Diagnose: Tube amp crackly sound

Brian Miller

Brian Miller

New member
Hey guys,

My new Tubemeister 18, which has been nothing but amazing for 3 months, is now producing a strange sound that's hard to describe. So here it is, on Soundcloud and attached. Same clip, once with the Redbox direct out and the other from SM57 miked through Marshall 1936.




The sound only happens when I pick aggressively, as displayed in the clips. It is most noticeable with high gain. Still present on lower gain or clean, but much less noticeable.

Back of the amp has tube life indicators that don't indicate anything is wrong. Tubes look good in terms of orange glow. It's definitely not the cabinet speakers because the same sound occurs with the DI out of the amp. Tried multiple guitars, same problem.

Thoughts?

Brian
 

Attachments

  • Tubemeister Crackle 57.mp3
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  • Tubemeister Crackle DI.mp3
    523.2 KB · Views: 8
To narrow it down try running out of the effects loop send to see if the preamp is making the sound. You can also run a pedal into the effects return to check the power section.
 
ocnor said:
To narrow it down try running out of the effects loop send to see if the preamp is making the sound. You can also run a pedal into the effects return to check the power section.
Click to expand...

You mean take the direct output from the effects loop out?
 
To me....that sounds like too much crunch with too much treble.

You say it does it on clean too?
 
Brian Miller said:
I've got Treb 1:00, Mids 11:00, Bass 10:00. Not very aggressive settings. You think that's the issue?
Click to expand...

No, those settings are pretty normal...I just said that's what it sounds like to me.

If you didn't have that problem in the past with typical settings...then must be the amp...if you've made no changes of any kind from the last time when it sounded good to you.

One thing though...it sounds a lot words in the 57 clip....just very bright/nasty/spikey tone.

So like...if you turn the tone knobs, do they seem to be working normally for you...are they responding as in the past?
It sounds kinda like when the low mids and lows are dialed way down....no balls...all treble.
 
miroslav said:
No, those settings are pretty normal...I just said that's what it sounds like to me.

If you didn't have that problem in the past with typical settings...then must be the amp...if you've made no changes of any kind from the last time when it sounded good to you.

One thing though...it sounds a lot words in the 57 clip....just very bright/nasty/spikey tone.

So like...if you turn the tone knobs, do they seem to be working normally for you...are they responding as in the past?
It sounds kinda like when the low mids and lows are dialed way down....no balls...all treble.
Click to expand...

Tone knobs react like you would expect. Amp never moved from its position physically since I set it up. I've done full modern rock/metal song recordings with this amp already. I'm pretty sure this issue is new, or I would've heard it by now.

Here's a full song where every guitar was recorded with the Tubemeister (different guitars, settings, mic positions):
 
hi brian. i'm not amp expert (only owned one tube amp in my life) but i'd clean the tube sockets and all jacks and also feel for heat all around the tubes -- maybe they are heating up components and making them fail. i'd also order some new tubes to test things out b/c you are going to need tubes at some point anyway so might as well have some on hand for when these fail, and then you can use them to troubleshoot, too.
 
SOLVED (I think): Originally I ruled out everything except the amp head itself by testing different cables, guitars, etc. Then tonight, frustrated and wanting to jam, I plugged directly into my system and pulled out Revalver amp sim. Lo and behold: same problem! What??? How can it be possible that all four guitars I tested had the same issue?

And then it hit me. This was a particularly dry winter in Connecticut. My then-fiance and I (now my wife) were both worried about getting sick, dry throats, etc leading up to the wedding. So we were pumping our humidifier in the house. Two-three months of pumping a humidifier? All of my guitars needed to have the truss rod adjusted and a good deal of relief given back to the neck. I just took care of a couple of them, and the problem is much improved. I'll probably bring them all to a luthier to have it done expertly, but in the meantime, I think I've solved it.

Whew.
 
Hmm...so you haven't been playing them throughout the winter to notice anything...?

I run humidifiers all winter long, every winter...and I've never had them go out that much to cause that kind of buzz.
If anything, a humidifier will help keep the wood more stable, unless you have them right next to the guitars where they would get all that humidity blasted right at them. Like what percentage was your humidity at with them?
I can never get mine past 40% during the winter, even with the humidifiers.
During the summer, the humidity can hit up around 60%...much worse than a room humidifier...unless you were running a sauna. :D

But even if it was fret buzz from that... you would hear that without the amp.

Seems odd....your audio samples sounded more like an electronic issue...but if you think you have it solved, case closed.
 
miroslav said:
Hmm...so you haven't been playing them throughout the winter to notice anything...?

I run humidifiers all winter long, every winter...and I've never had them go out that much to cause that kind of buzz.
If anything, a humidifier will help keep the wood more stable, unless you have them right next to the guitars where they would get all that humidity blasted right at them. Like what percentage was your humidity at with them?
I can never get mine past 40% during the winter, even with the humidifiers.
During the summer, the humidity can hit up around 60%...much worse than a room humidifier...unless you were running a sauna. :D

But even if it was fret buzz from that... you would hear that without the amp.

Seems odd....your audio samples sounded more like an electronic issue...but if you think you have it solved, case closed.
Click to expand...

I was playing them, and the problem was growing worse over two months. And then I stopped playing because our wedding was approaching, and then the wedding, and then our honeymoon. I've just returned and found the problem to be the way you heard it.

Like I said, I plugged straight into my interface and ran amp sims - same problem. So it's not the Tubemeister. I loosened the neck on two of the guitars by about a half a turn and improved it greatly on both. I will continue to investigate.
 
Get yourself a digital hygrometer (or 2). They're about $20 each. I can't get my house much over 40% for most of the winter running a whole-house humidifier, but I don't want it higher - if you get up over 50% you notice condensation on the windows, which then drips down and rots out the sills.
 
mjbphotos said:
I can't get my house much over 40% for most of the winter running a whole-house humidifier...
Click to expand...

Yeah...that's what I was saying. You would need like some heavy-duty industrial, oversized humidifier to get much past 40% in the dead of winter up here on the East Coast....and anything below 50% is not going to screw up the guitars, IMO....at least I've never seen it with nay of mine.
 
miroslav said:
Are your guitars all screwed up?
Click to expand...

Nope, never. I guess too much humidity might be better than not enough? I have no idea. All I know is down here we don't have all those temp/humidity guitar problems. It's hot, it's humid, maybe guitars love it?
 
Welp, all I can tell you is I had setups done on these guitars in early December as the weather turned colder for the winter, so they were perfect. Then by February I was having major issues, and last night after adjusting the truss rod (adding relief to the neck) the problem was significantly resolved. It had to be either too much humidity or not enough. Who knows. In any regard, I'm feeling much better playing.
 
Greg_L said:
I guess too much humidity might be better than not enough?
Click to expand...

I would say yes...more humid is much better than more drier.
Not talking about dripping wet humidity...but like, if you had constant 60% humidity...it would be better for the wood than constant 20% humidity.

I think the wood will absorb what it can up to a point...and that's it...it's not just going to keep getting wetter and wetter...but when it goes dry and stays dry too long, the moisture in the wood keeps getting sucked out more and more, and you'll get to a point where it will start to crack from the dryness.

So I think the Brian's problem may actually have been too little humidity....which could add to do that dry/crackly tone he was getting.

My studio tends to stay pretty stable, or if it changes, it does so very slowly. In the dead of winter, the humidity doesn't get below 30%...and in the hottest summer months when it's rainy...I may see it get into the high 50's.
Since moved here...I've never had to keep resetting my guitars from season to season.
 
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