Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum

Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: Dakine on August 09, 2006, 06:00:17 PM

Title: Valve Amp Question
Post by: Dakine on August 09, 2006, 06:00:17 PM

OK, very busy/tired here (still lots going on after father's passing and mum has been ill too) so need some advice.
Was playing earlier and amp made a kinda 'pop' and the 4th gain channel now seems iffy.
It is a 50w ENGL Screamer head.
Basically 4 channels.
Now the fourth button which turns on 'clean lead' always acted as the 'gain/boost' channel with MEGA distortion and volume when depressed. Well now I can still hear distortion but the volume actually decreases measurably when it is activated/depressed.
This is my first valve amp and am busy/tired (as already mentioned). Any clues? Has a valve/valves given up? It is not old but bought it second hand (was told previous owner bought it new bout 4 months before I bought it). Basically just wondering what is/could be before have to take it to shop.
Thanks,
Nick

Title: Valve Amp Question
Post by: maliciousteve on August 09, 2006, 06:20:31 PM

A similar thing happened to me when i was testing a screamer combo. I was just playing about and all of a sudden i get no sound what so ever. Changed the tubes etc but still it was buggered. I never knew what it was in the end but i've heard that weird problems like this have happened to alot of the ENGL range. Including the SE, which a member from the band Fell Silent uses and he has had to take it back to ENGL over and over to fix the problem.

Title: Valve Amp Question
Post by: HTH AMPS on August 09, 2006, 08:28:08 PM

if the switch isn't doing what it's supposed to then I'd guess that the relay it controls is duff.  shouldn't be too much to figure out by a half-decent tech.  the main trouble with modern amps is how much cr@p they cram on the pcbs and having to dismantle half of the amp to get to anything (pcb-mounted pot rant over).

 :twisted:

Title: Valve Amp Question
Post by: Dakine on August 10, 2006, 03:25:31 PM

Umm, ok.
So, don't think a specific valve may have gone then?

Title: Valve Amp Question
Post by: dave_mc on August 10, 2006, 04:12:25 PM

^ it depends. is it the high gain versions of both the clean channel and the lead channel that sound cr@ppy?

Title: Valve Amp Question
Post by: HTH AMPS on August 10, 2006, 06:07:08 PM

Quote from: Dakine

Umm, ok.
So, don't think a specific valve may have gone then?

when a specific function is not working on an amp it's generally not valve related. take it to a tech is my advice.

 :twisted:

Title: Valve Amp Question
Post by: Dakine on August 10, 2006, 10:22:54 PM

Bit of a 'need to know how stuff works' kinda guy (tis my nature,can get me in trouble,why worked with Police in Texas 'good guy btw'). Anyway, got it working again :)
German well made in fact. Good stuff, long as it behaves now :)

Title: Valve Amp Question
Post by: HTH AMPS on August 10, 2006, 10:35:49 PM

so what was wrong - what did you do to fix it? was it an intermittent problem that has fixed itself?

 :twisted:

Title: Valve Amp Question
Post by: Dakine on August 10, 2006, 10:41:30 PM

Thing is sooooooooo brutal it had a bad electrical connection (distorted itself loose), plug connection. To be fair it has been moved around and had a slight knock. Anyway, brutality returns :)

Title: Valve Amp Question
Post by: dave_mc on August 11, 2006, 04:58:54 PM

^ awesome, glad it's worked itself right, nick. \m/