Is there a way to "quiet down" an amp...?

[Musician78]

I have a Marshall DLS100 nd it is noisy and always has been. It sounds like static every so often coming through the cabs. I dont know if it is some sort of radio interference or what not and the noise is not constant.. is this common and is there a way to take care of it?

[McD]

sure it's not your guitar?

[Trussrod]

Could be a loose ground. Have you looked inside it yet?

[JACKSONFREAK]

Could be a bad tube. Or a capacitor startin to go. With all the other suggestions above ruled out. Its most likely a tube.
Gil

[Musician78]

I had the tubes replaced a while ago, but not for that reason. And it is like that with all my guitars. So there are two things ruled out I suppose...

[Rich#6]

How good/old are your cables? Are you using the prober cable for the head to cab?

[DonP]

sure it's not your guitar?

Right. To re-address this question, does it make noise when nothing is plugged in - INCLUDING the effects loop.

If it's fine on it's own, YOU are adding the noise.

If not, could be anything. Do you have a crappy power supply in your house? Do you have the amp near a bunch of florescent lights?

My DSL100 is nice and quiet, with my guitars plugged in.

[Musician78]

Ya it makes the sound when nothing is plugged into it as long as the standby is not being used. I have had it at several different houses over the years and it has always done that.... I guess now I am finally tired of it. It seems to do it less when it is warmed up. It is not terribly obnoxious; I was just hoping it was an easy cheap fix.

Thanks for the replies.

[roodyrocker]

Assuming its not bad tubes, capacitor, guitar electronics, just a plain noisy amp in general. I would ditch the low end cables, head to cab speaker cable and even the patch cables for effects. Replace with high quality stuff and also use something like a Furman Power Factor to clean up the power. Last week I played a gig with a non-master volume Marshall Rhoads amp and used Zaolla cables, George L's patch cables, and Evidence Audio Siren speaker cable along with plugging in the head and pedalboard into a Furman Power Factor Pro. No noise whatsoever and I had no noise gate even connected. The other thing is if you are using pedals, one or a combination of them may cause noise. I run my pedals through loopers so they don't interfere with my tone or add noise when not in use. That way I have the cleanest path from guitar to amp. The cables mentioned above are expensive but to have a 100W non-master volume Marshall cranking with no noise live is worth it.

[jgcable]

Assuming its not bad tubes, capacitor, guitar electronics, just a plain noisy amp in general. I would ditch the low end cables, head to cab speaker cable and even the patch cables for effects. Replace with high quality stuff and also use something like a Furman Power Factor to clean up the power. Last week I played a gig with a non-master volume Marshall Rhoads amp and used Zaolla cables, George L's patch cables, and Evidence Audio Siren speaker cable along with plugging in the head and pedalboard into a Furman Power Factor Pro. No noise whatsoever and I had no noise gate even connected. The other thing is if you are using pedals, one or a combination of them may cause noise. I run my pedals through loopers so they don't interfere with my tone or add noise when not in use. That way I have the cleanest path from guitar to amp. The cables mentioned above are expensive but to have a 100W non-master volume Marshall cranking with no noise live is worth it.

I agree with everything said above.

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

Right. To re-address this question, does it make noise when nothing is plugged in - INCLUDING the effects loop.

If it's fine on it's own, YOU are adding the noise.

I'm not sure I necessarily agree with this.

My Boogie has an intermittent noise only when a guitar (any guitar) is connected AND the volume is turned down all the way on the guitar. Turn the volume up even a tiny bit, and the noise goes away.

It's dead silent with nothing plugged into it.

It's not the cable (tried a bunch, and it's actually somewhat BETTER with a cheap-ass cable that came with a Squier Strat starter kit!) and it's not the guitar. I haven't gotten around to getting it looked at or anything, I have 4.5 years of warranty left. :dunno:

[DonP]

I'm not sure I necessarily agree with this.

My Boogie has an intermittent noise only when a guitar (any guitar) is connected AND the volume is turned down all the way on the guitar. Turn the volume up even a tiny bit, and the noise goes away.

It's dead silent with nothing plugged into it.

It's not the cable (tried a bunch, and it's actually somewhat BETTER with a cheap-ass cable that came with a Squier Strat starter kit!) and it's not the guitar. I haven't gotten around to getting it looked at or anything, I have 4.5 years of warranty left. :dunno:

Well, everyone knows Boogies are always noisy

Seriously, the issue you are having is that the amp is either designed wrong or it was wired up wrong.

So yes, I guess I should change my statement to:

If it's fine on it's own, and it's a properly designed and assembled amp, YOU are adding the noise.

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

Well, everyone knows Boogies are always noisy

Seriously, the issue you are having is that the amp is either designed wrong or it was wired up wrong.

So yes, I guess I should change my statement to:

If it's fine on it's own, and it's a properly designed and assembled amp, YOU are adding the noise.

Actually I think it's got a bad solder joint on a ground in the preamp somewhere. :dunno:

I am kind of hoping it actually just quits working so I can send it in and get it fixed, but holding off until the "field testing" yields some improvements to the amp (like, I dunno what, it sounds pretty kick ass, but, there's gotta be something.)