Silverface Vibrolux tremolo ticking noise

[AmpRX]

Anybody have previous experience with this before I start troubleshooting? Thanks! Mitch

[AmpRX]

I found the answer on the web. In case you ever experience this:

The ticking sound can be cured. Here's how you'd do it on an older amp:

"Ticking" Vibrato
Fiberboard contamination: Dust, dirt, and junk can let the LFO signal leak into the audio path. Vacuum the dust and dirt away.

Solder blobs from eyelets touching insulating board: Sometimes excess solder drips out the bottom of an eyelet and can intermittetly contact the insulating board, can cause ticking. Remelt the eyelets and examine the board underneath for any blobs dripped down.

Funny ground on some SF Fenders; On one of the signal tubes, the cathode cap was placed on the tube socket, and wired to a ground lug on the vibrato cancel jack instead of across the resistor on the fiberboard. The vibrato shares this ground line, and can the vibrato current can cause audible ticking in the audio path. Rewire the cap to another ground or relocate it to the board.

Poor Signal wire layout: signal wires run too close to vibrato leads can pick up the LFO signal. Move them around and see if the ticking goes away.

Bad repair/replacement foot switch cable: the Fender footswitch cable is not two conductor; it's single conductor shielded, plus single conductor. The reverb wire is shielded, vibrato wire is not. This keeps vibrato out of reverb. If you retrofit with two conductor shielded, you get vibrato ticking onto reverb audio.

Sharp tick in vibrato oscillator: On neon/LDR Fenders, on the neon bulb side of the module there is a 10M to one side of bulb, 100K to the bulb; from the 10M straight across the board is the gnd point of the LDR. Put a 0.02 cap from 10M/bulb to the ground point; this works by filtering the output of the oscillator.

[Brad1]

Solder blobs from eyelets touching insulating board:

That seems odd, since an insulator is supposed to be non-conductive, and its purpose is to allow possible contact of electricity, while keeping things from shorting together. I suppose, though, that it could be a problem if the board was contaminated with something conductive, so it may be a problem 'in conjuction' with that? Or, I guess "the blob" could be too close to another point, picking up interference?

Brad1

[Enzo]

Search "conductive eyelet board" and similar things. We have discussed it various times. Yes, those boards can indeed get contaminated and conductive.

First thing I would do is look at the trem tube, and dress its wires away from the wires of the adjacent tubes.

[AmpRX]

Thanks Enzo!

[Fee]

One quick fix can be to simply try a lower gain tube in the tremolo position before going on to all the other stuff people are getting into. eg. don't use a JJ in that spot, try a chinese 12ax7 or one that you know is less powerful. A 5751 has less gain for instance. Even a very tired tube could do. This might do it for you, depending on how critical this is to you. Best wishes......

[Enzo]

Careful doing that, one side of the tube is the oscillator, and a lowr gain tube may not want to oscillate. Generally it is the drive side of the tube that makes noise.

[Fee]

Point taken, but for those that were just ticking slightly I've had very good results simply using lower gain tubes. For most guys this is worth trying before you rebuild the tremolo circuit and then find that it's still ticking. Some of these amps just "want to tick" !

[AmpRX]

It's a friend's amp. I would rather solve the problem in case he or someone else puts a higher gain tube at a later date. But I'll keep a 5751 in the bag for insurance...........

[Fee]

Ok - then try a .1mfd 600v cap from the bottom left side of the opto coupler (the hot side closest to the tubes at the 10meg) attach the other side to ground (you could use the top left side of the opto coupler) this does it most of the time. If not replace the opto coupler first then go through the trem circuit if need be. Best wishes.......

[Enzo]

Please, before anyone replaces anything... just try moving the darn wires.

[Zouto]

Well, I found this cure to remove the ticking
David Lamkins - Guitarist - Even better Vibro-King "Ticking Tremolo" fix
but it also needs some moving of the wires.

[Fee]

that's a very creative fix, the ticking in the Vibro King (in the earlier version) was horrible. Probably worse than anything in your seventies Vibrolux. Have you done the repair that way yet? Curious to hear how it works out. Best......

[Zouto]

Yeah, I modded a SF Deluxe Reverb and a SF Twin 135W that way with good results. For the Twin I also had to replace the somehow molten LDR, but I'm not quite sure, what type I used.So you've got to try some for the best smooth trem sound. You can also experiment with different colored LEDs.
Zouto

[AmpRX]

Haven't tried to fix the Virbolux yet since it is a couple of hours away. I'll probably get to it in a week or so.