Hi all
I'm looking for advice on a 2nd hand 5:50 plus I just bought from the local dealer. According to them the amp is three months old and had been sold to a person who didn't get on with it and ended up going with a Lonestar instead.
Anyway, it seems to me that the amp has fairly loud hiss (S.C. or H.B. makes no difference) and a weird infrequent popping noise, as well as a loud thumpy pop when switched into standby (also the loud pop when switching channels and one of them is on 5 watts - but I knew that was a "design feature").
Normally I'd just take it back to the dealer and ask them to look at it, but I know (after a long saga troubleshooting a new deluxe Tele earlier this year ... I've been very very good and very lucky...) that there are weird electrical noises happening in the airwaves at my place that some pieces of equipment (like the Tele) pick up like antennae. Because they're coming via the environment, they're hard to quiet ... but I digress. Anyway, the weird electrical noise in the house thing makes me wonder whether it's worthwhile taking the amp back to the shop for a look - ie it may not be faulty, it may just not be dealing particularly well with its new environment ... or that behaviour may be normal.
So three questions really.
1. Is noticable hiss normal (eg on, say, crunch with gain at about 7:00 (ie hardly any)?
2. Is the popping behaviour normal?
3. Is the hiss issue one that may be evident even with new stock tubes (ie should I forget going back to the dealer for diagnosis and just go with a retube using, say, Doug's tube recipe).
Apologies in advance if there's an answer to this somewhere I didn't find. Most posts I did find said the hiss issue from the original series is absent from the plus series, which left me unsure whether this meant the hiss was outside of spec or whether the spec and my expectations did not meet.
Anyway, TIA for your assistance in settling a new parent's nerves
ru32day
I'm looking for advice on a 2nd hand 5:50 plus I just bought from the local dealer. According to them the amp is three months old and had been sold to a person who didn't get on with it and ended up going with a Lonestar instead.
Anyway, it seems to me that the amp has fairly loud hiss (S.C. or H.B. makes no difference) and a weird infrequent popping noise, as well as a loud thumpy pop when switched into standby (also the loud pop when switching channels and one of them is on 5 watts - but I knew that was a "design feature").
Normally I'd just take it back to the dealer and ask them to look at it, but I know (after a long saga troubleshooting a new deluxe Tele earlier this year ... I've been very very good and very lucky...) that there are weird electrical noises happening in the airwaves at my place that some pieces of equipment (like the Tele) pick up like antennae. Because they're coming via the environment, they're hard to quiet ... but I digress. Anyway, the weird electrical noise in the house thing makes me wonder whether it's worthwhile taking the amp back to the shop for a look - ie it may not be faulty, it may just not be dealing particularly well with its new environment ... or that behaviour may be normal.
So three questions really.
1. Is noticable hiss normal (eg on, say, crunch with gain at about 7:00 (ie hardly any)?
2. Is the popping behaviour normal?
3. Is the hiss issue one that may be evident even with new stock tubes (ie should I forget going back to the dealer for diagnosis and just go with a retube using, say, Doug's tube recipe).
Apologies in advance if there's an answer to this somewhere I didn't find. Most posts I did find said the hiss issue from the original series is absent from the plus series, which left me unsure whether this meant the hiss was outside of spec or whether the spec and my expectations did not meet.
Anyway, TIA for your assistance in settling a new parent's nerves
ru32day
