I'm sorry if I came off like I was looking for a quick fix by retubing. The question was more for my education in the event I needed to retube for any reason, whether that be in 3 days or 3 years.
As for my noise problem, it's pretty frustrating. I'm not sure what the normal level of noise is for the MR and I could be overreacting. I can confirm that the noise isn't being caused by one particular cable, pedal, or guitar.
With nothing plugged into the amp and all electronics in the room unplugged:
- 10w on both channels hums.
- 25w on both channels is hissy.
- Both problems exist with the loop on and off, though it is slightly amplified with the loop on.
- Both problems are magnified on Modern mode. The extreme example is 25w Modern with Gain at 3 o'clock and Master at 9 o'clock. I understand how loud and gainy that is for home recording. But for argument's sake, lets say I'm playing with a band and a very loud drummer.
- The amp will feed back using the above settings, even with nothing plugged in.
I have two Decimators and they clean up the noise wonderfully. The only problem I have with them is there is some bleeding of noise just before the gate closes. It's very noticable when playing staccato or fast-muted chords. I can only describe it as noise artifacts: Note
noise | Silence | Note
noise | Silence |. It makes getting a good recording almost impossible. I can sort of mask the problem by using a bit of reverb or delay, but that seems hacky.
I found a pretty good representation of my noise on Youtube. I don't know this guy or use that gear, but I do know that noise!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6SYpXPslDI
Just to be clear, it's my responsibility to do due diligence and investigate all my options like an adult, rather than crying "waaaa noisy amp". I'm not looking for an easy fix and am willing to spend as much time as necessary to fix this problem. For all I know, my house could have been wired by a crazy person. I wouldn't be surprised.
My todo list is:
- Check the grounding on all outlets.
- Hunt for ground loops. I found a very minor one last night. It didn't fix my problem, but it was satisfying to correct that.
- Eliminate every single source of interference in my 3 story house.
- Demo a Rocktron Hush, Electro Harmonix Hum Debugger, and a Furman conditioner. I hate throwing money at a problem, though.
- Bring the amp to a Mesa authorized repairperson and demo the problem for him. I want to hear "normal", or "wow, that's a problem".
- Learn to live with it and get creative in my DAW to try and mask / edit out the noise.
Thanks again, and sorry about the length of this post.