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Post by guitargeorge on May 2, 2006 4:37:52 GMT -7
I have a MAZ 18 and I put all new tubes in it about a month ago, I am only using it at practice and at home at low volumes, last night I was playing and the amp developed a static crackling that happened on the A on the 6th string 5th fret and then seemed to do it almost on demand on the second string 13th - 14th fret while bending. I was playing through effects ( Teese wah, Addrock Germ Fuzz, Addrock Ol Yeller, and Klon) I had the fuzz and ol yeller and wah engaged with the pedal pulled back. I tried to get it to stop doing this by changing out some of the tubes, I changed the 1st preamp, the reverb driver, and the phase inverter with known good tubes, and also installed a new set of EL84's but the problem was still there. It seemed to do it less when I turned down the reverb, It only seems to do this when the amp is cranked and it has been on for a while, I shut it down and came up later and while playing at lower volume, I did'nt hear it happening, This amp did this before I changed the tubes and was fine after I changed the tubes but now it seems to be back to the same old tricks. Any Ideas?
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Post by John on May 2, 2006 5:04:32 GMT -7
First thing I'd do is remove all the effects. I've had cracklin' sounds where the connection to an effect was the source. If you power them with batteries, a low battery can cause cracklin'. Also, what about guitar cables? If you remove all the effects, try a couple of different cables and see if it still does it. What about different guitars too?
Try turning the reverb off. Does that fix it? Wiggle the connections to the reverb tank. That gave me a problem years ago.
The fact that is does this when the amp is hot (been on a while) would suggest it IS a tube problem. Any way to visually check the tube sockets? You'd have to yank the chassis. Also, if you power the effects with batteries, that would ALSO suggest it could be an effect problem. At a certain point, a low charged battery can still hold charge for a while, but after playing a while, they drop down. Then, after unplugging the effect for a while and coming back, they seem to gather some power, but then will slip back to low/no power and crap out.
Mine's a NR model. Doesn't yours come with 5 preamp tubes? You might have to change all of them. Take the 'known good tubes' and keep switching them into all the sockets. See if that does anything.
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Post by guitargeorge on May 2, 2006 5:32:55 GMT -7
I did unplug the reverb cables from the chassis and reconnected them before I came back up to try it again and the problem wasn't happening then, I do power my dirtboxes and wah with batterys so I'll try new batterys, The Klon I use an adapter because when the battery is low it emits a high pitched squeal that only dogs and bass players can hear. Thanks for all the help so far.
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Post by John on May 2, 2006 6:55:05 GMT -7
Before you get new batteries, I'd try guitar-cable-amp, and see if that fixes it. If it does, then you know for SURE it's in the pedals somewhere.
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Post by billyguitar on May 2, 2006 7:41:23 GMT -7
Also if it's doing it, take your fist and whack it on the top. That could help decide if it's the amp or the pedals.
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Post by John on May 2, 2006 8:06:15 GMT -7
I tried that with my Dodge.....but all it did was hurt my hand.
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Post by guitargeorge on May 2, 2006 8:50:56 GMT -7
I'll try running the amp without the pedals and see if the pedals may be the source of the problem. I'm using a strat type guitar and I was really overdriving my signal when it happened, It seems like this amp malfunctions when I really push it, at low bedroom volumes it's okay but when I push it at any volume that will cut thru a mix it starts to do strange things, and you really don't get the tone of the MAZ untill you push it a bit. It's like a love-hate relationship I have with this amp, it sounds so good but it has it's quirks, I have learned to live with the weird overtones that Dr Z says is normal and I seem to go through tubes quickly but when it works it really gives me what I want, I know a guy who has been working on amps since he was a teenager in his dad's music store and now he's out on his own and he has all the test equipment at his house so I'll probably take it to him and see if he can find anything wrong with it.
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Post by John on May 2, 2006 11:18:09 GMT -7
A MAZ is a cathode biased amp.....and that means it's going to eat power tubes. You'll have to change them often.
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Post by guitargeorge on May 2, 2006 15:20:13 GMT -7
gtrman3, I have to thank you, I tried the amp cranked, no pedals and was getting the crackle so I turned the reverb off and, no crackle, then I went in the back and started wiggling the reverb cables and sho-nuff it was the plug going to the tank. sprayed it with de-oxit and she's rocking 100% crackle free. thanks again.
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Post by John on May 2, 2006 16:25:40 GMT -7
Glad to help. Now let's hope you have a love-love relationship with the amp!
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Post by guitargeorge on May 5, 2006 4:34:16 GMT -7
Yes, we're feeling the love now. I took it to practice the other night and , let me say that I was never into strats, could'nt get a powerful tone out of them, i used humbucker equipped guitars. I have a strat copy (Tokai) and using a wah, Addrock fuzz, Addrock Ol Yeller, and Klon, I set the Ol Yeller and Klon for more of a boost than distortion, and the fuzz to take it over the top, I was squeezing some thick beautiful tones out of that strat, and the cleans are to die for, I can go from sparkling crystal clean to a Tony Iommi distortion with a strat, those pedals and one amp. As I had posted in a previous post the MAZ 18 is "the ultimate strat amp" and this is coming from someone who could never warm up to single coils.
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Post by John on May 6, 2006 5:48:49 GMT -7
...and now it doesn't crackle!!
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