Crate V1512 Cracklin, popin, humin...loudly

[D_Rad]

....new to tube amps... so was having some problems with my V1512 making terrible sounds.... first noticed when playing thru- crackling popping humming. especially when tapped/bumped and would make noise when all volume turned down... Did a bit of googling and found usual suspects for this amp were ground lug, input jack, and needing tubes... ground looked fine, jack seemed intact,....

so since it's a used amp new to me figured needed tubes... set of JJ's


worked so put it back together and noises came back....grrr.... with amp on, (yes, I know DANGEROUS!) tapped around first outside of carriage....crackle-pop, then inside with wood dowel and found a highly reactive area to be this pin plug from transformer...


connects onto this


located here


....this part of amp...


....fit was "loose" so thought could tighten the receptacle side to grab pins tighter....popped these out of housing, tightened, but this one broke off while re-inserting .... going to Radio shack to see what I can find to replace blunder.. .


Question is..... do these connections have to be encased in this housing or will some other connection surfice???..... and was I even on the right trail of finding my noise issue???? ....guess will update once connections reconnected....

[Enzo]

The official repair is to get some new Molex KK-156 series pins, clip the busted one off the wire end, crimp on a new one with a proper crimp tool, wwhich I doubt you have, then extract the rest of the broken off pin. Then snap the newly ended wire into the hole of the connector.


But really, note CAREFULLY which wire goes to which pin when the connector is in place. Cut off both wires right at the connector, strip the ends and tin them, and just solder them to the male pins on the board. Don't dawdle with the solder, so you don't heat the pin enough to unsolder it from the board underneath.

[gearhead63]

That connector doesn't HAVE to have the plastic housing. You could solder the wires directly to the pins if you chose to, but then you have to unsolder if you need to disconnect that cable. Or you could install short wires with flat spade connectors so you can disconnect it easy.
Just be sure you get the wires in the correct positions.
On your popping noises, have you plugged a cable into the effects send jack and ran into another amp?
Try that and see if you still have noises.If you do, then connect the cable from the effects send to the effects return jack and see what happens.
If it DOESN'T make noise when running effects out into another amp, then the noise is in the power section.
You can also plug your guitar into the effects return and see what it does (the signal will be very weak though).
If there isn't any noise the the power section is ok.
If it makes noise on both these tests then I would guess possible weak solder joints.
I would check thoroughly before I sprang for a new set of tubes.
My experience though, on ALL Crate amps, is that the solder joints are weak all over.You could have broken solder on your filter caps or any where else (components, connectors, tube sockets etc)!
If you want to rule out the tubes you could substitute one at a time with a known good unit.
But you need to determine if the noises are in the preamp or power amp sections, or if the noise is everywhere.

[D_Rad]

**UPDATE**
made some new connectors using these pin style from the shack....crimped them down, soldered, heat shrink....nice and snug..



....also replaced grounding lug for good measure since it had a thin/frail connector...
....turned amp back on and horrible popping stopped...loose transformer connections it was, but there still is a hum with nothing plugged in or volume turned up...hum increases with volume.... don't know what the background hum would be for this amp tho doesnt seem right.... biggest thing is now the reverb doesn't work and as you turn up the verb a different hum gets louder...????!!!.... help...
Checked all the connections for the verb seem fine and snug.... believe the circuit has an IC chip and not tube driven...could this be bad?.... sounds like a bad ground?/connection ????

....this is bumming me out, played thru this thing for maybe 20mins periodically, worked fine ( bit of background hum), then it started freakin.... definately needed tubes as I re-tried old ones and they made the tell-tale sounds of bad ones when tapped...

... checked the board both sides for bad solder joints and circuit runs under bright light wearing an opti-visor....looked fine..

....seems like something easily overlooked??!!!... any help would be appreciated.

many thanks
Dan

[D_Rad]

....thanks guys for the replies...
this amp doesn't have an effects loop...pretty basic... the solder joints on the speaker (from the spade connects into speaker) look kind of iffy like someone was monkeying around ...will re-flow.... verb hum is present with the tank unplugged from the board so something board-side....bad potentiometer??....guess have to retrace the component/circuits again see if missed something....

[Drewline]

Retension the tube socket pins. Resolder the tube sockets, jacks & controls.