Feedback/Squeeling issues

[spyeman]

I recently went up to a 100w head from a 50w for gigging, the clean channel on the 50w was weak and not cutting it. The new head is great, however, when I am playing higher gain solo's, it feedbacks very easily, sometimes that nasty squeel when I get near the cab, and the head is on 1.5, maybe 2. I use a tele, so I'm getting a lot of hum also from the single coils, and my cab is a 2x12 with Vintage 30's, sounds great but this feedback/squeel issue is a bummer. I'm not a rocket scientist on the amp/speakers/wattage stuff, is there a way to solve this, if I got a 4x12 and thus didn't need to turn the amp up as high, would this solve it? Or do I need higher wattage speakers, is it the V30's? Your thoughts and advice most welcome.

[donnyjaguar]

Have you tried using a different overdrive pedal? Not trying to be funny here, just found that some work much better than others. The other option is to turn down the drive level a little too.

[spyeman]

Actually, the head is a 4 channel switcher, no pedals needed, the gain channel sounds great (when not feeding back lol) yeah I've tweaked the gain and all the dials, I'm just wondering - would a 4x12 solve my problem or are the Vintage 30's just too low at 30 watts with a 100w head? Thanks for your thoughts.

[justonwo]

Vintage 30s are 60 Watts, not 30. As for your cab's ability to handle the power, that would depend how loud you play it and whether or not "100 Watts" on your amp really means 150 Watts when dimed like it does on many Plexis.

[ScottWolfe]

Squealing can also be caused by a preamp tube going microphonic. Try swapping out the tubes one at a time with a known good one....

[spyeman]

Thanks for the thoughts and ideas. I've tried different tubes, both pre and power, with no change, and also different tele's, but still the quick feedback. I have the amp on only 2, not anywhere near maxing the volume (although it's plenty loud at 2) and I don't get this issue at the same sound level with the clean and semi-dirty channels. Perhaps it's just overgained on this lead channel. Assuming there are no issues with tubes, guitars, etc., could a possible solution be a larger, 4 speaker cab? Could I play at that same "volume" on my head, but with 4 speakers, they are not getting pushed as much and hence less feedback/squeeking issues? I think it's time to experiment with that, any comments?