My first MP-1

[jdr94]

yeah i know i'm like a decade late. i just picked up a mp-1 for $50 bucks. theres a bunch of hum on the patches that use the tubes so i'm hoping its just in need of new tubes, but when i try to edit and use the SS dist. theres lil to some gain. not sure whats up with that.

So i think i'm gonna send this out to voodoo amps and get it modded.

i'm gonna grab some new tubes in a few days, but in the meantime, any suggestions on what else the hum might be?

[ulijdavid]

I am by no means an expert on the ADA. I bought a used one also and figured that the best thing to do was immediately put in new tubes. I just assumed that it was in someone's closet and that installing new tubes would be the first thing I should do. When I removed the old tubes, there were no markings except 12AX7A. I think they may be the originals!!! Anyway the sound was OK with them, but there was a noticable hum. I went to a local shop that is a Mesa Boogie dealer and bought some Mesa 12AX7A tubes. I bought what they had - I am a bit impatient, can't wait for shipping. To my surprise, the Mesa tubes sound very good AND there is virtually no hum. I am playing at bedroom volumes, but the difference between tube sets was huge. It can't hurt to change the tubes.

[Speiro]

I had Mesa tubes in my old MP1 and they sounded better than anything else I tried in there.

[jdr94]

cool. looks like i'm gonna pick up some mesas and go from there. thanks for the input.

[thenine]

if that does not fix your problem then it is most likely the electrolytic caps on the tube board. They dry out if not used and recharged regularly. If your MP-1 was sitting on a shelf for several years and not fired up your caps could be gone.


9

[Bengal65]

I had Trace a Voodoo upgrade mine to the Deluxe model and install some new patches. He did an awesome job with a 1 day turnaround. It sounds fantastic.

[Rupe]

Like others have said, tubes are most likely your problem. You lack of gain issue on the SS settings is completely understandable...the SS mode is for clean tones

The three modes are Tube Distortion, Tube Clean, and Solid State Clean (the cleanest of the the modes). You can get some cool medium gain tones from the Tube Clean mode.

$50 was a steal...I paid over $700 in the late 80's for mine

[voodooamps]

We work on a lot of MP-1's and the hum tends to come from a few different areas. There components that tend to fail and as they are failing they exhibit themselves in several ways IE: unwanted hum and/or loss of gain, etc. Another common source are old filter caps. Replacing the filter caps/having the preamp recapped is a must at this point. Aside from hum reduction the tone, feel and performance is also improved.


Have a great day & I hope it helps
Trace

[jdr94]

We work on a lot of MP-1's and the hum tends to come from a few different areas. There components that tend to fail and as they are failing they exhibit themselves in several ways IE: unwanted hum and/or loss of gain, etc. Another common source are old filter caps. Replacing the filter caps/having the preamp recapped is a must at this point. Aside from hum reduction the tone, feel and performance is also improved.


Have a great day & I hope it helps
Trace

thnx trace. i actually talked to via email thru voodooamps. i've been meaning to call, but i'm still waitin on that tax refund so that i can call you, send it, pay you, and play it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rupe
You lack of gain issue on the SS settings is completely understandable...the SS mode is for clean tones

The three modes are Tube Distortion, Tube Clean, and Solid State Clean (the cleanest of the the modes). You can get some cool medium gain tones from the Tube Clean mode.

yeah, can you tell i never owned one and skipped the manual i'm about to throw in some new tubes now and see what happens.

[Jayster]

jdr94 -
I noticed a big difference in gain when switching from 12ax7 to ecc83 tubes, I haven't tried the ecc81's though.

Here's a useless link to explain things about tubes very few guitarists seem to care about ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mullard...be_designation


Hope alls cool with you !

[jdr94]

jdr94 -
I noticed a big difference in gain when switching from 12ax7 to ecc83 tubes, I haven't tried the ecc81's though.

Here's a useless link to explain things about tubes very few guitarists seem to care about ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mullard...be_designation


Hope alls cool with you !

thanks for the info. i guess it doesnt matter what tubes i'm using tho. i got a set of sovtek lps, a set of sovtek lp, a set of marshall ecc83, and a set of mesas. regardless of which tubes i use i still get what i think is a ground hum. basically the electrical sound of my mp-1 in operation is comin thru the speakers. although they do give a different tone to the hum depending on the tubes. i'll just send it to VoodooAmps.
What are your plans for yours?

[Jayster]

changing out the tubes to the ecc83's brought back the br00tlez, I've got very little noise - so I may try some of the eproms that are available and the three tube mod looks cool.
I seem to be losing gain when I run it through an alesis midi verb(input ada then midi verb then sonic maximizer then hush 2 cx(any suggestions on best routing?))

[Trem]

There has been many discussion on ADAdepot about hum.
While it's going to be different for everyone due to all the different variables with gear ect, my setup is seemingly perfect for massive hum.

My patch cables arent all seperated nicely or anything in the back, i'm sitting i foot away from a 24" massive widescreen crt and my pc.
The monitor does interfere but lessens when i turn a certain degree from it,
even more so if i turn away from the mp-1 itself.

Now that being said, the hum is still not that bad that it bothers me, it's there - but the signal to noise ratio i can't hear it at all while playing, recording i would try and reduce it to nil if possible.
I've had a hush sitting here that i got all at the same time becuase i thought i would need it for the noise, i never have had to hook up.

What i realized is some guitars i play thru it there is more hum than others, and i realized awhile back that my esp is near silent.
Without opening the electronics cavity, i just assumed it is better shielded.
Again i didn't realize it at first because the hum is pretty low in the first place for the most part.
I'm playing thru phones tho with the output knob at a little past a quarter,
opening it wide and blasting it thru cabs may be different all together.

Last thing, i have my pc and monitor and all my rack stuff plugged into the same powerstrip 'rfi shielded for good measure' , right next to my subwoofer.

No matter what, i'd always start with the guitar and making sure it's well shielded because that's where the sound starts.

[Rupe]

changing out the tubes to the ecc83's brought back the br00tlez, I've got very little noise - so I may try some of the eproms that are available and the three tube mod looks cool.
I seem to be losing gain when I run it through an alesis midi verb(input ada then midi verb then sonic maximizer then hush 2 cx(any suggestions on best routing?))

Your routing is exactly how it should be done.

[jdr94]

Your routing is exactly how it should be done.

hey rupe,
since jaysters got his set up right can you tell me what the negatives would be if i set mine up like this....
guitar - mp1 - boss ns-50 - stereo eq - maximizer - power

thanks.