Hi all, I hope everyone is well.
It's been a while since I posted anything up here. Since finishing the amp I semi built a guitar, tele replica, sounds nice and I'm pretty pleased with it, and started on a pedal but that's gone through various stages of reinvention so might be some time yet.
Thanks for your comments and feedback about my amp build, I was really pleased to get such positive responses. I'm not sure if I should really be posting this on the same thread, but I'm doing so for now simply because the issue relates to the same amp and anyone reading can see the pics and hopefully this may help me get some suggestions.
I've been using the amp more frequently recently for band rehearsals and have always been staggered by its volume...until last week. The output volume simply didn't seem to get up to what it was previously. I tend to use a ProCo Turbo Rat pedal for my overdriven sound so the amp is kept clean with the volume/gain knob fairly low (say 7-8 o'clock), the tone knob quite crisp (at around 2 o'clock) and the master volume up (around 11 o'clock), up until last week this has been more than ample in terms of volume, occasionally I've whacked it up to 1-2 o'clock just to see what it's like and it's been blisteringly loud (even with my earplugs in). However, last week it refused to get loud and the volume increase from halfway to full (master knob) was basically negligible, and still not even adequate for rehearsal at full. The only way I could get it any louder was to increase the volume/gain knob as well but this introduces a crunchy overdrive to my clean sound and is not suitable. All in all a frustrating rehearsal.
I suspected this 50-60% volume/power loss to be due to a faulty EL84 so I spoke to a tech guy at the guitar shop I go to in Denmark Street and he confirmed the symptoms suggested this so I replaced both preamp valves and both power valves with new matched pairs (I didn't think replacing the rectifier was necessary). At rehearsal last night I discovered this has not fixed it and the problem still persists.
I've also noticed a significant increase in hiss/hum when not actually playing but this could be due to the fact I'm having to crank the master all the way and the volume/gain up higher than normal just to get loud enough. Hiss doesn't bother me too much anyway and I can always use a noise-gate if necessary but ideally I'd like to get the amp back to the optimum performance I've grown accustomed to, so I was hoping someone here might be able to suggest any other possible causes I can test for and how I might eliminate them.
I no longer have another amp as I sold it when I finished building this one (doh!) so I need to resolve it as quickly as possible as we're rehearsing for our first gig after a bit of a hiatus. I can take it to the guitar tech guy but if possible I'd like to fix it myself for both financial reasons as well as a desire to learn, so any advice would be a massive help. I'm also not sure I want anyone else rooting around inside the amp I built...so
If I need to move this to another section of the forum or start a new thread I'll gladly do so, I just thought I'd start here.
Thanks guys,
Ben
It's been a while since I posted anything up here. Since finishing the amp I semi built a guitar, tele replica, sounds nice and I'm pretty pleased with it, and started on a pedal but that's gone through various stages of reinvention so might be some time yet.
Thanks for your comments and feedback about my amp build, I was really pleased to get such positive responses. I'm not sure if I should really be posting this on the same thread, but I'm doing so for now simply because the issue relates to the same amp and anyone reading can see the pics and hopefully this may help me get some suggestions.
I've been using the amp more frequently recently for band rehearsals and have always been staggered by its volume...until last week. The output volume simply didn't seem to get up to what it was previously. I tend to use a ProCo Turbo Rat pedal for my overdriven sound so the amp is kept clean with the volume/gain knob fairly low (say 7-8 o'clock), the tone knob quite crisp (at around 2 o'clock) and the master volume up (around 11 o'clock), up until last week this has been more than ample in terms of volume, occasionally I've whacked it up to 1-2 o'clock just to see what it's like and it's been blisteringly loud (even with my earplugs in). However, last week it refused to get loud and the volume increase from halfway to full (master knob) was basically negligible, and still not even adequate for rehearsal at full. The only way I could get it any louder was to increase the volume/gain knob as well but this introduces a crunchy overdrive to my clean sound and is not suitable. All in all a frustrating rehearsal.
I suspected this 50-60% volume/power loss to be due to a faulty EL84 so I spoke to a tech guy at the guitar shop I go to in Denmark Street and he confirmed the symptoms suggested this so I replaced both preamp valves and both power valves with new matched pairs (I didn't think replacing the rectifier was necessary). At rehearsal last night I discovered this has not fixed it and the problem still persists.
I've also noticed a significant increase in hiss/hum when not actually playing but this could be due to the fact I'm having to crank the master all the way and the volume/gain up higher than normal just to get loud enough. Hiss doesn't bother me too much anyway and I can always use a noise-gate if necessary but ideally I'd like to get the amp back to the optimum performance I've grown accustomed to, so I was hoping someone here might be able to suggest any other possible causes I can test for and how I might eliminate them.
I no longer have another amp as I sold it when I finished building this one (doh!) so I need to resolve it as quickly as possible as we're rehearsing for our first gig after a bit of a hiatus. I can take it to the guitar tech guy but if possible I'd like to fix it myself for both financial reasons as well as a desire to learn, so any advice would be a massive help. I'm also not sure I want anyone else rooting around inside the amp I built...so
If I need to move this to another section of the forum or start a new thread I'll gladly do so, I just thought I'd start here.
Thanks guys,
Ben
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