Help and Advice Needed... F-30 VOLUME and CRACKING ISSUES

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louiev

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Hi Everyone,

It's my first time taking my F-30 head and playing it in a gig. I was using a Marshall 412b Speakers with it and the one problem I was having through out the show is that the volume is pretty low. I don't know why, I couldn't hear myself, I already had two channels at full master volume and I couldn't hear a single thing, our drummer is playing at quite a low volume and the other guitar player turned down his amp and I still couldn't hear anything even the audiences we're telling me that my amp was not loud. I've read in a lot of threads that the f-30 is pretty loud and I've played in a small club and i used the f-30 on a 4x12 marshall cab. The other problem I am having is that the clean channel is popping and cracking, I already have the master volume all the way up and I couldn't hear a single thing. How do I diagnose this problem? Do I need to have something replaced or repaired?

Please help, I really am frustrated with this thing considering I just bought this head from EBAY a few weeks ago.

-Louie
 
First rule in tube amp troubleshooting: Check the tubes! You just bought the amp on eBay. It is all too common for someone to put in whatever crap tubes they can find in order to keep their goods ones when they sell. Get a known good tube and start swapping out preamp tubes one at a time until the crackling goes away. Then, start thinking about replacing all of them.
 
I had to remind the guy I bought my amp from to remove them when he shipped the amp. If you lightly tap the tubes while the amp is on, you can figure out really quick which one or ones are bad.
 
MusicManJP6 said:
First rule in tube amp troubleshooting: Check the tubes! You just bought the amp on eBay. It is all too common for someone to put in whatever crap tubes they can find in order to keep their goods ones when they sell. Get a known good tube and start swapping out preamp tubes one at a time until the crackling goes away. Then, start thinking about replacing all of them.


Thanks for the reply sir. So it also affects the amp's volume too? Because it's really strange that I already have the amp on a 4x12 and my master volume all the way up and I couldn't hear anything, even the audience couldn't hear what's going on. I didn't know that the tubes have something to do with them since it's my first time buying a tube amp. Is it normal that whenever I turn the bass way down on the second channel the amp does not produce any sound at all? And when I put the master volume at 2, that's when the amp starts to sound. I really think that the volume is messed up too.
 
bamabaxter said:
I had to remind the guy I bought my amp from to remove them when he shipped the amp. If you lightly tap the tubes while the amp is on, you can figure out really quick which one or ones are bad.

thank you for the reply. even the preamp tubes I also need to tap them or just the EL84s? Are there any good tubes to replace the ones I have that you could recommend?
 
Lightly tap them all, but most of the time it is a pre-amp gone bad. Many people recommend JJ's and Ruby Tubes. Call Doug's Tubes, you can find his website and number using Google, he will set you up. The guy is pretty experienced with tubes and knows his stuff especially with Mesa's(yes he knows that the bias is already set in a Mesa and has pre-matched tubes for them). His prices are the same as everyone else's.
 
bamabaxter said:
Lightly tap them all, but most of the time it is a pre-amp gone bad. Many people recommend JJ's and Ruby Tubes. Call Doug's Tubes, you can find his website and number using Google, he will set you up. The guy is pretty experienced with tubes and knows his stuff especially with Mesa's(yes he knows that the bias is already set in a Mesa and has pre-matched tubes for them). His prices are the same as everyone else's.

Thanks for the reply. I just wanted to know how and what do I use to tap the tubes? there are some in metal cases too(12ax7) And how light would I tap them and how would I know if there's a problem when I tap them?

I also noticed that when I turn on the amp and play a chord I get normal volume coming out from the amp and then after a few seconds theres a sudden drop of volume. Is this affected by old tubes too?


SOrry for the questions, it's just that I really don't know how to troubleshoot a tube amp yet.
 
you can remove the metal caps. I think they are there to mainly keep the 12ax7's from vibrating out. Just use the tip of your finger. If it is bad the tap will be greatly amplified through the speaker....will sound sort of like tapping on a microphone. This is how I troubleshot mine. There are other ways I am sure.....maybe some others will speak up soon.
 
bamabaxter said:
you can remove the metal caps. I think they are there to mainly keep the 12ax7's from vibrating out. Just use the tip of your finger. If it is bad the tap will be greatly amplified through the speaker....will sound sort of like tapping on a microphone. This is how I troubleshot mine. There are other ways I am sure.....maybe some others will speak up soon.

ok then I will give that a try. But wouldn't that be hot? I remember putting my hand near the EL84's whi.e the amp is on and i could feel the warmth of the tubes on my skin. So the sudden volume drop is probably caused by the tubes then?
 
yep, they will be hot....just tap them quick, like i said,sort of similar to checking to see if a microphone is turned on. They get hotter the more you drive them, so if you just turn it on for a min and don't play, then give them a tap.
 
bamabaxter said:
yep, they will be hot....just tap them quick, like i said,sort of similar to checking to see if a microphone is turned on. They get hotter the more you drive them, so if you just turn it on for a min and don't play, then give them a tap.

I tried to do this taks here, so I removed the metal caps from the 12ax7's and tried to tap them when the amp was on. I didnt hear anything though... But the way I did it was tap them lightly.

And also I have a question... Is it normal for the F-30 that when I turn the Treble, Mid and bass to Zero it would not produce any volume at all? I just wanted to make sure that my amp is ok.... thanks
 
My V4 went bad and I had no volume. That could be your problem.
V4 is a tube slot. It should be the preamp tube farthest away from your input jack. If I recall....
 
estring said:
My V4 went bad and I had no volume. That could be your problem.
V4 is a tube slot. It should be the preamp tube farthest away from your input jack. If I recall....

thanks for the reply. So should I replace that preamp tube? I'm actually planning on replacing the tubes I'm just not sure on replacing all the preamp and poweramp tubes or just the preamp tubes..
 
HI everyone Just an update, I was able to replicate this situation with the help of an attenuator.

Just to refresh, what I had before was that I played a small club and used my F-30, what happened was that I already had my master volumes on both channels set to maximum but I could barely hear myself, even the audience couldn't hear me. For all I know a 30watt tube amp should be loud enough to play small clubs must specially when hooked up to a 4x12 cab. There was one point during the show that when I put my clean channel's volume at 12oclock and the gain to 11oclock, I get a cracking distorted clean sound.

SO I tried to replicate this by getting an attenuator and new speaker cables.

So here's what I have set up:

Mesa F30 Head 8ohm(combo) speaker out =====> THD Hotplate 8ohm Amp input ====> Thd Hotplate 8ohm Output ===== Marshall 412b 8ohm cab


Here's the case without an Attenuator:

At bedroom levels, when my amp's master volume(both channels) is at 3, everything is good. Not great but good, it's just that the tone I was getting is not the one I'm expecting to get from a Mesa, but it was way better compared to my solid state. But whenever I raise the volume, I get this muddy tone with the lead channel and on the clean channel I get cracking and popping like the speaker just exploded.

Those are the problems I really wanted to get fixed and I believe that replacing the tubes would do the trick.


Here's the case with the Attenuator: (Take note that I have the eq set to flat just to get the right amount of tones on each channel to get a fair balanced sound)

I was trying to replicate the problem I had playing in a small club with my volume issues, I set the hotplate to -8db, I have my clean channel gain at 11 o'clock then the master volume at 11 o'clock. I get a sound that's like clipping sounding like the speaker exploded and could barely hear any good notes. It sounds muddy and cracking. It's like I have overdrive on the clean channel. Even when I roll my guitar's volume it generates this dirty clean sound.

With my lead channel I had the gain at 1 o'clock and my master at 11 o'clock then when I do palm muted power chords or major chord strumming I get this really dirty and muddy distortion like the speaker just exploded or something.

I think changing the tubes would help this out, I also noticed that whenever I switch from lead channel to the clean channel with a chord ringing, I hear this popping sound.

Please help me with this, I really don't know what to do now, it looks like I've done a lot already like tapping the tubes to check if theyre ok and others...
 

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