Fillmore 25 pops and white noise when idle

[McBrian]

Hi, I'm new to this fine forum.

The reason I decided to join is that I just received my first Boogie amp today, a Fillmore 25 combo, delivered from The Netherlands to Denmark where I live. It's actually my first ever tube amp. The reason for this is that we just bought a house after living in apartments for the last 20 years and ss amps and modelling just made more sense to me, since I only play at home. But now it is finally time to turn up the volume a bit with a "real" amp.

I've played through several tube amps before, and I know there will always be some kind of hum/white noise when it's on, but when I turned the Fillmore 25 on from standby, I was surprised by how loud the noise is on this amp with all controls at set to zero and nothing connected other than the channel switcher. It also consistently makes two pops a few seconds apart.

Is this really normal behaviour for an amp like this?

I made a video of the noise, but it didn't capture how loud it really is, even with the volume turned up. Will try again.

 

[soonermav]

You might want to check and make sure all the tubes are sitting correctly. Something might have gotten jostled in delivery.
My Fillmore came in the mail and I was just talking about how dead quiet it is.

 

[McBrian]

You might want to check and make sure all the tubes are sitting correctly. Something might have gotten jostled in delivery.
My Fillmore came in the mail and I was just talking about how dead quiet it is.

I only checked the power tubes, will check the others tomorrow.

 

[McBrian]

Tried making another video, but the noise is a lot louder in the room, than it is on the video. Should be able to hear the pops though.

Video shared from OneDrive: https://1drv.ms/v/s!AhRufUbEngcKkZ1NgrPzisPQyU0QJQ?e=l6dabG

 

[Twang Banger]

My Fillmore 25 is dead quiet ... sounds like a poorly seated or failing tube. Since you said you checked the power tubes, definitely check the preamp tubes too. Good luck with it!

 

[McBrian]

My Fillmore 25 is dead quiet ... sounds like a poorly seated or failing tube. Since you said you checked the power tubes, definitely check the preamp tubes too. Good luck with it!

Thanks. I'm pretty sure it's not the preamp tubes. I don't have any spare tubes to troubleshoot with, but I tried bypassing the preamp by plugging into the fx return. This should leave only V4 and V5 in the signal. I then tried switching the V2 with V4 tubes and then the V1 with V5 tubes. Nothing changed at all. I then tried the power tubes one at a time in each socket. This made the noise lower, since there was only one power tube plugged in, but otherwise the noise was the same.

I found this thread on tdpri.com: https://www.tdpri.com/threads/need-help-with-loud-hum-in-toneking-falcon-grande-amp.1002331/
And his description sounds eerily similar to my amp. It turned out to be an imbalance between the power tube sockets caused by a bad mosfet.

I can still use the amp with my Tone King Ironman II attenuator, since it hides the noise on the lower settings, but I'm afraid that I'm gonna have to send it back to get it fixed. Normally I would hate to have a brand new amp fixed and probably just return it instead, but they are sold out all over the EU. And most stores don't expect new deliveries in the near future.

 

[soonermav]

Not sure if you're still having this problem, but I was playing yesterday and left my phone on the amp and it made an odd sound right before ringing and it reminded me of your post here.
Have you tried plugging your amp into a different outlet? You could be experiencing some interference from other electrical devices.
I was playing a gig years ago where we were set up in the front window of this club and during sound check my amp was giving off a lot of awful sounds. Turns out it was plugged into the same outlet as the neon sign in the window. I was able to run an extension cord to a different outlet and that solved the problem.
Hopefully you've already figured out the problem, but if not, maybe this will help.
Take care.

 

[PBass]

Tried making another video, but the noise is a lot louder in the room, than it is on the video. Should be able to hear the pops though.

Video shared from OneDrive: https://1drv.ms/v/s!AhRufUbEngcKkZ1NgrPzisPQyU0QJQ?e=l6dabG

Did you get this resolved? I am having the same exact issue right now.
Thank you

 

[Pickersteve]

Hello,im steve, have’many’boogies, had that in one of my mkv-35, only a bit noisier.
did all tubes 1x1, was i think the v3 or 4 cant remember. Just do the process of elimination.am sure youll find its a noisy 12ax7,think you have 4 oer 5in thier. I have 2-50s 7 a 100 fillmore, LOVE EM