Peavey Renown - gated sound, blasts loud static with heavier picking

[earache]

Hello

I have a Peavey Renown that is exhibiting a gated sound, blasts loud static with heavier picking. It is the Peavey Renown with two 12’s but it’s not a 400 or Solo Series.

Originally it would play at somewhat of a low volume but would distort loudly when I pushed on the front of any knob on the front panel. I thought that perhaps there was a bad solder joint at one of the knobs so I opened it up and soldered all of the pot connections. After that it now exhibits the gated sound as described above.

I have yet to find the correct schematic.

Anyone have a similar experience with this amp?


Thanks in advance!

[Enzo]

You can find any Peavey schematic at Peavey, call customer service there and ask for it.

Isolate the problem, is it preamp or power amp? Plug into the power amp in jack, that bypasses the preamp, Still acting the same? Also, plug into the regular input jack and run a cord from PREAMP OUT to some other amp. Does that sound the same over there?

For that matter plug a cord from preamp out to power amp in jacks, any help?

From experience, check both those jacks for DC. Simple way is to plug a cord into the jack, and measure for DC voltage between tip and sleeve at the other end.

[earache]

Thanks for the speedy reply Enzo!

First, I misspoke when I said it wasn’t a Peavey Solo Series (it is). Two Scorpion twelves, listed as 450 watts on the back panel.

I followed your directions above and here are the results:

Plugged into the power amp in jack, problem no longer evident.
Ran cable to another amp from preamp out with guitar plugged in regular jack, problem reappears.

I had turned this amp on today and there was no problem for about ten minutes. I was almost convinced that the Deoxit had to work a day or two on the jacks or pots... a couple minutes later the problem resurfaced.

The gated, clipped sound comes with harder picking or turning up the amp. Soft strumming usually has no or less effect.

The problem seems worse if I manipulate the lead gain controls which are right next to the input jacks. This was evident before and made me think there was a bad solder connection at those controls or the input jack(s). That’s when I took out the board and resoldered all of the pots.

A couple questions:
Can dirty jacks cause this problem?
How do you change channels on this amp with no footswitch? Might it be trying to change channels on its own and is “stuck” between?

[Enzo]

With no footswitch, both channels should be on, and you select one by turning off the volume on the other.

[earache]

Thanks. Also, there is no DC voltage evident at either “Preamp Out” or “Power Amp In” jacks

[earache]

It is apparent that it is related to the lead gain channel somehow as the normal channel works fine, the Lead channel blasts staticy synthesizer kinda of sounds when turned up.

I’ve requested the schematic from Peavey.

[Enzo]

So the dirt channel has the issue. Check each op amp for DC on an output. I think the four corners of the lone TL074 are all in the clean channel. SO that leaves a small number of 4558s, so pins 1 and 7.