What makes funny noises like this...

[Ptron]

...in a solid state amp. This is the second SS amp I've dealt with recently that's made similar noises. Similar to a tube dying but not as violently loud. The first was a bandmates Silvertone. This is a Wulitzer model 200A electric piano. This is direct out from the pickup preamp.

Couple thing to note about the clip:

-Ignore the buzz. It's not that bad. The noise was fairly quiet when I recorded the clip so I had to turn it way up. The noise gets a little louder at times.

-The squeel at the begining is not as typical as the sputtering and static towards the end

I've just come back to work on this after a few weeks and now the sound is not happening so it's a little hard to figure out what was causing it. When it was still going on, I tried moving wires around and poking at components but it didn't appear to affect anything. It was a little hard to tell though as the kind of goes in and out anyway.

[Satamax]

Typical of amps picking up the radio, check input jacks!

[Ptron]

Typical of amps picking up the radio, check input jacks!

Really? That's interesting. I guess it does sound somewhat like the noise you sometimes get in between stations (Isn't that supposed to be solar or cosmic radiation or some crazy shit like that). I've heard amps pick up radio radio before, (it's always the local mexican radio station here, suddenly someone's amp will start speaking spanish!) but not these weird noises. The 200A doesn't have input jacks but I get the idea. Next time it happens I'll try puting a cap across the pickup output and see if it goes away.

I should have noted that this keyboard recently had a total PA meltdown where I ended up replacing all the silicon, as well as a few resistors to be safe. The noise appeared immediately after I fixed it. Could be coincidental or have some thing to do with something getting moved around.

Also, The PA wasn't then, and isn't now, hooked up to anything. The previous owner disconnected the PA and ran the preamp directly to an aux out. The power supply may have been abused by the PA failure though.

[Ptron]

Ya know, the noise just ain't happening any more so maybe it was picking up alien signals. I turned it on 5 or 6 times over the course of several weeks and there the noise was, every time. Then I go to work on it and it's gone and won't come back. It hasn't moved. The Aliens must have left our solar system.