Has something died?

[johngti]

Plugged my Laney VC30 in earlier on today and noticed that it was quite noisy (hiss style rather than hum). I had all of my pedals connected and was playing away quite happily through the hiss when my daughter wandered over and stepped on my pedals to see what happened. There was a bit of a pop (nothing particularly loud, just the typical click that my delay pedal makes) after which the amp was quieter, to the point where I could turn it up to max on the volume at which it was still loud but bearable. The hiss had also disappeared.

So, has something popped? It still sounds OK, just quieter and no hiss. I can see the power tubes are all glowing equally well but I can't see the preamp tubes 'cos they're in full on metal shields.

Thanks all!

[johngti]

(Ignore this - just seeing if my sig is working!!)

(Sorry!)

[John Phillips]

It does sound like something's not right. It's hard to say what...

By 'glowing' for the power tubes, do you mean the normal orange glow or the fainter (quite difficult to see often) blue glow inside the plates?

My experience with Laneys is that it's more likely to be a resistor, circuit board joint, tube socket or transformer problem than a tube failure, unfortunately.

[johngti]

Yeah the normal orange glow. Surely if its the circuit board etc then the amp would just stop working completely...?

[wixedmords]

I would try playing without any of the pedals for a while to see if the pop comes back.

It is harder to troubleshoot a long signal chain, as one of the pedals could be the issue.

It sounds like a preamp tube to me. But, if the tubes are of unknown age, then a new set of tubes are where to start.

[John Phillips]

Originally Posted by johngti

Yeah the normal orange glow. Surely if its the circuit board etc then the amp would just stop working completely...?

Not necessarily - it completely depends where the fault is. If it's in only one half of the power section you might well get a drop in volume (often along with a thinner or oddly-distorted sound, but that isn't always obvious at low volumes) without it stopping working altogether. In a four-tube amp it could be something that only affects one power tube too, which would leave the amp running almost normally, but a bit quieter.

A hissing noise followed by a drop in volume and no hiss sounds like a component or joint that was failing, then failed - but it's very difficult to guess exactly what at this stage. Whether it was actually triggered by the pedal switching pop or was just a coincidence is difficult to say as well - strange things like that do happen sometimes and can be very confusing.

[rockon1]

Originally Posted by johngti

Plugged my Laney VC30 in earlier on today and noticed that it was quite noisy (hiss style rather than hum). I had all of my pedals connected and was playing away quite happily through the hiss when my daughter wandered over and stepped on my pedals to see what happened. There was a bit of a pop (nothing particularly loud, just the typical click that my delay pedal makes) after which the amp was quieter, to the point where I could turn it up to max on the volume at which it was still loud but bearable. The hiss had also disappeared.

So, has something popped? It still sounds OK, just quieter and no hiss. I can see the power tubes are all glowing equally well but I can't see the preamp tubes 'cos they're in full on metal shields.

Thanks all!

Did you try plugging directly into the amp and remove everthing from the FX loop(if it has one) ? First things first!

[johngti]

Thanks for all the advice so far.

John: Hope its not anything major like you described!! I'm worried now, although I suppose it is only a couple of months old so it'll be covered by the warranty.

Wixed: Could be a pedal I suppose. Only have three connected (tuner, Bad Monkey both of which I've had for a while and a Behringer delay that I got for Christmas) but I'll try without any and see what happens. The tubes are still the ones that the amp came with and I've been planning to get a set of JJs for it so this is a good excuse to get some.

rockon: Nothing in the effects loop but good advice nonetheless!

Lets hope its a preamp tube, eh! :S

[rockon1]

Definately bypass all that stuff in front and plug directly into the amp first. I'd try swapping in some new tubes next cause its easy.(always important to have at LEAST a back up set with a tube amp.) Lastly in the "simple stuff" catagory and Im not sure if it applies on a Laney is the FX loop contacts. On my Peavey gear the loop contacts sometimes get dirty if not used and cause drop outs. If plugging a guitar cable from the send to return corrects the problem it confirms it. Again not sure if it applies to the Laney.

[johngti]

Will do - I'll get the tubes ordered soon and report back.

Thanks everyone!

[johngti]

Worry is over - its the delay pedal! Shame really 'cos it was a really nice thoughtful gift from my in-laws and I'm not sure I'd trust a replacement now :S

[John Phillips]

Ha - at least I was wrong!

It's probably just the switch on the pedal, if it's one of those metal 'click' types. It's a common problem (although it doesn't usually make a hissing noise, which is why I didn't think it was that before) - you just have to change the switch.

The ones they put in a lot of pedals these days are pretty crap anyway - if you open the pedal and look at it, and it's a black square with the metal connections in a sort of 'star' pattern, that's one of the bad ones. The better ones can fail too though.

[wixedmords]

John, your still one of the best reads in all of forums Brother. A stand up guy.

[johngti]

Thanks John - its a Behringer pedal so the build quality isn't the greatest! They have those small hopeless looking electronic micro-switches which look to be a pain in the rear to sort out but at least I know its not the amp!!