The Deluxe Reverb Ocean mod...

[Wil]

Hi everyone,
The title is a little humoristic...
Here's my problem

Deluxe reverb white noise volume & reverb - YouTube!

The amp is very noisy. Lot of white noise.
The Reverb is buzzing, but I suspect the V3 tube to be bad. (12AU7)
I play without V1 and V5 (no need of tremolo), and all noises stop when I pull out V4.
(The amp is modded, but the mod are "safe", the back pot is my NFB variable resistor 25k DPDT, the second input pot is a middle pot)
When I pull out V2, the reverb is still noisy.
The amp is a 1999 DRRI, I changed every single cap in the amp, and the plate resistors with 100k CC 1/2W that I don't trust that much. I'm thinking of changing every preamp tube sockets and the plates resistors.
What can cause such noise ? The amp is playable but that's really annoying.

Thank you in advance for your help!
Have a nice day.

[soundguruman]

The reverb driver is 12AT7 not U7.
The reverb pan may have broken wires or broken springs inside. Take out the pan and check the coils for open circuit.
Also, the reverb cables can be corroded or broken.
Post some pictures. I am not sure which one you have.
If it's been modified, could be anything. Who knows what?
Change all sockets and plate resistors???...you are just randomly guessing. Which usually gets you nowhere....
What causes such noise? Modifications, probably.
If the amp is modified, you can expect problems. For starters, you can put it back to stock -- and go from there.

[Wil]

The reverb driver is 12AT7 not U7.
The reverb pan may have broken wires or broken springs inside. Take out the pan and check the coils for open circuit.
Also, the reverb cables can be corroded or broken.
Post some pictures. I am not sure which one you have.
If it's been modified, could be anything. Who knows what?
Change all sockets and plate resistors???...you are just randomly guessing. Which usually gets you nowhere....
What causes such noise? Modifications, probably.
If the amp is modified, you can expect problems. For starters, you can put it back to stock -- and go from there.

Thanks for the answer!
The mods are "safe".
Vibrato second input pot is a variable resistor for mids which is also DPDT to act like a bright switch, so nothing special.
With pot at the back is a negative feedback resistor control which is SPDT so I can disable it. I don't think those mod can cause such stability issues, it's only making a resistor a variable one.

I play without V1, which is not really a mod and without V5 too because I don't use the vibrato (unbearable because of the white noise).
I'd like to change the sockets because some pins are not stable anymore, because they got soldered and desoldered a couple of times.
It is said plate resistors are often a cause of white noise and I remember, when I swap the CF for CC resistors, I heard some hiss and static pops in the beginning. So I might go with MF resistors.
Reverb and volume make noise even with reverb wires fully unplugged. My old accutronic pan had a broken spring that I resoldered, it changed the sound a little, I also tried with my TAD tank and the buzz still remains.

[soundguruman]

OF COURSE the reverb makes noise when the tank is unplugged.
You have NO input to the reverb return! It's an OPEN WIRE.
YOU have to SHORT the reverb return to ground, to test the noise. (oh boy...)

[Wil]

OF COURSE the reverb makes noise when the tank is unplugged.
You have NO input to the reverb return! It's an OPEN WIRE.
YOU have to SHORT the reverb return to ground, to test the noise. (oh boy...)

Ok for the reverb. But the volume related noises have nothing to do with that because they're also present when V3 is unplugged.

[Wil]

I'll post some picture as soon as I'm home, but regarding the Reverb Driver Tube, some people recommend using a 12au7 to soften the reverb, I liked the "mod" so I kept it in place.

[52 Bill]

Ok for the reverb. But the volume related noises have nothing to do with that because they're also present when V3 is unplugged.

V3 is only used to drive the reverb springs. V4 is the reverb recovery amp as well as the mixer for the vibrato channel.

Turn down the reverb control, what happens to the noise?

[Wil]

V3 is only used to drive the reverb springs. V4 is the reverb recovery amp as well as the mixer for the vibrato channel.

Turn down the reverb control, what happens to the noise?

You can hear all the sounds in my video.
I'm no expert but according to me, there's a ground loop problem. Would a bad tube socket cause that ?
Do you know a website that explain relatively well how to correctly ground a fender Reverb ? I heard about the brass plates, but my DRRI is PCB...

[52 Bill]

I'm no expert but according to me, there's a ground loop problem. Would a bad tube socket cause that ?

I haven't had a chance to check out your video, I'll try and do that.

I can't think of any way that a bad tube socket can cause a ground loop.

[soundguruman]

You can hear all the sounds in my video.
I'm no expert but according to me, there's a ground loop problem. Would a bad tube socket cause that ?
Do you know a website that explain relatively well how to correctly ground a fender Reverb ? I heard about the brass plates, but my DRRI is PCB...

A bad socket does not cause groundloops.
Put the amp back to stock. Now how much noise is happening?

[52 Bill]

It's hard to judge how noisy the amp is from a video, but a few questions are when you changed all of the caps in the amp did you just upgrade the types of caps used or did you alter the cap values as well? Have you tried different tubes for V2 and V4? Is the reverb tank plugged in correctly? Is the output side of the tank mounted as far away from the power transformer as possible?

[Wil]

It's hard to judge how noisy the amp is from a video, but a few questions are when you changed all of the caps in the amp did you just upgrade the types of caps used or did you alter the cap values as well? Have you tried different tubes for V2 and V4? Is the reverb tank plugged in correctly? Is the output side of the tank mounted as far away from the power transformer as possible?

I've changed them to quality Philipps caps, all to the right value, it made the amp come alive! I've swap tubes here and there with what I had, no improvement, but overall changes in the sound. The tank is a brand new TAD one, and the cable are firmly attached, it also does it with my old accutronic tank. The reverb buzz remains even when I short the reverb send to ground.
I remember a long time ago the amp became noisier when I changed the plate resistors to carbon comp ones. I'll switch back to Metal Film ones.

[bkahuna]

It's difficult to tell without some sort of reference, how noisy your amp is in the video, but I'm not hearing anything that's too out of line with what I would expect. Yes, you have a dirty volume pot that crackles when you turn it, but any tube amp cranked at 10 is going to make some noise. Likewise, turning up the reverb usually makes a hum in the output. The transducers in a reverb are electromagnetic pickups, and will pickup hum from your power transformer.

I'm not saying you don't have a problem, just that it's not terribly obvious from the video. Have you compared your amp to another amp like it or similar?

[Wil]

It's difficult to tell without some sort of reference, how noisy your amp is in the video, but I'm not hearing anything that's too out of line with what I would expect. Yes, you have a dirty volume pot that crackles when you turn it, but any tube amp cranked at 10 is going to make some noise. Likewise, turning up the reverb usually makes a hum in the output. The transducers in a reverb are electromagnetic pickups, and will pickup hum from your power transformer.

I'm not saying you don't have a problem, just that it's not terribly obvious from the video. Have you compared your amp to another amp like it or similar?

Thanks for the reply.
One of the problem is, because of the constant white noise, the tremolo is really unusable. Tubes amps are noisy by nature, but neither the Classic 30, the AC30CC1 nor the blues junior I've owned made that much noise. As long as I can't bear it, it's a problem for me, haha. I'm no "dead quite amp" fanatic, but I really believe this one is too noisy.
You can also hear the noise is quite "static" with a variable frequency. Not like a transformer noise which is constant and common in tube amps. You see what I mean ?

[Leo_Gnardo]

wil's baaaaaack !

wil, I can't believe you're still flogging that dead Deluxe. You had the best advice from the best techs right here last September and again in November. You eat up our time, and still don't make any progress.

The only advice I can give, is take it to a competent amp repair shop, and pay the man to get it right. Then stop trying to "improve it."

haha

haha

haha

BASTA! Translate that into Flemish...