single notes carry a "buzz"

[estring]

Hi all,
ROV series 2. I get some great clean and crunch tones. But I've noticed that when I play lead lines, there is a buzz along with the note. Its nothing electrical. its not fret buzz either....but thats what it kind of sounds like. I dont hear it during rhythm playing because its a chord and not a single note, it all kind of blends, but im sure its there too.

I've check all screws and seatings and made sure everything is secure.
I have not remove the speaker to look at the cone yet...maybe thats it????

Tubes?? I dont know. I did some swapping and it dosent do much. although these arent "new" tubes.

Basically there two sounds happening when I play single note, the tone itself and this buzz attached to it


any ideas????


Thanks
John

 

[lyman]

Hmm. Does it happen when you play higher up on the neck or everywhere? Can you record and upload a clip?

 

[estring]

Hmm. Does it happen when you play higher up on the neck or everywhere? Can you record and upload a clip?

Its more noticeable higher up on the G,B ,E strings.

I will upload a clip later.

 

[Crowbar]

I just went through a round of buzz chasing myself. It turned out to be the guitar. It was a little static crackle sound that came and went, sounded a lot like a bum speaker or tube. It was confusing because it did it louder on one amp than another.

Good luck, buzz chasing can drive ya nuts.

 

[KH Guitar Freak]

Hmm. Does it happen when you play higher up on the neck or everywhere? Can you record and upload a clip?

Its more noticeable higher up on the G,B ,E strings.

I will upload a clip later.

Have you tried another guitar through the amp???

 

[jmontgomery]

Try lowering the presence control. I had the same thing on the crunch channel of my Mark V. It wasn't exactly a buzz but I think we're talking about the same thing.

 

[Tommy_G]

1) Microphonic tube? Tap on your preamp tubes with a pencil and see if noise from the tapping comes through the speaker. (of course everything needs to be on, and channel and master volumes at appropriate levels

2) There's a manufacturing defect that occassionally shows up in speakers that apparently give a "ghost note", possibly a 'buzz' too. Called voice coil rub, I think. Audition different speakers / cab, to see if its a problem with your speakers. Apparently more pronounced issue at higher frequencies and higher volume levels. I've only read about this somewhat common problem.

3) guitar setup issue? fret buzz, pickups too close to the strings when you key a string up the neck, causing magnetic damping of the string and nonlinearity in frequency response.

4) Microphonic pickup. Tap on your guitar pickups to see if the thuds come through. Normally, however, this would cause 'squeeling' if you had your guitar too close to your amp.

5) Internal amp issue....? Could be anything. Take it ito a tech, maybe there's a service bulletin on this problem, or maybe Mesa technical support will be able to tell you.

 

[estring]

Thanks for all the replies!!!
Lowering the presence and treble helps, but its still there. Which makes me think it actually is a setup issue on the strat or a speaker issue. On the clean channel the "buzz" is not noticeable, which lead me to believe it wasnt my strat set up. But now im second guessing that thought. Its due for a fret level and crown so I'll take that in and see what happens.

I did plug in my LP. its has a great setup. The buzz is there slightly but not nearly like the strat. BTW I have medium high action.

Outside of that, I've replaced tubes. I still feel like it could also be a speaker issue,, I'll investigate that after I get the level and crown since i'm due for that anyway.



Thanks again...you guys are great.

 

[Blaklynx]

I have a ROV II as well. No 'buzzing' issues such as yours.

I did have a weird (un)harmonic overtone which was from the guitar, plugged in or not. G string was the culprit. As the string sustained this weird overtone would creep in and slowly go to the same volume as the note and as the note died out, the overtone would be the last to fade. It sounded like 'feedback'. Had me baffled for ages. No matter what string gauge I used, it was still there.

This is on an original Ibanez Edge Trem with locking nut. It happened to be the nut. There was the smallest (I mean incy-wincy-tiny) of burrs in the groove and the string would vibrate against it. Ran a fine file in the groove and fixed the issue.

Why did I say all this? Check your guitar's nut and saddles. The strings could be vibrating ad-hoc creating all sorts of weird things. Change string gauge and see if that works.

Some thoughts:
-make sure the speaker is mounted tight.
-Amp isn't sitting on anything that can vibrate?
-Your room doesn't have clutter that may have items that are sympathetic to the guitar frequencies? Depending how loud you play it may 'seem' like the amp is the issue but the noise could be emanating from somewhere else close to the amp. Weirder things have happened. Play your amp in another room to check.
-Fluoro lights cause noise as do some other electrical equipment. Move amp and guitar to different rooms and check.
-Gain on amp..... is it too low? Low does not sound great on the drive channels. The amp is neither 'here or there' in terms of distortion. The notes can sound 'farty', like a dying buzzing bee. So check that. Turn the gain up. Or use a pedal for low gain stuff.
-Anything lying against the speaker cone behind the grille cloth that you can't see? Or how about between the rear face of the cone and the speaker frame? A screw? Plastic? Staple? Who knows how it left Mesa? Doctors have left scalpels inside patients!

Can't think of anymore strange things to mention. Sometimes it's not the obvious things that cause the issues, so think 'outside the square' no matter how bizzare the thought is.

Keep us posted on the outcome.

 

[Tommy_G]

Some of the things mentioned above bring back memories.

With my very first amp, when I was a teen, I was getting this raunchy distortion tone, but the clean was buzzing. I found a hockey puck lodged between the speaker and the speaker frame.

 

[Shantiano]

I have the same problem on my Lonestar Special 1x12 with channel 2 and drive selected, when I hit a note you hear an ugly and scratchy distorted sound on the attack before settling down to the normal smooth overdrive sound. The more I engage treble and presence the more this scratchy distorted sound is audible. Same if I engage more drive. If I select thick or thicker, you hear that a little bit less. I don't know what to do.

 

[prime2525202]

Some of the things mentioned above bring back memories.

With my very first amp, when I was a teen, I was getting this raunchy distortion tone, but the clean was buzzing. I found a hockey puck lodged between the speaker and the speaker frame.

I just had a similar incident. I just got a Heartbreaker combo and one of the speakers was buzzing. I thought, 'oh great, I have to replace one of the speakers.' Much to my relief it turned out that there was a packet of silica gel (that stuff they put in to absorb moisture) in between the frame and cone.

 

[Tommy_G]

I have the same problem on my Lonestar Special 1x12 with channel 2 and drive selected, when I hit a note you hear an ugly and scratchy distorted sound on the attack before settling down to the normal smooth overdrive sound. The more I engage treble and presence the more this scratchy distorted sound is audible. Same if I engage more drive. If I select thick or thicker, you hear that a little bit less. I don't know what to do.

Some preamp tubes definately do not respond gracefully in Fender style preamp circuits (eg like the Lonestar)...I had a similar thing and replaced the preamp tube with something very different, and the problem was gone.

 

[Tommy_G]

I just had a similar incident. I just got a Heartbreaker combo and one of the speakers was buzzing. I thought, 'oh great, I have to replace one of the speakers.' Much to my relief it turned out that there was a packet of silica gel (that stuff they put in to absorb moisture) in between the frame and cone.

Another thing to watch out for, particularly if you have little kids, is they will hide their toys in the back of the amp, and fridge magnets, all kinds of stuff that can cause great greif. Not to mention poking holes through grill cloths and speaker cones, denting in dust caps, etc.

 

[Shantiano]

What preamp tube did you use Tommy G?

 

[Tommy_G]

a vintage Raytheon long black plate in the first stage, and vintage RCA short greyplate in the second position.

Prior to that, I had those tubes reversed, and found the RCA short greyplate was clipping very unmusically - sounding a lot like what you describe. Just swapped the two tubes around and voila, some of the best tone I've ever had. Its not like the tube was not working, it just was clipping in a god awful way.

However, there's a bunch of hassle and patience required to get VOS tubes from a vendor you trust at a reasonable price.

If you want to stick with new production tubes, I would suggest a Groovetubes 12AX7C Gold Series. The "C" stands for Chinese. Groovetubes (now Fender) is simply rebranding tubes made by some chinese manufacturer, but every Gold Series tube I've tried has been very reliable, so Gt/Fender must be doing at least a modicum of quality control on them.

I get em for about $15, and they sound really quite good (maybe just a slight mid scoop, though) and distort very musically with a lot of dynamics. I've never had a problem with them anywhere. I'd go with a Sovtek LPS in the second stage position because they are very neutral and fatten up nicely during clipping. Two chinese in a row may get too midscoopy and spongey sounding. Depends on your taste and speaker, I suppose, but the LPS is a go to new production tube. As much as I like Tungsol RI tubes for excellent tone, I only get a few seconds to maybe a few weeks out of them in my amp. They just don't stand up, but **** they sound good.

Never use a NewSensor (Sovtek, EHX, Tungsol RI, etc.) anything, however in a marshall or fender bassman style circuit in what is termed the cathode follower position...eg the second tube in the circuit. they will blow in 0.1 microseconds because they cannot handle it. Chinese handle it very well, and again, sound pretty **** good for new production.

Back when I was in the tube swapping stage of my learning curve, I came to dislike JJ ECC83's. However, they are reportedly a pretty reliable tube, if unmusical. I think a lot of Mesa branded tubes are JJ ECC83's (eg. czecheslovakia).

 

[Shantiano]

Thanks for the info Tommy_G. I don't think I can find any of those you suggested in my country. However I found NOS Phillips in an old shop, installed them, but they didnt improve anything. I took the amp to repair today but we still couldn't identify were this strange "wind" sound on the attack of a note comes from.

 

[Tommy_G]

two other things to check into are:

Some pickups are 'unpotted' with wax and are microphonic.

Also, if there is a defect in a string where it's weight is not near perfectly uniform along the length of it, there develop disharmonic frequencies along with the fundamental, and those would be more apparent on attack.

Anothe issue is what is termed "zinging". Possibly pickup too high. Or string about to break as the metal has developed a network of cracks in it.

Another potential issue your descrption brings to mind is your guitar isn't set up right or you need to have your frets refinished.

All of the above = try a guitar you know works fine with another amp at similar settings.

Also, as suggested before, try a different speaker, who knows what could be happening in the speaker. Also, the cabinet may be loose and is vibrating.

Another possibility is your input jack and effects send/return jacks could have corrosion and not making good contact with all the parts that need to come into contact with each other, causing the signal to intermittently arc acros and making some white noise apparent with the signal.

All kinds of crap to check out, to be sure.