Peavey Delta Blues - is this right?

[Fusionshred]

Howdy!

I just got a new PEavey Delta Blues and I think I like it a lot. However, if anyone has experience with these, can you please help me identify whether some things I am experiencing are normal or not?

1) The amp buzzes. When I turn it on, and it warms up, even with the volume all the way down (guitar plugged in or not) there is a buzz that sounds kind of like 60 cycle hum. It doesn't get any louder or softer with volume knob adjustments.

2) When I power down, after a few seconds after turning the amp off, there is a "pop." I've heard this type of noise in solid state amps but as far as I can recall, never in a tube amp.

Are these things normal? BTW, the amp is plugged into the same place I usually plug into.

Thanks!
Tom

 

[ukslinger]

Mine pops with powering on/off. No standby switch with kinda sucks but its nothing really to worry about. But I play it at church so the pop is mildly annoying at times. I'm guessing this is very normal.

Not sure about the hum. Might check tubes. Or you might try it in different outlets in your house. Maybe away from appliances, tv's, lights, ect...

Someone once told me to get one of those three prong plug adaptors that accepts a 3 prong and goes into a 2 prong space. Said it helps ground it and avoid hum. Mine's not that bad so its not a concern. But like switching outlets its cheap and quick.

 

[dcg810]

I used to own a Delta Blues 2x10, and I'm pretty sure I experienced both of those things that you described. Never really figured out what was causing the hum, it would kinda come and go over time, but eventually it just stopped happening altogether. The amp was much nicer without that hum going on. I wouldn't have been surprised if it randomly came back at some point though. The pop also didn't happen too often for me either, but I do know what you're talking about.

Sorry, I know this is not really much help, other than letting you know that it's not just your amp that does that stuff. I would say, however, that the amp can be run without either of those issues, as mine did for an extended period of time. I just don't know how to fix them. Hopefully someone else around here who is more knowledgeable about amps can help figure out the cause.

 

[Fusionshred]

I had a TV that was having funky interference on the screen on every channel and I happened to put one of those orange three prong adapters on the plug and it took care of it. Never understood why. I'll try that. It's a brand new amp and if I had to I could exchange it for another one, but I don't want to do that if it's not broken, but i DO want to do that if it's not right.

Any other opinions?

 

[samdjr74]

My DB 115 pops as well when you turn it off but if you turn off the reverb first the pop goes away. As far as the hum, not on mine, it's pretty quiet

 

[dconeill]

Re the hum, what amps are you used to? Tube amps as a group hum more than solid state amps. Every tube amp I've ever had has had a residual hum that I could always hear if things were quiet, even if nothing was plugged in. This is usually not audible in a playing situation, but is very audible at home. You might check the quality-of-ground in your electrical circuits - there are testers available at most hardware stores.

The Ebtech Hum-X is said by some to be effective at reducing hum, but I haven't tried it.

The popping is probably some power supply capacitor discharging. If it's not really loud I wouldn't worry too much about it.

 

[Fusionshred]

Hey thanks! The popping is not excessively loud - and no louder than I've heard on a few other amps (mostly solid state ones).

I've had many amps - and many tube amps, so I'm pretty familiar with normal amp hum. This is louder, like when you have a cable plugged into the amp and not plugged into a guitar at th other end and you touch the tip, or like when you play single coils near a flourescent light. The hum occurs with no cable plugged in, and even with the volume at zero, on the clean channel, with the boost off, and with the reverb down.

I have to mess around with the settings to see if there are parameters that control it or exacerbate it. I'll also try a power adapter and plugging in elsewhere in case it's unusually sensitive to the AC supply. But this is the same outlet I plug other tube amps into with no issues.

 

[ugameus]

Did you buy it at a store? Did it hum there? Can you take it to another location to see if it hums there? Do you have another tube amp to compare it to?

 

[dconeill]

Just offhand that sounds like a problem. I'd have it looked at, or if it's new and you can, return it as unsatisfactory.

 

[Fusionshred]

Thanks folks! Got it at MF, so I have 45 days to figure it out. Just don't want the hassle of exchanging if not really necessary. It doesn't seem so bad now, and it does decrease when the reverb is off, which I understand is an issue with some of these ( reverb hum). So I'll play around with it and if it's intolerable I'll exchange it.

Thanks!