Ticking sound when I turn the Mark V on

[bird_droppings]

The last few weeks, whenever I power on my Mark V, I hear a ticking sound that lasts a minute or two. Everything fine after that.

Anyone know what this is?

 

[domct203]

She's gonna blow up, run!
(sorry, couldn't resist)

Is it a very faint ticking? Could be the glass envelope of one or more tubes as they react to the heaters. It prob makes the same noise when you turn off the power.

If it is a loud clicking sound it could be the switching relays as they change their positions, but that should not last more than a second or two.

Dom

 

[boogieman60]

When I start up my V all the FS lights come on. If I don't select a channel it may tick but not all the time. Or it may be a tube as stated..

 

[bird_droppings]

She's gonna blow up, run!
(sorry, couldn't resist)

Is it a very faint ticking? Could be the glass envelope of one or more tubes as they react to the heaters. It prob makes the same noise when you turn off the power.

If it is a loud clicking sound it could be the switching relays as they change their positions, but that should not last more than a second or two.

Dom

I wouldn't call it loud. It's not a scary sound. But I wouldn't call it quiet either. At first I thought it was a fan issue. Now I'm wondering if is some kind of electrical effect associated with the tubes. It sounds a little like a "crackle"....

 

[toneseeker911]

When I start up my V all the FS lights come on. If I don't select a channel it may tick but not all the time. Or it may be a tube as stated..

I have the exact same issue. I just select a channel as soon as I turn it on and I don't hear any ticks. Not sure why.

 

[boogieman88]

When I start up my V all the FS lights come on. If I don't select a channel it may tick but not all the time. Or it may be a tube as stated..

Agreed!

 

[Jackie]

I doubt it's this, but here's what happened when I had a "tick" in my Marshall:

My friend came over to see it and we were all psyched but when I stopped playing I noticed a faint, periodic (1 per second) tick and a little more noise than I was used to. The funny part was that it ticked when I had the guitar but not when he held it.
We checked just about everything when I slapped my right thigh and I noticed I had my cell phone in my pocket that was causing the ticking.

But it's probably the "power up and select channel" thing others mentioned, I just thought I'd share this peculiar story because the tick was exactly like you described, not loud but not quiet either.

 

[MusicManJP6]

Haha, nice one Jackie. I know Nextel phones were bad about causing interference with speakers. Never had a problem with any other phones.

 

[bird_droppings]

So it kept getting worse.

As soon as I turned it on I'd hear a "tika-tika-tika-tika-..." sound that just didn't sound good. If I picked a channel it went a way.

For a while.

Then it got to where I heard that sound whenever the footswitch was plugged in.

Finally took it to the Mesa repair guy in my city. He told me that there is a circuit that takes the footswitch signal and feeds it to some solenoids that actually switch channels. What happened is that this circuit was not getting enough power. So the solenoids started "fibrillating".

He replaced two components and, so far, everything is good as new.

He said that it looked like this circuit was not that well protected from electric surges and he recommended only plugging or unplugging the footswitch when the amp is off.

 

[theredmenace]

Had maybe the same thing (mine was def. the relays chattering). Was cured when had diodes in low voltage supply replaced (after they failed and amp wouldn't 'boot up'). With 12V supply working, never hear the tick or relay clatter on startup (even if I don't select a channel).
Just throwing that out there...