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Bad hum on SS amp, is it tied to reverb tank?

Discussion in 'Amp Tech Center' started by noahncopeland, Sep 18, 2020.

  1. Sep 18, 2020 #1
    noahncopeland

    noahncopeland NEW MEMBER!

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    Hiya,

    Bout to play a gig tomorrow night with an old Tech 21 Trademark 60. Haven't gigged like this in a long time.

    To my disappointment, my amp's got some bad hum, like 60 cycle type hum. It's there even without the guitar plugged in. I'm trying to see if there's anything I can do last minute before tomorrow's gig.

    I noticed that when turning up the reverb knob, the hum gets WAAAAy loud. I'm thinking the verb has something to do with it?

    So I disconnected the RCA jacks to the reverb tank. Same issue.

    I found the other ends of the RCA cables that were connected to the mainboard. Disconnected them too. SAME issue.

    Any ideas? Perhaps it's not tied to the reverb at all?
     
  2. Sep 18, 2020 #2
    Dan_Pomykalski

    Dan_Pomykalski Tele-Meister

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    Not sure if this’ll help or not, but I was having a similar problem. Turning the reverb tank around so the RCA jacks were facing the front of the amp solved it for me. Dead quiet now (at least as quiet as a reverb circuit probably can be).
     
  3. Sep 18, 2020 #3
    Controller

    Controller Friend of Leo's Silver Supporter

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    Check that your amp ground is clean and tight.
     
  4. Sep 19, 2020 #4
    Jon Snell

    Jon Snell Tele-Holic

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    G1 in the thread you started with the Music Electronics Forum, has the right idea.
     
  5. Sep 19, 2020 #5
    Collin D Plonker

    Collin D Plonker Tele-Afflicted

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    My old Peavey used to squeal. I removed the reverb tank, put the springs back in alignment and replaced it.
     
  6. Sep 19, 2020 #6
    tubejockey

    tubejockey Tele-Holic

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    Your reverb recovery amp may have shorted. Try grounding the return side to see if that cuts the hum. Pull the reverb pan off to see if the wires are broken on the reverb transducer.
     
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