Amp problems, heeeelp

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chamelious

www.thesunexplodes.com
Had problems with my amp tonight :( Its a ashdown fallen angel 60w all tube combo, been retubed recently. Had some problems at first which turned out to be battery issues (doh). But on the OD channel, it seems to bottom out with lower register stuff. Seems fine on clean. (this is at band levels) Could the speakers be frazzled?
 
Dont know anything about that amp, but...... I'm wondering what it is that makes you think the speaker might be blown? Did you use the amp in a way that could have blown the speaker?

What do you mean by "bottom out" on lower register stuff? You mean it sounds like it's distorting when you play the lowest notes on the guitar? Does it do that even if all of the fx are turned off?
 
No- the speakers certainly not *blown* as it sounds fine at low volumes, and even at high volumes on clean. No FX being used. I guess distorting is an apt word for whats happening although obviously its not desirable distortion!
 
Something occured to me, the channel volume was on way lower than the master- could this be causing a problem?
 
did you check all your cables? instruments and pedals?..
Our guitar player was having problems with his mesa boogie, and he was about to re-tube the whole thing, and then we found a faulty $5 cable causing the loss of sound
 
Like i said, its fine at low volume and on clean, the chances of this being a problem with a cable are slim at best, but yes everythings been checked.
 
Something occured to me, the channel volume was on way lower than the master- could this be causing a problem?

No. Having the master volume all the way up and the channel volume low will give you the cleanest sound the amp can produce.
 
Make sure all the tubes are in all the way so they don't rattle around.
 
Is there anything plugged in the effects loop (if there is one)?
 
No. Having the master volume all the way up and the channel volume low will give you the cleanest sound the amp can produce.

Even a clean sound will distort the speaker on lower frequencies with the master all the way up and the channel down, IF the speaker cannot handle the amps full power, especially if the tone knobs are cranked. Clean headroom is the classic "acid test" for how well an amp will deal with it's own power, but ya gotta have a speaker there to handle it in the first place.

The speaker may not be able to handle the sound, even though it may not be "blown" yet.....the only way, well the easiest way to know is to plug the amp into a different speaker cab and see if it still does the same thing.
 
Is it plugged into a solid grounded outlet.Have you tried another outlet.I had the misfortune playing an outside show one night when my friend who was helping me set up plugged me into a power strip that was feeding the lights.My fender's volume was fluctuating in and out and i thought it was crapping out on me.I didn't realise that it was plugged into the same outlets with the lights til i was tearing down.
 
Think the main problem i was having was a power problem, tried it in a diff socket and it was ok, although still sounds like wank. Its like when theres too much bass on your shitty car speakers, that kind of distortion, even though there isn't actually much bass. Could the speakers be shit or is the amps distortion just rubbish?
 
Think the main problem i was having was a power problem, tried it in a diff socket and it was ok, although still sounds like wank. Its like when theres too much bass on your shitty car speakers, that kind of distortion, even though there isn't actually much bass. Could the speakers be shit or is the amps distortion just rubbish?

at this point it could be anything. if you could post a sound clip, that would help. i'm wondering if you have a bad tube in your distortion channel. maybe try swapping it with another.

when the speaker coils are going out, it sounds like crap on all the channels and the clean has this muddy distortion sound. (i recently had some reconed because of that).

since it's only with one channel, i'm leaning toward a bad tube. try tapping on it to see if it's microphonc too. that might explain why it only sounds "like wank" (that was funny) at high volume.

good luck.
 
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