Amp Problems (Funny Noises)

[TTrahan]

My Fargen Blackbird and '68 Super Reverb are acting really weird.

FWIW* We have two small air conditioners running in the house, the problems seem to have come up since we put them up.

Okay, so here's what happens. I let the amps warm up for a few minutes and then flick the standby switch. The Super makes a sound like I bumped it and the reverb went nuts, the Fargen kind of makes a loud POP.

After a minute or so of being on, both of them will start HUMMING, first quiet, then its louder, and louder until it turns into this horrible electronic squeel. This is with no guitar plugged in.

If I plug the guitar in, the noise continues, I can still play through the amps though. BUT, sometimes, if I switch pickups (strat) it POPS really loud for each pickup change. Same thing if I turn pedals on and off, it makes a loud POP. Sometimes it goes away though...this is so frustrating.

Also, before the humming, the amps will both crackle a little, and it sounds like a fan is running through them. A constant *click click click click*.

I tried turning my Vibroverb on, and it makes the same noise as the Super.

The Super was just serviced and brought up to snuff, and the Fargen was new in December.

Any ideas what the problem could be?

I'm going to take the amps over to a friends house to see if the same problem occurs there.

My Furman PF Pro came in today, and it didn't do ****...lol. It told me that all of outlets are running at about 115, and fluctuating to as high as 120 or low as 110 sometimes. Sounds like the AR1215 is needed.


Thanks!

Troy

 

[Laroosco!]

My house sucks for amps. My amps are sually dead quiet but if I plug them in at home they hum like crazy. Nothing like what you describe though.

I'm not ssure about tthe Fargen but I think that the Super is damaged beyond repair. If you'd like I can drive over to your place and pick it up. I will dispose of it for you.

 

[TTrahan]

Originally posted by Laroosco!
My house sucks for amps. My amps are sually dead quiet but if I plug them in at home they hum like crazy. Nothing like what you describe though.

I'm not ssure about tthe Fargen but I think that the Super is damaged beyond repair. If you'd like I can drive over to your place and pick it up. I will dispose of it for you.

Bastard Lawrence,

I was hoping for a serious, informative, answer

I'm sure your Rt.66 would be dead quiet over here. I hear that the Z amps like air conditioned, noisy, humming, robot noise making houses!

 

[Blue Strat]

Have you tried the amps with the air conditioners turned off? They may be causing some of the noises you mentioned. The "click-click-click" sound could very well be noise injected into your power lines by the AC units.

It's unlikely that 2 amps would suddenly develop the same symptoms unless something external was the culprit.

 

[TTrahan]

I found the culprit of the clicking noise. The trem on the super was causing the clicking sound. I turned it off via the footswitch and the noise went away. The amp is still crackling a tad, but it sounds great nonetheless. And Mike, those 5751 I got from you are doing the trick!!

The robot noise from the Fargen was a bad 6v6. I yanked all the 6v6s and put my TAD 6L6 back in and all was well again.

Well, it was a scary last couple of days, but I think I'm back to normal again.

 

[Richard Guy]

Click-click-click could be coming from your PC hard drive or router. I had a similar experience. When I turned off the PC and router, all was well.