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  • marshall tsl bias and hum problem

    Hi all, this is my first post on this forum, I usully frequent the marshallamps forum but they don't seem to have the in-depth knowedge that this forum provides,but I have been reading quite a lot recently.

    I have a tsl 122 from 2002 in bits at the moment. this amp has the issue 5 main board and has a very loud hum (50htz measured with cromatic tuner) and the bias drift problem (150 mv on test point at rear).

    the hum is strange in that it is worst on the clean channel and not so bad on lead nd crunch, in my 4210 the hums and buzzes get worse with the extra gain.
    This hum is present with all the gain and volume pots on 0 as soon as a lead is plugged in to the front of the amp, the amp does pass and amplify the guitar signal.

    I have read varoius threads about the bias problem on this amp and have also changed many of the components in the bias circuit, at one point i thought that I had found the source of the problem when c36 and c37 reacted badly to a hairdrier when out of the circuit, but the replacement caps did nothing to correct the problem.

    I feel that the only solution to this will be a new main board as reported by many of the posters on here.

    This still leaves me with the hum, I am not a tech but am a qualified electrician and have some understanding of electronics, I am now even managing to get my head round valve technology, a little, but by taking out the pi valve the hum stops so i presume that the hum comes from the preamp and so may be corrected by the new main board, but the fact that the hum is worse on the clean channel makes me think that the problem could be on the clean channel pcb or even worse an earthing issuesomewhere miles away.

    one other place the hum is bad is if I plug the guitar into the effect return
    which I think would normaly point to power amp section, but the effect loop does not seem to be so simple on the drawings as on my 4210.

    any help with this would be greatly excepted

    ps sorry to come straight in with a request for help.

  • #2
    jamesmafyew has posted in one of the threads on this site:
    the marshall tsl122 jcm2000 repair/mods page this should help to clarify why the board needs to be changed
    do a search as i dont know how to paste the info
    cheers

    Comment


    • #3
      save yourself the headaches - just replace the board and all your hum, bias drift etc problems will totally disappear - I speak from experience (and many tortured hours attempting to fix those shitty revision 5 boards) - the replacement (revision 10) boards are made of completely different fibreglass material. The problem is leakage currents flowing inside the rev 5 boards - not just in the power amp or PI stages!!!!
      Marshall should replace all those early DSL and TSL boards at no charge, but of course they are in complete denial.

      As a side note - I see a few old Fender twin reverbs and Bassman 100 heads with similar leakage problems through the black fibreboard eyelet boards. I had to lift the tone control caps and the fibreboard off the bottom fibreboard layer on a Bassman 100 recently. After doing so I measured 10v dc from the fibreboard near where the caps were connected (but not on the eyelet!!!) to ground. At least these are easy to fix unlike those Marshall double sided pcbs

      I know a tech many years ago who owned a CBS Fender 75 combo - he made a completely new fibreglass eyelet board for his top eliminate all the hissing crackling and popping - never had any more problems with it after that.

      Get hold of Marshall service and get a new board - problem solved
      bajaman

      Comment


      • #4
        thanks for the advice, I did wonder if the hum was coming from the pi stage as it went away with the PI pulled but stayed when it was back in and any other ecc83 pulled but thought it would be best to check with poeple who have to work these amps out every day, by the way do you know how much a new board is from marshall?

        Comment


        • #5
          i have not bought one but a couple of people said it was £35 cheers

          Comment


          • #6
            hi all, I have been looking at some of the other threads and I am now wondering if the humming would affect the bias reading.

            I know that the bias is set with no signal into the amp but the hum/buzz is coming out of the speaker so the amp is producing the noise ie it is amplifying a signal.

            by the sound of most of the posts about this amp marshall should GIVE people who have these problems a new pcb.!

            Comment


            • #7
              I've been looking through some posts and read one about filter caps causing hum, I think it was enzo who said to check for ac on the power valves plate.

              I checked the plates with my DMM set to 750 vac and got a reading of 1170!

              does this mean that my meter is broken or have the filter caps gone?

              but the hum is only really bad on the clean channel and also when plugging a lead into the fx loops, if the filter caps were bad wouldn't it hum on all the channels?

              cheers.

              Comment


              • #8
                just get a new board

                Comment


                • #9
                  I've been dealing with the same issues on my TSL100 for a long time. I love this amp but the thing is out of control. It's gotten so bad I have a multimeter fixed on it to check the bias. Some days are fine, some days are totally out of control..

                  I've done so much tweaking on the board I'm fed up with it.. I live in Holland and I'm clueless on how to get a board. The Marshall website states in the FAQ that they don't sell parts directly to users, only official techs which aren't any around here.

                  Can someone PLEASE help me get this board, I don't need warranty on the board and the warrenty on my TSL (1998!) is long gone..

                  Any help would be very much appreciated.

                  Sander

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Hey!
                    My Problem is the same. My TSL100 is build 2003 an I need a new board. I live in Germany. Is ther a chance to get one from UK? Is it the same Version in UK?

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Read my original message

                      Just reading your note here is exactly the problem i had....order yourself a new main board, will cost you around £65.00 (in the UK) and replace all your tubes, i changed all of mine and it's now as sweet as the day it was born !!

                      ST220

                      Originally posted by fireman View Post
                      Hi all, this is my first post on this forum, I usully frequent the marshallamps forum but they don't seem to have the in-depth knowedge that this forum provides,but I have been reading quite a lot recently.

                      I have a tsl 122 from 2002 in bits at the moment. this amp has the issue 5 main board and has a very loud hum (50htz measured with cromatic tuner) and the bias drift problem (150 mv on test point at rear).

                      the hum is strange in that it is worst on the clean channel and not so bad on lead nd crunch, in my 4210 the hums and buzzes get worse with the extra gain.
                      This hum is present with all the gain and volume pots on 0 as soon as a lead is plugged in to the front of the amp, the amp does pass and amplify the guitar signal.

                      I have read varoius threads about the bias problem on this amp and have also changed many of the components in the bias circuit, at one point i thought that I had found the source of the problem when c36 and c37 reacted badly to a hairdrier when out of the circuit, but the replacement caps did nothing to correct the problem.

                      I feel that the only solution to this will be a new main board as reported by many of the posters on here.

                      This still leaves me with the hum, I am not a tech but am a qualified electrician and have some understanding of electronics, I am now even managing to get my head round valve technology, a little, but by taking out the pi valve the hum stops so i presume that the hum comes from the preamp and so may be corrected by the new main board, but the fact that the hum is worse on the clean channel makes me think that the problem could be on the clean channel pcb or even worse an earthing issuesomewhere miles away.

                      one other place the hum is bad is if I plug the guitar into the effect return
                      which I think would normaly point to power amp section, but the effect loop does not seem to be so simple on the drawings as on my 4210.

                      any help with this would be greatly excepted

                      ps sorry to come straight in with a request for help.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Can't somebody help me please? I don't know how I can get an new Board in Germany. The German Marshall support is not answering when I E-Mail them...

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Marshall TSL100 Hums

                          Sorry to hear your support in Germany is poor.
                          Why don't you phone Marshall direct at the factory...i did, just ask the receptionist to put you through to the Marshall Stores.

                          Tell the guy you Need a TSL 100 main board, it will cost you more to ship to Germany but it's not as if your on the other side of the planet is it !!

                          You can get the phone number off their WEB page

                          Before you swap the board out be sure to take lot's of pictures of all the connections so if you get lost you can always refer to your photo's...number every cable with it's board connection number & don't worry if you see more connections on the new board than the old one.

                          Let me know how you get on.

                          ST220

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Thanks a lot.
                            I willt ry it one more time here and then I call MArshall UK.
                            Hope that this will work. The Main Board is the Board with the Tubes on it, right?

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Marshall TSL100 Hums

                              Yes...

                              The main board is the board with ALL the tubes on it.....

                              Comment

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