Mark III question

[Ed Pitman]

All,

I've raised a similar issue with my Boogie Quad below but I now discover a similar problem with my Mark III.

Would be grateful if we could get a discussion going in this !

A question for everyone....

In Rhythm II mode if you choose a gain setting that allows just the faintest hint of distortion, and hit just your lowest e-string sufficiently hard to push the pre-amp into clip what kind of sound do you get ?

With very low gain distorion, as a note/chord dies away I notice a very faint background crackle. Is this usual or normal for vintage boogies ? :?

I'm lucky to have 3 quads, a studio pre and a Mark III combo and Studio 22+. All of them, apart from the Studio 22+ seems to have this problem to some degree !!

This is much less noticeable with the lead channel.

am I expecting too much of my equipment ?

Please reply if you have any thoughts...perhaps Boogies after a certain age need some components replacing that we could put together a crib sheet for ? - ie, we all know about CAP jobs, but perhaps our amps need certain other things replacing that its usual to have deteriorate after "X" number of years.

I think this is worth discussing.

Cheers !

Ed

 

[disassembled]

First, let me start by saying that I am not familar with any of the amps you are referring to. Ok, now that I got that out of the way, let's find out what you mean. Without knowing anything about the circuitry, does it have a built in noise gate like the PV Triple X or JSX? Is the chord fading out too soon as if it were gated?

Is this how you always use Rh 2? If so, you might benefit from a different tube that allows you to run the pre knob higher but without introducing more gain. I am guessing it has something possibly to do with the taper of the pot.

Have you retubed any of your amps recently? If not, maybe you should try to retube one of them to see if it makes a difference. If you cannot afford to retube maybe try swapping tubes around for the RH2 channel(like from the studio amp since it does not have the problem). If you have retubed them recently (within the past couple of years) then you might want to look into a different tube for the RH2 channel. I will throw out a suggestion of a JJ tube from Eurotubes.com the ECC832. The tube is half 12AX7 and Half 12AU7 which would allow you to run the pre gain higher but the output would be about the same that you are after now.

This is a total guess since I don't have any equipment of my own to test. It could be a power issue,grounding issue, guitar issue, cable issue, tube issue, component(s) inside the amp, etc. Try the easiest and least expensive first like moving the tubes, different cables, guitars, etc.

 

[Ed Pitman]

Hi Disassembled,

Appreciate your thoughts - thanks.

Have tried all teh obvious things - have even given it to the techs in my area and none of them can find anything obvious wrong with the Quad.

I'm going to buy another set of tubes and see how I get on. I assume that if it was a component that was breaking down then the effect would be more dramatic than the subtle sounds that I'm currently experiencing.

When a Quad is working properly it offers the best guitar tones I've ever heard.

Thanks Again...

Anyone else have any ideas ?

Cheers...

Ed