HR DeVille 112 noise

[LennyZ]

I've found when I first get to rehearsal, and turn on my amp there's crackling, maybe some whistling noise, and then as the amp warms up and I start to play it generally stops and the amp sounds fine.

It's just annoying and will be embarrassing in a gig situation! Should I just try changing the tubes or take it to a tech? (I'm not technical myself)

[Gtr_tech]

Likely cracked solder. Also could be oxidation on the effect jacks. Plug a cable into the send and return jacks (one cable) to find out if its the jacks causing the noise.

[tim]

it could also be one of your preamp tubes. As they warm up, the elements expand inside the tube causing what were loose or intermittent contacts to tighten up. I have that series amp from time to time come through the shop with noisey 100k plate resistors as well.

Another thing to try...when you use the amp next time, just as you start hearing the noises, take out the preamp tubes, one by one, starting at the tube to the far right (looking at the back) and listen as you remove each tube (you may want to decrease the volume as you remove each tube so as not to have to hear rthe "crack" as each tube is taken out and then turn it back up). listen to see if the bad sound has gone away. If not leave that tube out and pull the next one to the left. Keep yanking preamp tubes until the noise is gone. If noises go away when a tube is pulled, chances are it's either that tube is bad or something in that tube's circuit is bad (like cold/cracked solder joints as mentioned above).

If you have the original GT/Fender tubes in there, it's an even bet that that is your problem. Those tubes are horrible, noisey, etc...I use J/J's and hardly ever have problems with them.

[Enzo]

We got a box of 100 GE 12AT7s a while back. And every single one of them made a racket of pops and crackles the first few minutes after they were first fired up. These were then current new tubes, not some NOS find. After they woke up, they worked great. After a power up or two they settled down and worked just fine the rest of their klives.

[Gtr_tech]

Friday tubes?

[Enzo]

Well the pins were all on the bottom ends of them, so at least they were assembled in the right order.