Amp Crackle When Turned On

[jessicasix]

Hello everyone! I have a simple question that I thought I would ask here before I bother the nice guys at Bogner. Anyways I have an Ecstacy 101b and whenever I turn it on I hear a dirty crackle for a about 5 seconds, then it goes away, and the amp plays fine. The amp is fairly new about 6 months, and it did not do it at first but I hadn't played it for about 4 months. Is this somewhat normal - does the amp just need to be played again for a little bit and it will go away. Or do ya'll think I need to call the Bogner team. Any advice is greatly appreciated, thank you all so much.

Jessica

[Jon Silberman]

Could be the filter caps. But there's folks here that know alot more than I do, so let's see what they say!

P.S. Here's a site with some interesting amp "debugging" info.:

http://www.geofex.com/ampdbug/ampdebug.htm

[LSchefman]

I can't imagine the filter caps going at only 6 months, but you never know! I'd guess a preamp tube might be microphonic.

Definitely call Bogner and ask Sean what is up.

I usually test for a microphonic tube with the old "pencil test"; tap each pre tube very lightly with a pencil, with the amp on and nothing plugged in (keep the cab plugged in, of course).

If a tube is microphonic when you tap it, you often hear the tapping amplified (hence the term, microphonic). Replace that tube.

Note that the tube in the first position will sometimes sound a little bit noisier than others when you tap it, but when you find a microphonic tube, you hear a big difference.

[Jon Silberman]

But Les, is a microphonic tube consistent with just 5 seconds of crackling, only right after you hit the standby switch and send it the voltage?

Unquiet, where are you when we need you?! ;)

[jessicasix]

Thanks for the reply's everyone, and thanks for the link. Hopefully this unquiet fella will see this and post his reply. I gather he's pretty knowledgable? Anyway I guess if all else fails I'll give Sean a call. I think that's who I spoke with before when I was deciding on the amp - nice guy.

J

[PerryR]

You might try, with the amp off, flicking the standby switch a number of times. You might have a dirty contact in the switch.