ampage Tube Amps / Music Electronics	For current discussions, please visit Music Electronics Forum.

ampage archive

Vintage threads from the first ten years

Crackling Noise

:

6/9/2005 8:17 PM

Crackling Noise

Which direction should I look for the source of a crackling noise that occurs when the amp (my Mission 5E3) is overdriven?

The noise is a little like the sound of paper being crumpled, or the sound that suction thing the dentist uses when they vacuum out your spit.

It's not prominent, and the noise occurs after the attack of the note, during the decay. The tone of the amp otherwise is very nice, very detailed. If you had the amp running full bore, it might just sound like a roughness in the distortion, but when you're on the edge of clean and dirty, it's much more noticable.

-W-

6/9/2005 10:12 PM
Dai Hirokawa	could be an oscillation. I don't know if yours is caused by the same thing, but I had the same phenomenon when I had a filter cap ground in the wrong place. After I moved it, it went away. Sort of mosquito-sounding as the note decays.

6/9/2005 10:26 PM

This isn't fizzy or mosquito-like though. I've heard that sound before, and that's like a dissonant higher-pitched buzz. This is more akin to clipping, but not quite as harsh.

Just for S&G I checked and saw I was using a JJ ECC83S in the V2 position, so I swapped in a JAN GE 5751. More headroom, which is nice (I used to hit rich overdrive at *2*) and I think I'm liking the tone better, but it's too late to crank it up and see tonight.

I did read the thread on the OT -- this one has the Mojo OT, and although it's a similar sound, it's more fuzz than fizz.

If it keeps up, I'll record a sample.

-W-

6/10/2005 10:29 AM
aaron	dude! paper being crumbled! tell me about it. I'm betting its the same problem I've got.

6/10/2005 10:29 AM
aaron	obviously i have no solution.

6/10/2005 11:57 AM
G-Mo	Sounds similar to mine. check earlier thread - mystery noise - ghost in the works. One thing I've noticed is my power tubes seem to slip a bit from the socket. I push them back in flush against the socket and that seems to help. I'm ordering some tube clips from Bruce. I'm still not convinced that's the source of the problem.

6/10/2005 8:42 PM
Dale	I had a similar noise in my homebuilt (not by me I have no talent). It turned out to be the chas. was resonanting with the note. It would go away when I pressed slightly onthe chas. when I played. I used some sound deadening on the chas and it seems to have vanished. Dale

Page 1 of 3