Peavey Deuce VT, Strange issues?

[Robgil]

Hi Guys, I picked up a Peavey Deuce VT last week end, its got some strange issues, Ive been asking about it on a couple of other forums and the guys on TDPRI directed me here. This is what has been happening.

Peavey Mace / Deuce / Classic? - Amps Discussions on theFretBoard

Peavey Deuce VT? | Telecaster Guitar Forum

Now the last time I played through it, a few nights ago, it seemed to work fine for the whole session, this leads me to believe it may have been something not making contact properly (we can rule out PA In as I bypassed this) but I am no expert, all the pots seem to work fine, no crackles from them and all sweep smoothly.


I have not had a chance to crank the amp yet so I have no idea how it performs when running loud but I will do soon.


One more thing I did notice was a whistle noise when the reverb is on, it stops if the dial is around 9 o'clock, I cant remember if it gets louder as you apply more reverb. All the caps look fine, nothing burnt or leaking, the pcb's all look clean, inside the reverb tank is spotless.

The amp was stored apparently unused in a garage for ten years so corrosion may be a problem?


Any ideas guys?

[The Dude]

Welcome to the place!
My bet is connector/contact issues. There are a bunch of white connectors in there from board, to board, to tank, etc. Pull each one off, clean the contacts, and reinstall them. You may need to re-tension some. I've had problems in the past with the connector for the reverb tank. Also, I'm not sure what you mean by, "we can rule out PA In as I bypassed this", but switching jacks could definitely be an issue. You can just run a short cable from preamp out to power amp in to see if the switching jack is causing problems. Is that what you did?
You could also have cracked/cold solder issues. Take something non-conductive like a chopstick and lightly tap around components while the amp is running and see if you can discover where the intermittent is. I'd start with connectors first, though.

[jmaf]

I agree it could be cold solder issues. Hard to pin down. Like The Dude said, bang around the amp, set it on playing volume and raise and bump it to the ground lightly and see if you hear any of the crackling. Knock each of your pots like you're knocking on a door and listen.

Reverb whistling and whirring can be either acoustic or electrical, gotta isolate the issue. Acoustic whistling means the reverb tank is talking to the speaker cab, gotta isolate that somehow. Electrical whirring and whistling can be due to bad ground on a gain stage, cold solder, broken wire and so on.

If the amp was stored for 10+ years like you said, a good cleanup, buffing contacts, brushing the board, vacuum cleaning, etc, could eliminate many possibilities. Moving around wires using a dry chinese chopstick while the amp is running can help detect eventual bad/rusted connections.

[Robgil]

Thanks for the input guys, the power amp in jack switch was bypassed by joining the black and green wires so the switch is always closed now, This was not the issue though as after bypassing the switch the issue remained so I will have to put it back to normal.
I played through the amp tonight, it seemed a little dark sounding but seemed to have gotten better as the night progressed, it could have been me just dialing it in but Im not sure, it really sounded very muddy for the first half hour or more but got much better the more I played through it. Apart from that it was fine, towards the end of the session (a couple of hours) it was sounding great, it never cut out once, the volume was consistent, I really couldn't fault it! I know things dont just fix them selves and it could possibly go again so I will clean up all the contacts and switches at the week end. I did notice one of the pre gain nobs sounded dirty/scratchy at the 4 o'clock position so I will look into that, it might need cleaning or it might need twiddling a bit. The reverb didn't whistle either. I couldn't crank it so the pre gain was really high and the post gain set around 9 o'clock to get it to break up a little but I will crank it on the week end to make sure its OK at higher volumes.
The phaser is fun and does what it is supposed to, but it drops the volume a bit when engaged and there is a thump when the switch on the pedal is pressed, is this normal or can it be fixed not to thump and to be more balanced volume wise? The other three switches on then pedal are nice and quiet.
Also, when the phaser is switched on but the guitar isnt strummed I can hear something akin to a heartbeat from the speakers, surely that should be quiet?

[Robgil]

Just to update this, it started doing its cutting out thing again, then it just stopped, it would power on when switched on then just power off all by itself. I thought the fuse in the mains plug might have popped when it wouldn't power back up, I took the plug off and the wires were loose, the live and earth were both loose, I put the plug on properly and it worked perfectly, its been fine ever since, such a simple thing but so easy to overlook.