Something weird with my Amp at practice last night??

[sixstring531]

So we were practicing again last night and all of a sudden my signal dropped and all I could hear were very faint farty sounds of what I was playing. I immediately unplugged the pedal board and plugged directly into my amp to see if it was the amp --- it was still doing it.

I looked in the back of the amp and it seemed that one of the two power tubes (new el84s) was glowing brighter than the other one and as soon as I turned away, all the sound came back to normal and I never had the problem again.

What in the world happened?

[el nino]

i have a same problem...and also don't have a clue whats going on with the amp,but it started happening alot more in the last week or so,and now i can't even play the damn thing!so anybody have an idea whats going on with our amps?

[sixstring531]

Well, the more I think about it, it sounds like when you continue to play after you've turn your amp off -- likes it's dying. Mine has only happened once..so I'll keep my fingers crossed. I feel like it has to be a tube thing.

[todaystomorrow]

Sounds like a bad tube to me. I'm no expert but it may just be that simple. I've had that problem with a quad of EL84's after they went south.... 2 of the 4 would seem to overheat after a period and correct themselves when on standby for a few minutes. I knew they were old so I just replaced them.

What kind of amp is it? If it's self biasing you can just throw a new matched pair of EL84's in there to see.

[sixstring531]

Tubes are brand new man. It is the Zinky Blue Velvet (self biasing)

[freaksho]

Tubes are brand new man.

doesnt matter. they don't make them like they used to. ask your supplier if they'll replace it. sometimes they will.

[clothwiring]

doesnt matter. they don't make them like they used to. ask your supplier if they'll replace it. sometimes they will.

I second this motion.

[mobis8]

My other guitar player had this same thing happen on his EL84 amp. It was farting bad, to the point that we were pricing new speakers... Turns out it was the power tubes, and when he was playing it was making the amp vibrate.

One thing you can do is if it happens again, lightly tap on the tubes, or the chassis around the tubes with the amp on playmode (not in standby). If you can recreate the sound when tapping it is definently the tubes going.

And I agree, new tubes these days are a crap shoot usually... What kind are they? I have had the best luck with JJ EL84s FWIW...

[sixstring531]

I replaced them with EH Tubes per Bruce Zinky's recommendation.

[sixstring531]

I called the tube place I bought them from -- they said if they give me anymore problems to just send the tubes back and they will replace them. Again, the amp works fine right now (it only happened for about :30 sec) and sounds great -- so I am wondering if one is not socketed properly or something.

[freaksho]

does anyone ever wish we never learned the beauty of tubes? so much hassle somtimes.
:BITCH


good luck figuring it out. :)

[sixstring531]

Thanks -- I have plenty of spare tube sets if I need to send them back -- I just don't want anything bad to happen to the Zinky.

[Plague Dog]

When I talked to Bob Reinhardt about an amp problem he told me, 99% of all tube amp problems are tubes.