Amp Oscillating

Discuss the stuff that makes your ears bleed.

Moderators: Slowy, Capt. Black

Post Reply
User avatar
k1w1
Vintage Post Junkie
Vintage Post Junkie
Posts: 1273
meble-kuchenne.warszawa.pl
Joined: Thu Dec 14, 2006 6:06 pm
Location: Lower Hutt
Has liked: 116 times
Been liked: 391 times

Amp Oscillating

Post by k1w1 »

Started this last night but it got lost in the forum spasm. My 5E3 is oscillating/sounding weird. It almost sounds like reverb or delay gone haywire. I did a search on te net and could possibly be preamp valves gone bad. Anyone here can confirm this before I pay out for new tubes?

User avatar
MikeC
Vintage Post Junkie
Vintage Post Junkie
Posts: 2953
Joined: Fri Sep 12, 2003 5:43 pm
Location: Red Beach, Auckland
Has liked: 1316 times
Been liked: 875 times

Re: Amp Oscillating

Post by MikeC »

k1w1 wrote: Thu Jul 27, 2023 5:56 pm Started this last night but it got lost in the forum spasm. My 5E3 is oscillating/sounding weird. It almost sounds like reverb or delay gone haywire. I did a search on te net and could possibly be preamp valves gone bad. Anyone here can confirm this before I pay out for new tubes?
At idle?
With guitar plugged in and you playing something?
At all volumes?

Can you record it and post it?
Whakanuia o mea kei a koe

User avatar
k1w1
Vintage Post Junkie
Vintage Post Junkie
Posts: 1273
Joined: Thu Dec 14, 2006 6:06 pm
Location: Lower Hutt
Has liked: 116 times
Been liked: 391 times

Re: Amp Oscillating

Post by k1w1 »

Playing notes or chords, hard to describe but like the volume oscillating. I don't have recording capabilities.

User avatar
MikeC
Vintage Post Junkie
Vintage Post Junkie
Posts: 2953
Joined: Fri Sep 12, 2003 5:43 pm
Location: Red Beach, Auckland
Has liked: 1316 times
Been liked: 875 times

Re: Amp Oscillating

Post by MikeC »

All positions of VRM?
Whakanuia o mea kei a koe

User avatar
RectifiedAmps
Fender
Fender
Posts: 508
Joined: Tue Jul 22, 2014 7:05 am
Location: Wellington
Has liked: 201 times
Been liked: 240 times

Re: Amp Oscillating

Post by RectifiedAmps »

Does it have the problem at lower and higher volumes?

Could be a bad or extremely microphonic preamp valve. Try tapping them lightly with the amp on and the volume up a bit. You could also try swapping the two preamp valves around just to see if that changes anything.

Also, give your guitar lead a wiggle in the input jack and see if that aggravates the issue. Oxidation on the jacks can do funny things (including the speaker jack).

If the amp used to work fine and now it doesn’t, volume swells are usually a bad valve, a dirty/bad connection, or (less commonly) a bad capacitor. The first two should be easy for you to pin down.

User avatar
k1w1
Vintage Post Junkie
Vintage Post Junkie
Posts: 1273
Joined: Thu Dec 14, 2006 6:06 pm
Location: Lower Hutt
Has liked: 116 times
Been liked: 391 times

Re: Amp Oscillating

Post by k1w1 »

Was doing it at all volumes. Pulled the jack in and out a few times.

Turned it on last night to check the tubes and it had stopped oscillating. I'll try again tonight and see how it goes. I hadn't used it in a few weeks as was playing the Blackstar Studio 10. Maybe just oxidation or the bugger being jealous about not being used :lol:

Post Reply