Its Good To Have A Backup:

Inspector #20

Inspector #20

Ambassador of Tone
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So, my 1993 Marshall Bi-Chorus 200 has been covered in my home studio (unplugged) for the past couple of weeks. Yesterday was a live rehearsal at the venue and when I switched on the amp (here at home) just for testing (good thing) I was met by a loud rustling noise that was not present last performance with the amp.


Interestingly, the amp plays fine and all functions are working, but the noise is a sure indication of a problem.

I had just cleaned all the pots and switches with DeOxit back in December and fitted a new JJ ECC83S preamp tube.

Fortunately, I grabbed my Marshall MG100HFX back up head (Thanks @STU ) and everything went off flawlessly.

I suppose it's no one's fault but my own for trying to run an old vintage amplifier and actually take it out and perform with it...But I certainly do like how it sounds and ot has some really cool features.

When I get time, I'll follow some advice from @ampmadscientist and see what turns up. Of course I'm hoping, yet doubtful, that this is just a bad, brand new tube, but I suppose we shall see.....
 
Sounds like interference to me, for whatever that's worth. I had some bad noise like that a couple summers ago when the power company was fixing some lines out here. As a stop gap, i got some ferrite clamp on magnets and it shut the hissing down to nearly zero. These days however, the lines have been fixed and i dont get any hiss without the magnets. Go figure
 
STU said:
I think your assumption is correct, that to me sounds like some electrical interference. Thats weird ?
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Clockworkmike said:
Sounds like interference to me, for whatever that's worth. I had some bad noise like that a couple summers ago when the power company was fixing some lines out here. As a stop gap, i got some ferrite clamp on magnets and it shut the hissing down to nearly zero. These days however, the lines have been fixed and i dont get any hiss without the magnets. Go figure
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I plugged in the MG100HFX right after the video and it was unaffected!!!!
 
Iron1 said:
Definitely good to have a back up! Do you also have a modeler of some sort to back up your back up?
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Nope.

My primary back up (before getting the MG100HFX) was a 1999 Marshall MG50 Solid State 1x12 amp that I bought brand new in 1999.

I still have it and it's still gig-worthy.

This was a close call with my Valvestate dying 7 days before a huge live event with 80,000 in the stadium.
 
Robert Herndon said:
I plugged in the MG100HFX right after the video and it was unaffected!!!!
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Hmm, that's a wrench in finding the cause then. Far beyond my capabilities in pinpointing the issue unfortunately, but there's clearly the right people here to help lol

A few easy things you might try in the mean time if you got them just to rule out other things? Try to swap the preamp tubes around and see what happens( even new ones can go kaput on their own for no apparent reason) and to try a different power cord for the sake of checking a bad connection there
 
Ok,

Here's a recording I made today, but I still can't quite seem to capture what I am hearing with my ears, plus there's anomalies with Soundcloud and YouTube and such...

I tried recording this with a sm-57, but it wasn't nearly as dynamic as the two peavey PVM-328's, which have become our go too microphones for everything. This is my MG100HFX through my 2x12 cabinet with a apir of "backup" Celestion 70/80's while waiting for the replacement Copperback 250's from Celestion in England.

The amp was miked from 3 feet with a pair of Peavey PVM-328's running through an old Steinberg interface. Each mic is dedicated to the left and right channels independently. When used in this configuration, there is a slight delay, less than 100ms, between the two microphones. This effect is most noticeable on vocals...

Again, I wish you could hear what I'm hearing with my ears...

https://soundcloud.com/id%3Drobert-h-herndon%252Fmarshall-mg100hfx-two-mikes-left-right-from-3-fee-tst%252Fs-mxL7gfOBY13%3Bsecret_token%3Ds-mxL7gfOBY13%3Btrack_id%3D1219687669

@STU
 
Clockworkmike said:
Hmm, that's a wrench in finding the cause then. Far beyond my capabilities in pinpointing the issue unfortunately, but there's clearly the right people here to help lol

A few easy things you might try in the mean time if you got them just to rule out other things? Try to swap the preamp tubes around and see what happens( even new ones can go kaput on their own for no apparent reason) and to try a different power cord for the sake of checking a bad connection there
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A tube swap is planned...
 
Robert Herndon said:
Nope.

My primary back up (before getting the MG100HFX) was a 1999 Marshall MG50 Solid State 1x12 amp that I bought brand new in 1999.

I still have it and it's still gig-worthy.

This was a close call with my Valvestate dying 7 days before a huge live event with 80,000 in the stadium.
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Well, that sounds like a perfectly good excuse to go buy yourself a Helix, Fractal or Kemper if you ask me. Since you do so well with your vintage tube rigs, a Kemper would allow you to profile them and always have those tones on tap.
 
Iron1 said:
Well, that sounds like a perfectly good excuse to go buy yourself a Helix, Fractal or Kemper if you ask me. Since you do so well with your vintage tube rigs, a Kemper would allow you to profile them and always have those tones on tap.
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I've tried them and they have merit. But, I've tried to perform with unfamiliar equipment (quite recently I tried a Mesa Fillmore) and I don't want anything with a learning curve, so I will probably stick with a hand-wired, re-issued (brand new) Marshall 100 watt Plexi.
 
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