wicked buzz in my 5150

[1trussell]

I took my 5150 over to Pat's last night for a jam and there was some horrible buzz coming from the head. It sounded like a bad ground type of buzz. This was the first time I used it since getting the new tubes. I was told that the 5150s all had a fixed bias so that it was a simple matter of plugging in the new tubes and playing. I'm planning on taking it to a tech tomorrow, but I was wondering if there were any thoughts on what might have been going on.

Oh yeah, the tone kind of sucked, too. I don't know if it was because we were running it through a Mesa cab (since the 5150s sound best through a 5150 cab) or what. Any ideas?

[Cleveland Metal]

Re: wicked buzz in my 5150

Did you replace preamp tubes as well? Maybe one of them has taken leave.

Bear in mind, sometimes a bit of vibration and bouncing will do stuff to tunes, and if even one of the new tubes was worling ok, but had a construction problem, moving tyhe amp a bit may have made it appear. New tubes aren't always perfect.

Going through and tapping the tubes with the unit running, "may" show which one is being odd if it is tubes related.

You could try putting the old tubes back in also and see if that changes things. This way you can relate it to the tubes or some other trouble.

MESA cabs don't sound "bad" with 5150, it's just that the PV cab seems to let the amp be used more extremely with gain and resonance without "flubulating", hehe...

[1trussell]

Re: wicked buzz in my 5150

Well, the old tubes were shot, so I just pitched them when I put the new ones in. I thought that I had plugged it in to test the new tubes when I got them and they worked fine. It's been sitting in my closet for about 8 months since. Last night was the first time in a while when I had a chance to crank it up and then I get this sh!t. Thanks for the reply, though.

[Ace]

Re: wicked buzz in my 5150

First of all, before you go and drop money on ANYTHING, try plugging in the amp at your home. It could just be the way Pat's house is wired. Try a ground lift and see what that does for ya.

[1trussell]

Re: wicked buzz in my 5150

Yeah, so I plugged it in at home today. Now granted I didn't have it as loud as at Pats' (stupid townhouse with stupid neighbors), but I got absolutely no buzz whatsoever. I turned it up to about 3 1/2 before the feedback got to be too much in the small room, but no buzz.

Pat, what kind of shit ass wiring do you have in your place anyway?

[lerxstcat]

Re: wicked buzz in my 5150

Don't worry, only the guest guitarist's outlets are wired for the buzz! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Deneb]

Re: wicked buzz in my 5150

Could have been a ground loop. I remember when I had my Mesa and another amp, didn't matter, and I A/Bed them, I would get a ground loop. I had an electrician make me special cables (glorified groundless cables) to use when this happens.

Another common cure for it is taking one of those 3 prong makes it 2 prong things (love technical terms) and seeing if that does it. ANY sound guys worth their salt carry quite a few of them, just incase, because as you put it

You never know what kind of "shit ass wiring" you get into.