Unusual amount of feedback RKII

[parsky1]

I have a 3.5 month old RKII head and it hasn't gotten too much play time yet. Prolly less than 75 hours. Anyway here lately, I'm noticing an unusual amount of feedback when I'm playing. Especially on channels 3 and 4. Could this be a preamp tube problem?

 

[ibanez4life SZ!]

How high are you running the gain?

 

[parsky1]

around 12:00

 

[CudBucket]

Well, volume could be the issue but 12 oclock gain shouldn't get you such bad feedback. I'd check the preamp tubes.

 

[parsky1]

Volume is definately not the issue... I'm running at hotplate at -8db attenuation and using 1 C30 speaker. I'm playing a PRS Custom 24 and the HFS and Vintage pickups are definately some of thier hotter pickups, but not that hot!

 

[Platypus]

Sounds preamp related to me.

 

[parsky1]

I'm hoping its just a tube... I called Mesa, but "Mike" was away from his phone... so hopefully he will be calling me back here soon.

 

[Platypus]

I'm hoping its just a tube... I called Mesa, but "Mike" was away from his phone... so hopefully he will be calling me back here soon.

Follow the tube diagnostics in your manual for troubleshooting. Odds are it's just a preamp tube that needs replacing.

 

[parsky1]

Well according to him he said it sounds pretty normal, and its just because I'm pushing the amp so hard... even at the lower volume levels.

I dunno though, I don't consider 11-12:00 master, 11-12:00 gain and output set to 11:00 too hard compared to what some guys run at.

Darn I was hoping to get a free preamp tube out of them or something... guess I'll just have to order one. One suggestion he said was to unplug the guitar from the amp and see if it still feeds back.

Seriously though, 4 months for a preamp tube.. thats kinda crap if that's the case.

 

[Platypus]

Well according to him he said it sounds pretty normal, and its just because I'm pushing the amp so hard... even at the lower volume levels.

I dunno though, I don't consider 11-12:00 master, 11-12:00 gain and output set to 11:00 too hard compared to what some guys run at.

Darn I was hoping to get a free preamp tube out of them or something... guess I'll just have to order one. One suggestion he said was to unplug the guitar from the amp and see if it still feeds back.

Seriously though, 4 months for a preamp tube.. thats kinda crap if that's the case.

Tubes are like lightbulbs, sometimes they just die for no reason at all. They try to test for that but you can't catch all of them. Hell I've had tubes die after 3 days, 3 years, 3 months, there's no magic bullet and Mesa doesn't even make the tubes. I have no doubt in my mind if it does turn out to be a preamp tube they'll send you a new set no problem. I've had them do it for me personally before.

You're not pushing your amp that hard at all, it seems like there is a problem somewhere else in the chain... I usually run my dual rec with gain at 1:30-2, volume at noon and I run a freakin OD in front of it too, never get any noise.

Do what he suggested, do you still get feedback? Do you have another guitar you can try it out on?

 

[parsky1]

I'll have to do some testing tomorrow when I go to practice. I won't be able to test it at home at those volumes. The apartment manager lives right next door and I've come to the conclusion that he has "very sensative ears" :roll:

Thanks for the help. I might just go ahead and order a couple sp12ax7s... coudn't hurt to have a few on hand anyway.