Crate Amp Makes Loud Pop!

  • Thread starter Thread starter rpe
  • Start date Start date
rpe

rpe

NM - Land of Excrement
I have an old G-40 (~1985?) 40 watt stereo Crate amp with twin 6" speakers. Every time I turn it on it makes a really loud pop. Similar effect when I turn it off only not quite so loud. It's always done this. Is it normal? Can I stop it from happening? What I do now is stick a 1/4" plug in the headphones jack before I turn it on then remove the plug for playing but I'd like to avoid that if possible. Can anyone help?

Thanks,

rpe
 
does it have a spring reverb on it? i have one on my peavey delta 30 and it pops unless i turn off the reverb....
 
Do you turn down the volume and gain before turning it on?
 
Actually this is a symptom of a power transformer problem - I used to have an old Gallien-Kreuger rackmount amp that did the same thing when turned on or off - it was not a cheap fix. :(
 
Could be a wild ground too. Anything in the house waired weird on the same circuit?

Fangar
 
Thanks for the ideas. It does have a spring reverb but turning it off doesn't help. Vol and gain is down, that doesn't work. I'm pretty sure there isn't any weird house wiring going on. I guess I better investigate the power transformer idea. It's really been a great little amp, just that annoying pop.

rpe
 
I used to have a small crate amp and I think it used to pop like that also. Some amps dont have a slow power up. I'm not a big fan of crate's, it may just be a cheap design problem.
 
I've had this one Hughes and Kettner amp for about a year now. Spring Reverb. Everytime I turn it on or off it pops. And when I turn it off it runs through the dist. channel before finally going out. If it's really lout it takes about 5-10 seconds to turn off. Just a fact of the amp I guess. It doesn't bother me.
 
I have an 80 watt Crate guitar amp, and it pops too. It also has a lot of hum and buzz. That's because it's a piece of crap!

Bob
 
Thanks Bob,

I kinda expected folks would think it's crap. But it'll have to do until I trade up.
 
Tex has it right. I've had the "pleasure" of repairing Crate amps for years (one of the benifits of being a warranty station). Most well-built amps have some sort of slow on circuit where the audio is muted untill the power supply is up and stable and the caps are charged. A lot of the cheaper amps do not. This is the case with most of the solid state Crate amps. I've been told that this "pop" is harmless by factory reps although I can't believe that a short blast of DC heading toward your speaker everytime you touch the power switch is a good thing?
 
Thanks Monte, good info.

I guess that "feature" is something I need to check for when buying an amp!
 
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