Last night I was playing my Ceriatone Chupacabra through a new guitar (humbuckers), and I was getting a lot of feedback. My amp gain was cranked really high and I was getting a bit of feedback.
When you say "feedback" do you mean note feedback, i.e. when you stop playing does it stop? Or is the feedback unrelated to the notes played, i.e. does it continue when you mute the strings? Does it continue when you turn down the guitar volume?
The Chupacabra is an amp with relatively high gain. Feedback may have a lot of reasons:
- it may be the pickups being microphonic - do they have covers? Try another guitar at the same volume and see if it persists.
- a tube may be microphonic. The most likely suspect is the tube in the V1 position because any noise generated in the first stage of the amp will be amplified many times, especially in a high gain amp.
Also I noticed a faint smell. Not a burning smell, just a smell of heat.
Tubes do get hot, especially when they have to work hard in a cranked amp. A faint smell is not necessarily a problem sign. One of my homebuilt amps does that, too. I have played it on several gigs without any problems. Watch out however for
- redplating tubes
- loud hum
- the faceplate getting too hot to touch.
Cheers Stephan
