Help! My Roadster is driving me nuts!

[nate.dudek]

Hey everyone - was hoping someone could point me in the right direction on my Roadster 2x12 Combo.

I bought it brand new in January '07, and the tone has always been spectacular. Sparkling cleans, brutal distortions, whatever I wanted to get, I could always dial in!

For the past couple of months, however, it's been a different story - all channels sound incredibly muddy and harsh. The tone knobs don't seem very responsive at all - they don't alter the sound very much. I also don't get any reverb whatsoever on any channel (although that happened to my '00 Nomad 55 as well, so I don't know if it's related.)

I've taken all of my effects out of the chain to try to find the culprit, so currently I'm running PRS Custom 22 / Fender Tele / Fender Strat straight into the amp. All guitars have the same awful sound. Tried many different cables, so it's not that. Replaced the power tubes, so it shouldn't be that. Although, the outer two 6L6's glow much brighter than the inner two tubes. Is that normal?

The preamp tubes are original, can that be the culprit? I really didn't think preamps would burn out as fast like power tubes do. Anything else you guys can think of to try or check?

Thanks in advance!!

 

[fishyfishfish]

I would try popping in some new pre tubes in V1 and V2 and see if that does the trick. My amp started sounding flat and lifeless, but that was a power tube problem for me. Pre tubes do wear out, but usually they start making noise or stop working all together. You might want to take a look at all of the pre's while swapping out V1/V2 to make sure all have nice chrome tops. Hope this helps.

 

[jdurso]

Yeah sounds like something is going on with your preamp tubes.

 

[nate.dudek]

Thanks guys, I'll pick up a couple and try it out later this week. I'll let you know how it goes!

 

[jdurso]

Thanks guys, I'll pick up a couple and try it out later this week. I'll let you know how it goes!

Where are you located... i have some spares.

 

[nate.dudek]

I'm in CT.

 

[jdurso]

Nice... a fellow Mtowner (just in another state)

 

[nate.dudek]

I picked up a couple of spare preamp tubes today - I'm going to try swapping out V1 and/or V2 in a little bit to see what happens.

 

[vertigo_]

Let us know what happened. I would like to know what was the problem.

 

[nate.dudek]

I tried swapping them out, one at a time, and both at the same time. Amp still pretty much has the same dull response, especially in Ch 3/4, and in Fat Mode on Ch 1/2. Very muddy and unpleasant. Ch 3 seems almost unusable in Vintage and Raw modes.

 

[nate.dudek]

Actually, take that back - my roommates left the house early today so I was able to really crank the amp (I was only able to test it out at lower volumes with my last post). It does seem quite a bit better (both V1 and V2 are new). I need more time to dial my tones back in, but it seems pretty responsive.

 

[jdurso]

I tried swapping them out, one at a time, and both at the same time. Amp still pretty much has the same dull response, especially in Ch 3/4, and in Fat Mode on Ch 1/2. Very muddy and unpleasant. Ch 3 seems almost unusable in Vintage and Raw modes.

Throw an OD infront of CH3 Raw and you'd be suprised.... its a killer lead type channel. Also I find with the Fat mode, you need to bump the presence slightly to compensate for the extra bass thats added... or lower the presence and add an OD for more vintagey type tones.

 

[nate.dudek]

I'll try using my Tubescreamer w/ Ch 3. It's the one channel I really haven't fully explored. I've used Fat for 70% of my clean sounds in the past, so I think I just need to dial the tone back in.

Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[nate.dudek]

Confirmed - preamp tube swap did the trick! Had a band practice this morning and my Roadster is back to tonal awesomeness. Fat mode is dialed back in and sounding so sweet. Thanks jdurso, kicked the presence up a bit really did the trick!

Thanks to everyone for their replies!