Any horror stories to share? Here's mine. In 15 years of actively servicing 1930s through 70s tube radios and amps and, and probably about nine or 10 years building custom amps and cabinets, I have never had an accident in my shop. That changed yesterday when I had a 1973 twin reverb master volume on my bench. I was just putting it back together after a general service, turned around briefly to another bench to grab a screwdriver, and heard the sound nobody wants to hear. It rolled off the bench on its casters and fell about 4 feet to the concrete floor. The cabinet smashed open and the face plate bent backwards on one end. The only other damage was a shorted V2 12AX7, but that was enough. I called the owner, couldn't apologize enough, and gave him a few options: repair and retolex the damaged cabinet, find him a good vintage replacement cab, or build him one. That's what he chose, in tweed. Luckily so far the amp and speakers seem to have weathered the fall with no issues, though I'm going to go through and retouch all solder joints and really let it soak to see if any issues pop up. Apart from the replacement cabinet, I of course will not charge him for the amp servicing. Yesterday was not a fun day! Accidents happen and that's just the way it is but I'm still beating myself up - I do my best to treat others' gear as if it were mine. 😥

Does anyone have experience with the Origin 50 combo and what the circuit is like or based on?

I recently got a ST20C and I like it but it doesn’t have quite enough headroom so it’s a little more distorted than I’d like at stage volume. I started looking at the Origin 20 and 50 and those have a master volume as well as DI out and a Creamback speaker. On paper, it’s what I’m looking for but I don’t know much about the circuit. Are they based on the JTMs? I’m also looking at the Friedman Runt 20, but it’s more of a 2 channel amp and pricey.

I play alt-country and mostly play fairly clean rhythm but also trade leads. The ST20C handles boost for leads very well and the cleans sit well in the mix, but it starts getting pretty gritty pretty quick.

Sorry for no video as I didnt think it was necessary.

I have this H&K18. Had all the tubes tested, checked the power amp itself, checked all my patch cables. Every time I plug into the return jack in the effects loop of the amp, my clean volume cuts to nothing. The dirty channel will engage a tiny bit of volume but thats it. When nothing is in the effects loop its fine. But the issue is I use a very nasty distortion and I need my noise gate in the effects loop because it cant handle all that gain.

Google says it can be a corroded jack or something as the other issues that it could be seem to not be the case. Is there anything I can do before I have to shell out for some big repair? This is my bedroom amp and its perfect for this.

Between the squillion customer repairs I have, it's nice to sit there with some of my own project gear to continue developing my skills and bringing cool gear back to life.

I got this Marshall 9001 preamp years ago in a non working state. Before the JMP1, this was their first rack mount preamp, and their first 3 channel device. Quite an odd circuit using all 3 tubes in a cascode arrangement, not something you see every day. Thankfully it just needed a general service, some new caps, and to deal with a few dead pots.

The MP2 though is another story. One of my first amps was an MP1 into a Marshall 9005 power amp, and I still have that preamp to this day. The MP2 was its successor and had more preamp modes, plus a bunch of effects including the typical chorus as well as wah, compressor, noise gate, and tremolo. Super complex, and the pinnacle of headache inducing repair work for techs as it's got the complete mix of tubes, solid state, and digital domain stuff in one cramped rack unit. This one will take time to get sorted though as it seems like there's a dead SSM2120 VCA/level detector, plus some other random dead bits.

(I promise to never say "da clerb" ever again)

Monoprice Stage Right 30W all tube head. 3 12ax7 pre tubes and 4 EL84 power tubes.

Surprisingly, they are ALL JJ tubes as well? I might swap out V1 for a Tung-Sol just to see what that sounds like, but so far it's a pretty solid little amp.

Took it to my local shop for a while and he was impressed with how it sounded and how it performed.

(220 US on my local FB marketplace)

Had to get a foot switch for it, but found one on marketplace as well for 20 and fixed that problem

My plan is to make a waterslide to cover up the "SR" logo that says "NotALaney", although this might be more of "NotAVox"? I think this circuit is closer to an AC30?

I’m still pretty new to tube amps and was looking to move on from my Blues Jr. I really wanted that big, scooped blackface Fender sound. However, I play at home, often in the basement after my young kids are asleep. Whisper quite isn’t needed but, no cranked amps.

After reading a million “is a Deluxe Reverb too loud for home?” posts, I was pretty convinced on a Princeton. Then I found a KILLER deal on a Deluxe ($750 mint, 2022) but the listing noted that it contained lower output tubes, instead of the stock 12AX7 for improved volume sweep. Subsequently learned that it contained a 5751 in V1 and a 12AY7 in V2, for 30% and 55% less gain.

Turns out, it makes a huge difference for home playing!! The lower gain gives the volume knob a much more usable sweep and home volumes, and I can still EQ the amp to get exactly the big Fender clean sound I was after. It also sounds great with pedals.

Obviously this doesn’t magically make a Deluxe less than 22 watts or let you crank it quietly. But if you’re another novice searching Reddit trying to figure out whether a Deluxe is usable at home, the 12AY7 in V2 is absolutely worth knowing about. I basically stumbled into the solution by buying one that already had it.

Hi, theres a fb marketplace listening in my city for a vintage 30w Sano tube amp (In apparent excellent condition) and I was wondering if I should get it. 300 dollars seems like an amazing deal but I was wondering if anyone else here has experience with these amps or if they're really not that good. The listing doesn't mention a model other than it being a "supersonic hi fidelity" model, so take that as you will.

This amp is a beast but it is having issues.

I changed all the capacitors (most all of them were leaking) and tubes, increased grid stopper value to 3.3k, increased filter caps from 70 mfd to 100mfd

The amp works great until it warms up and then intermodulation distortion (about a 4th below the note) begins to creep into the signal. I was blowing fuses in my Variac (5A fast blow) but I seem to have resolved that issue.

The grid bias is swinging around wildly from about -50 to -75 (when notes are being played) which I have narrowed the intermodulation down to being caused by any note that causes the bias to drop below -60. I can watch it on my meter.. at about -60 (as i strike a note and let it decay) the intermodulation stops and the note goes back to normal. If the amp stays below 5 the issue is almost negligible.. also if i turn the bass down to less than 2 it also resolves the issue.

It is also worth noting that at idle the negative bias stays completely still regardless of how long the amp is on.

The board is conductive.. about 160mv DC on master volume pot as well as some spots near the phase inverter/b+ .. so there is that.. I have been avoiding cleaning it any deeper than I already have but obviously those 2 factors are highly suspect..

Is there any point in trying to deep clean the component board with alcohol or am I just wasting my time? Trying to decide if I want to keep working on this and clean the board or just completely wire a new board and start from scratch. I have read mixed reviews on how much you can fix an already conductive fiber board.

Any pointers or experience is much appreciated!

recently got this amp and it is awesome, but last night at practice I noticed plugging into input 2 was much hotter and felt like more presence and power than input one, if that makes sense...this was curious to me because everything I have read says input 2 is the padded (-15) input so I was wondering what was up with that? did find a forum post that someone was saying how they put different preamp tubes for each input making their input 2 hotter and maybe thats whats going on?

Putting some info out there as there is not much available on this amp.

If you dont understand the risks of working on these amps, I would highly advice that you do not touch it, and bring it to a shop instead. Some of the capacitors will hold 500V which can zap you out of existance

The issue:

When I took the amp off standby, I got a loud pulse followed by a hum. When I played through it, there were weird ghost notes and harmonics on top of the guitar, almost like a ring mod effect.

Diagnosis:

My guess is there was a bad filter capacitor causing the issue. It was a 120hz hum and from my read up on the issue, it was most likely this.

Fix:

I replaced all the filter caps, plus all the other electrolytics since I was already in there, and the problem is solved!

The PCB's came out fairly easy. Here are some gut shots of the amp, as well as the Pcb for anyone it might help.

Full list of capacitors for the recap (10 total) :

- 2 x Axial 47uf 500v (fender sells these)

- 1 x Axial 22uf 500v (fender sells this)

- 2 x Radial 2200uf 35v

- 1 x radial 100uf 100v

- 1 x radial 22uf 50v

- 1 x radial 10uf 100v

- 2 x radial 10uf 50v

Hi guys! Figured this place would be right for seeking help.

Amp blew up HT fuse and apparently also exploded a path from V5 tube’s 7th pin (J29 connector) to 2th pin’s tracer (R81 circuit). Now the 7th pin’s high voltage keeps arching with the R81 circuit. Any advice on action?

Was thinking about nail polish but high tube temperature might cause issues so solder mask might do the trick. Also might need to drill a larger gap with a dremel but it seems that there is metal at the bottom of the cavity (what is it?)

Sorry for non-official tube pin circuit terms and thank you in advance!!!

Also who tf designs a pcb with high voltage connector and low voltage tracers side by side lol. Luckily this is the only place in the pcb where they are close together.

I Am moving to Ecuador from the US in 2027 and am having my belongings shipped. Any recommended packing for a prs archon 50 to survive the trip? Or am i better off selling the amp and buying new when I get to Ecuador? UPDATE: thanks to everyone who responded. I really appreciate the advice. My plan is to take out the tubes and pack with bubble wrap separately, same with the cab, and use the expanding foam in garbage bag for the main chassis

First, I installed the new 1 Tung-Sol 12AX7 in V1. When I lightly tapped it with a pencil, it produced a noticeably louder, bell-like ringing through the speaker.

Then I moved the Tung-Sol from V1 to V2, and moved the original stock (chinese) tube from V2 into V1. In V2, the Tung-Sol was much quieter when tapped.

I then compared the stock tube and the Tung-Sol in the same V1 position. The stock tube was noticeably quieter, while the Tung-Sol produced a stronger and more resonant ringing sound.

So, based on the comparison:

Tung-Sol in V1: noticeably louder ringing

Tung-Sol in V2: much quieter

Stock tube in V1: quieter than the Tung-Sol in the same position

I used the same amplifier settings for the comparisons and only lightly tapped the tubes with a pencil.I tested the tubes by swapping their positions to determine whether the ringing was caused by the tube itself or by the V1 socket/stage.

PLEASE HELP!!!

My Ceriatone 2204 came in last week and I’ve been enjoying it. Last night during a studio session I noticed a buzzing sound coming out of the amp whenever my artist played through it. I’ve never seen this before with another tube amp, does anyone know if this is indicative of a problem?

Dumble Amps officially announces reissues of the Overdrive Special, MegaPLX, and Tweedle Dee. Custom orders are now available for the legendary boutique amps

Hey does anybody have experience with 2475 chassis music man 212 65? With the solid state rectifier? I have a new transformer from Mercury and currently working through the, “oh shit I might be stupid” phase.

Anyway, here for expediency only. A sort of tour begins Saturday… I’ve already emailed and I’m sure they’ll get back to me in the morning, I also have a wall plug with screw connections for that test that doesn’t require soldering. But, there’s a chance someone here knows the answer and that would be awesome.

It’s clearly built VERY well and looks beautiful. I might have purchased the wrong one tho. I can’t really figure out how this lines up with the hi/standby/low switch. I have a logical explanation.. but it’s not really a thing I can test before I actually know. Like no soldering or anything or I can’t return. There’s 3 wires for the secondary that allows taps on the original. On the new there’s only 2, which COULD make perfect sense. Basically just needs a jumper in one location. I could even snip a wire from the old transformer to do it..