Got My Tube Amp!!!!

  • Thread starter Thread starter marshall409
  • Start date Start date
congrats on your new tube amp. From the samples i've heard of the valveking, it sounds awesome for it's price. I've been looking to try one out but the guitar center I go to doesn't carry them. Post clips of it when you get the chance! :)
 
Got mine too, a used Peavey Bravo 112!!! Distortion is warm and powerfull, nothing like putting my Metal Zone in front of my old Crate GX15. I only compling about some humming in the back, is it normal in tube combos?
 
humming

i dont know man. when i first got it it never hummed and just last night i powered up and this humming started.....fairly prominent. i think im gonna take mine back. it was a floor model, which i reallly didnt like, but the guy insisted it was brand new and said the same rules still apply to returns and stuff.

one more question. when i turn it on, the sound sort of fades in to full volume. is that normal?

Adam
 
I think you are just getting all paranoid. Yes it is normal for the sound to kinda fade in when you first turn it on. Also, tube amps hum a little bit, it's normal.
 
marshall409 said:
i dont know man. when i first got it it never hummed and just last night i powered up and this humming started.....fairly prominent. i think im gonna take mine back. it was a floor model, which i reallly didnt like, but the guy insisted it was brand new and said the same rules still apply to returns and stuff.

one more question. when i turn it on, the sound sort of fades in to full volume. is that normal?

Adam
Click to expand...


Yep. thats the tubes warming up.
 
ya i guess im kinda paranoid.....i was pretty sure the fade in thing was normal. but the hum is bugging me because its so loud. if i turn it on, with nothing plugged in, and volume ALL the way down, the volume of the hum is still the same. i know that hum at very loud noises is normal, but this is really bugging me.

Adam
 
hmm. Nothing at all is plugged in the amp and the volume is all the way down to zero? Mine doesn't do that. You didn't notice it in the shop?
 
well i tried it out, and didnt notice. but there was 2 on the floor. i told him i was gonna buy one at the front and then he went and grabbed one, it may not have been the one i tried. if i was rehearsing with my band or playing loud its nothing but often ill practice sitting right next tp it really quiet at night and thats when its really bad. my guitar puts out a hum, like most triple single coils do, but nothing is even plugged into it. the only thing that stops it is standby. ive read that i could always put a suppressor or gate in the loop, but i dont wanna just sweep this under the carpet. come to think of it, the day i got it, my brother commented on how quiet it was. it took a trip in my car, but i was sitting right next to it, babying it :p . it sounds to my inexperienced ears like an electrical issue, picking up ahum from the transformer ro something like that. ???

Adam
 
marshalls break the most of any tube amp i have ever played
dont get one of them
 
try plugging your amp into differnt outlets. Ask your friends dad or whoever it was that you said was a great player to come over and take a look at it. I don't know whether or not it's normal. I know my amp doesn't do it though.
 
ya i thought of using different outlets....im using it tomorrow at my drummers house. if it doesnt huim there then ive seen some things that you plug into the outlet and then plug your amp into that that is supposed to help with hum. what about one of those?

Adam
 
With the volume all the way down, and your ear stuck up against the grill, you will always get a bit of hum, that's normal, but anything more than just a low purr, particularly in a modern design, indicates a problem. With nothing connected to the amp's input, see if the hum increases when the volume is pushed up (from all the way down). If so, I'd be inclined to think it's input tube(s). If hum remains constant, then output tubes perhaps, which might require proper 'biasing.' I've read somewhere that particular amp self-biasing, however, and isn't user-adjustable. But at this juncture, anyway, whatever the problem (if indeed there even is one), it's just a matter of returning it to the store if you're not happy.
 
When I plug my Peavey it starts to warm the tube, it makes a "woosh" sound. Then the hum continues. But the hum is not in the speaker, is from the back, where the tubes are. So the tubes are sounding, not the amp itself. It's been said that is normal that valve amps hum. I'm gonna take it to a luthier this wednesday to clean the pots and general maintenance.
 
The only mechanical sound tubes make might be a tinkling sound due to parts expanding as they heat up at initial turn on; your 'whooshing' sound is more likely a transformer thing: either the power trans or the output trans, although I suspect the former. At power up, the power trans has some considerable work to do: bringing 3 12AX7 and 2 6V6 tubes to life from cold, that's a pretty hefty in-rush current, so what you're hearing is most likely electromechanical strain within the power transformer. Providing the trans is spec'd accordingly, it shouldn't be a major problem. Still, no noise is a better scenario for a peaceful frame of mind.
 
ah the joys of your first tube amp. when i got my bassman 100, i was in awe when it first heated up. wwhhoooOOOOSSHHHH! and the tone was a BEAST. i laugh at the transistor sounding "tube hybrid" junk that spits out crappy distortion settings with no life - a nice clean tube head with huge overhead that breaks up into that sweet OD when you push it - man, rattle the walls with it and call home to mama!

edit - i miss my big rig :( mine looked JUST like this one-

bassman%20100%20abertoefechado.jpg
 
The only complain I ahve with valve combos is that they don't cme with the standby swich. Very useful to warm up tubes! Wooooooshhhh... and when I turn the amp off... WHUAaaajsaks, lol
 
Well mine does have a standby switch just fyi.

i dont know, im beginning to think that besides the hum, this amp just isnt for me. they had one other tube combo in my price range, a 210 but i dont remember the name, just the fact that id never heard of it, and i like to think i know most names.

im going back up there sometime this week, ill post again with news about what i decided to do: get a new valveking, a new amp completely, whatever....

Adam
 
Marshalls are not for me. I never liked the sound. Prefer Peavey's and Fenders.
 
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