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My amp is a modded Crate V18, and it seems to be making strange noises for no apparent reason... Either when the volume is above 7, or when I play certain notes, this strange squealing oscillation will start. You can unplug the cord from it, and it'll still make the noise and won't go away. It's not from any pedals or from my guitar, it's from the amp itself. You don't even need to have a cable plugged in, just turn it up aroun 7 and boom, there it its. Are there some bad tubes, or what? Thank you in advance.

My first port of call with any strange oscillation is... the Electrolytic Capacitors might have gone bad, check them for swelling or leaking.

Have you checked for any bad solder joints though or anything? Is the ground connected properly, are the tubes glowing the right colour not red or anything and if you have spares of course try replacing them.

Maybe I should just bring it to an amp tech, and see what they think... I don't want to kill myself by doing something wrong. How much do they charge, just to take a look at your amp?

Yeah, it's a bit deadly in there...

Price wise for a tech, that'll be for someone in the U.S that knows to tell you, couldn't comment myself.

What is your reverb setting?

Turn it off with the foot switch, does the howling go away?

The tanks can do this, the transducers like pickups get microphonic and interact with the speakers.
Makes neat noises, but not very musical.

MM

metalmariachi wrote:What is your reverb setting?

Turn it off with the foot switch, does the howling go away?

The tanks can do this, the transducers like pickups get microphonic and interact with the speakers.
Makes neat noises, but not very musical.

MM

No, it's not from the reverb, I thought the same thing at first, but I then turned the reverb all the way down and unplugged it and took the tank out completely from the amp and it still makes the noise.

Is it possible it's just loose tubes? I took it over to my friends house a couple weeks ago, and the roads around here are.. well, crap.

If the roads are crap any number of things could have come loose, from components to leads to joints to... well you get the idea, can you not just try removing and re-inserting the tubes to answer your question? Who knows, it could be that.

Scruffie wrote:If the roads are crap any number of things could have come loose, from components to leads to joints to... well you get the idea, can you not just try removing and re-inserting the tubes to answer your question? Who knows, it could be that.

I dunno, I just took a quick glance and they looked pretty loose.. Like the pins were hardly sticking in there...

Brought it to a local amp tech, he said it was something to do with a microphonic tube or something... I don't remember exactly because with the illness I have right now, I kept drifting in and out of reality....

Blurillaz wrote:Brought it to a local amp tech, he said it was something to do with a microphonic tube or something... I don't remember exactly because with the illness I have right now, I kept drifting in and out of reality....

Ah microphonic tube makes sense, easy fix atleast, glad you found out the source of the problem and hope it wasn't too expensive.
Hope your illness dissapates quickly

Scruffie wrote:

Blurillaz wrote:Brought it to a local amp tech, he said it was something to do with a microphonic tube or something... I don't remember exactly because with the illness I have right now, I kept drifting in and out of reality....

Ah microphonic tube makes sense, easy fix atleast, glad you found out the source of the problem and hope it wasn't too expensive.
Hope your illness dissapates quickly

yeah, it's just $65 plus whatever the tube costs, so it should be around $95. I don't know how tha tcompares to other amp techs, but hey, he's the only one in duluth. Well, besides the guy who makes new vintage amps, but he only fixes his close friends amps....