DC- 5 clean channel noise

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rbtodd

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I have a DC-5 that has a continuous loud hum on the clean channel only. The hum is there even without a guitar plugged in. The lead channel is fine. I started to notice some distortion on my clean channel and then realized how much louder the hum was on the clean channel as opposed to the lead channel.

anyone have any ideas ?
 
Have you changed your tubes lately? I had a similar problem which turned out to be a noisy 12ax7 in V1 which is the first lead and rhythm stage. Some of the quietest preamp tubes seem to be JJs. To verify the suspect tube was bad I put it in another amp that is always very quite and could detect a little noise. Do you know if the amp has ever been recapped?
 
This is another case where the clean channel is the offending channel and the Lead channel is fine. That to me is strange. Another user had the same problem and ended up changing their settings to cope. If you don't have JJs in there already then definitely give that a try! They are the quietest tubes for a DC and sound excellent.
 
The amp has not been recapped. I was considering getting new tubes but was not sure if this would help since my problem was with only the clean channel...I am pretty ignorant when it comes to this stuff.

I will probably order some tubes and see if that helps. Thanks !
 
rbtodd said:
The amp has not been recapped. I was considering getting new tubes but was not sure if this would help since my problem was with only the clean channel...I am pretty ignorant when it comes to this stuff.

I will probably order some tubes and see if that helps. Thanks !

It's almost always the first step in troubleshooting noise issues with a tube amp.
 
well, got new tubes (JJ's) and still have the noise problem on the clean channel. Not really sure where to go from here. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know. Thanks !
 
rbtodd said:
well, got new tubes (JJ's) and still have the noise problem on the clean channel. Not really sure where to go from here. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know. Thanks !

What are your settings?
 
The only settings that are not at 0 are the gain, master for the channel, and the overall volume control. the EQ is disabled and the reverb unit is not connected. The noise is present even at the lowest gain and volume settings.

Hope that answers your question. Thanks !
 
MJ Slaughter said:
If I was in your position, and I have been, I would just take it to a good tech and be done with it.

It sounds like it may have come to this if nothing else has worked. Would certainly save you some time and frustration.
 
Tell us how it goes!!

mine has the same issue. Not really a big deal for me because it's not very noticeable playing
 
****! Usually swapping V1 or V4 will do the trick!

It sounds like a bad resistor or a cap job to me.

Make sure you take it to a good tech. I hate those guys who 'Bench Test' the amp instead of simply plugging in a guitar and wailing on it for a while.

Just the same, you might try swapping V1 with V2.
Then, try swapping V4 with V5.
I know it seems silly, but I have had bad tubes right out of the box and even put them in the exact same spot that had a bad tube in it to start with.

Hope this helps!
 

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