LSC Hissing and crackling...swapped out every tube!

The Boogie Board

Help Support The Boogie Board:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

jjboogie

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 17, 2008
Messages
334
Reaction score
0
Location
Hotlanta
I hear it on full power mode most not on the tweed setting but it really has a loud hiss and some crackles every once in a while.

Anyone have any clue where to start? I have back up tubes so I can start swapping them out.

Thanks
peace
JJ
 
I was having a noise issue (crackle and wind type noise) and the board recommended swapping the pre-amp tubes which worked.
 
Do you have the problem on both channels? Does it occur in all wattage settings or just one? Does it occur with the reverb turned all the way down? Just trying to narrow it down.
 
ziehmrd said:
Do you have the problem on both channels? Does it occur in all wattage settings or just one? Does it occur with the reverb turned all the way down? Just trying to narrow it down.


I didn't check to see if was happening on channel two.

I did noticed that I couldn't hear the issue on the Tweed setting though.
 
Ok I just swapped out every tube one by one to see which one was the culprit. Nothing worked...it all sounded the same. I did notice that the sound was most prominent on channel 1 and that when I turned the send level knob up on the back it increased tremendously. Since I don't use the FX Loop I guess I can just keep it all the way down. It still hisses with it all the way down but not as bad.
 
When you say you changed out all the tubes, this included the power tubes and rectifier tube, not just the pre-amp tubes?
 
ziehmrd said:
When you say you changed out all the tubes, this included the power tubes and rectifier tube, not just the pre-amp tubes?


Yep! I tried swapping every single tube in the entire amp. I am somewhat baffled at the moment.
 
Wow, man , I don't know. Since you say you don't hear it in the tweed mode, it would seem like a tube problem since the line voltage is dropped to about 93 volts in tweed, so you're not driving the tubes as hard. You also mentioned that the noise increases as you turn up the effects loop send. The effects loop is in between the pre-amp and power amp stages so it seems like the problem is somewhere in the pre-amp section. (The effects loop acts as an additional gain stage so when you turn the send up, it's amplifying whatever it's getting from the pre-amp.) If you don't use the effects loop, you can just bypass it. I don't know what the odds are of having multiple pre-amp tubes going bad, but I just had V2 go bad which caused a sputtering/static noise in all modes. I got a replacement from Mesa and all was good. Yesterday I noticed a hum in channel 1 with the reverb turned up. I turn the reverb down, and the problem goes away. I replaced the V4 pre-amp tube (Reverb return/drive) and the problem persists. I know this doesn't help but I can understand the baffling feeling you have. At this point, I would give Mesa customer service a call. Let them know what you've done to troubleshoot the problem and hopefully they can provide some ideas beyond sending your amp in. Good luck man, and keep us posted.
 
JJ - what a horrid situation to be in.

One other thing that has come up here before is that noise can be caused by an accumulation of crap in the Effects Loop jacks. Try spraying contact cleaner in there and then inserting a jack a few times to distribute it. This may help.
 
Thanks for all the suggestions and thoughts.

I contacted my rep at Boogie......he should be getting back to me today or tomorrow. I will let you know what he says.

peace
JJ
 
Well it seems the problem is solved.

When I swapped out one tube at a time it didn't solve the issue but when I changed out all the tubes (power, preamp & rectifier) the crackles went away and the hiss did get quieter.

When I plugged a cable into the effects loop the amp got dead quiet! I never use the Fx loop.....so I am going to clean out the inputs for it and that should help it a bit too.

Also my rep at Mesa is sending me some JJ tubes.....it seems they aren't using Sovtek anymore.
 
Cool, glad to hear the solution was pretty straight forward and nothing too serious. As a side note, the last time I spoke with Mesa they mentioned to me also that they were switching to the JJ tubes. They said they can be used in any of the pre-amp positions. V3 is a cathode follower position and used to have to be a Chinese tube since the Russian tubes were not reliable in this spot. Hopefully the JJ's will turn out to be more hearty than the tubes Mesa has been using in the past because from what I've heard, lot's of folks have had tube problems.
 
Mesa's switching to JJ's? Very interesting. How many of us have spent the cash on a new set of JJ's to replace the tubes that came with the amp? (raises hand) :roll:

Anyway, it'll be good to know if it is the tubes. I had a problem like this for a while -- mostly crackling, but with an accompanying volume drop -- but generally only during the first few minutes of operation. I was convinced it was preamp tubes, but it turned out to be a pair of bad resistors somewhere late in the circuit (can't for the life of me remember what part, actually). Keep us in the loop, bro.
 
Ok my amp is working great now.

And let me clarify about the tubes Mesa is using now.

I asked my rep there and he said they are using JJ preamp tubes and Chinese power tubes. Exact words.

I have no problems with this. I actually never really had an issue with the sound of the old tubes they were using personally. However if the JJ's sound that much better then hey I am all for it.

My JJ's should be arriving soon.....they were accidently sent to the wrong address though.....doh!
 
Back
Top