You should always have a good set of tubes in your amp.
Ive had a guitar technician look at it, but he couldnt find anything. My guitar tube amp has a disease of some sort when i turn it on everything works fine, but after heating up whan ive played for 1530 minutes it starts crackling and buzzing, probably a short circuit. This page fits older fender and marshall amplifiers best, especially in the sections relating to amplifier specific things like. Since 50% of all amp problems are due to bad tubes, replacing them is the first thing you want to do before bothering with anything else. A rotary potentiometer, like this volume control, have a friction surface inside, so a. Vintage tube amp static in one channel steve hoffman. If changing all the tubes fixed the problem, then go back and try to figure out which tube it was and replace that one.
Turn on the standby switch then main power and let the amp warm up. Note the tubes have not been replaced since i got the amp in 2003. These changes can manifest themselves by way of increased microphonics, hum, and other noises, or loss of gain and even shorts. It randomly acts up with crackling and popping until i.
Some get leakymicrophonic and have that staticky crackle. I thought it might be my output tubes, but swapping them made no change. To see if this is the case, locate the rectifier tube in the amp its usually the tube. Were talking about the tubes thoroughly heating up, which can take 15 to 30 minutes. They are a likely cause of your crackling after warm up. A few will only take five or ten minutes to start sounding quite good, but then also improve somewhat over the course of another hour. It just seems to need to warm up, then the pops and crackles disappear. Crackling popping riptide noise what happened to my jvms. It sounds really nice and warm and has great reverb.
Im pretty certain the preamp is the issue as the volume controls the static. Nov 26, 2005 back on topic, i ordered up a couple 10k linear pots for the amp, got em from jameco. I can turn the amp off and turn it back on without crackling. You mount the back panel on the amp and fire it up again. Preamp tubes, on the other hand, will generally either become microphonic and make high pitched ringing or squealing noises, or will emit noises such as crackling and popping during idling. Do tube amps sound better after being on for awhile. A simple test is to disconnect one of the leads from the output transformer at the radio speaker and connect a known good speaker across the output transformer instead. The last months my amp has been acting pretty weird. They really dont like that, and they will crackle as the dc causes tiny amounts of arcing while the pot is in motion. Its got excellent stability and sensitivity and zero mains hum.
If you are referring to a pop when the amplifier is first turned on or off, that would be the sudden inrush of current to the reservoir capacitors in the power supply. I run a unison unico hybrid integrated amp which uses a pair of 12au7 tubes in the preamp side. It has recently developed a popping, crackling sound when warmed upeven when there are no guitars or cables plugged in. For this test, there was no signal applied and the. There is a crackling on start up, which i know is normal, but on one channel it doesnt go away for ages and it gets bloody loud, sounded like pretty much full output crackling last time. Sep 26, 2018 just a sound comparison between a good and a bad preamp tube when the crackle effect appears. Tube pre and power amps turn on warm up turn off after you finish listening solid state leave on 247 for best sound everything has a warmup period, regardless of what you do, when you start your listening period. If the rectifier tube lights up when you turn the amp on, it. In many fender 1960 and newer two channel amplifiers the first tube on the right, v1, is for the normal channel only and can be pulled out and used to replace all the other small tubes in the amp to find a bad tube. Tubes in the preamp do warm up the signal by introducing small impurities.
When the tubes are warming up, theres no tube replacement light, but after about 20 seconds, the tube replacement light turns on. This page is designed to lead you through debugging a problem with a tube type guitar amp. I bought a used tube amp a month or two ago, and its my first tube amp so i have no experience with normal tube maintenance. When i turn it on everything works fine, but after heating up whan ive played for 1530 minutes it starts crackling and buzzing, probably a short circuit. If you have a tube amp and you havent tried changing all the tubes, then do that first. If your old tubes have bent wanked up pins straighten them out, pin straighteners arent to expensive. Loud popping sounds after warmup audiogon discussion forum. Crackling tube when warming up tube amp information. A guide to basic tube amp maintenance guitar world. Tube amp problemloud noise resolved sign in to follow this. Tip to prevent this, dont move your amp while the tubes are hot. Sep 04, 2015 might end up with a whole redo by the time i find the problem or might give up before then.
Make sure it is not plugged into a faulty outlet and that you are not using a ground lift adaptor. Why is my electric guitar amp making crackling sound when i. Intermittent noise or noise that begins or goes away when the amp warms up is. I have a crackling sound from my amp when i first turn it. Hi all, heres a mystery for anyone to try and figure out. The volume level on the amp didnt seem to affect the crackling volume.