More Ac30CC2 Problems

I would caution you from assuming that just because you see a place on the circuit board with some holes and a part label that you should add the parts.

It's unlikely the factory forgot it on purpose... there may have been a running revision or it may be for another markets practical (power supply) or regulatory (radio interference) requirements.

Small yellow boxes are probably polypro caps... the specification of farads and voltage will usually narrow down the choices of construction available for consideration.

Preamp tubes are usually very long lived unless they are just plain badly made.

There are very few well made new rectifier tubes... and rectifier tubes work hard so they do wear out more often than the other tubes. The AC30 uses a lot of energy because it is Class A.

Link to a schematic of your particular variant of the AC30 and we can tell you what tube does what.

FWIW, I think you have yet to actually diagnose your real problem and you are distracting yourself... I don't want to seem mean spirited... but it is never good to start thinking about regular maintenance issues while you are trouble shooting a specific problem. I think you still have quite a bit of investigating to get the problem identified... so I recommend that you maintain consistency and focus on diagnosing that problem. That does include removing and re-inserting tubes but all the work should be done very systematically so that you narrow down the issue.

I think helping you ID each tubes function is a great first step to helping narrow down where the issue is.... please link to a schematic of your exact AC30 model and we an help.

Good luck and best regards,
mike

Max,
Yikes!
You have much experience inside valve amps?
I build and I wouldn't just start adding caps and resistors...
Mike and Tap are right, boards go through constant revisions and can have multiple uses...
If its not just a 12ax7 gone noisy, you need to have someone look at it that knows their way around the newer AC30's.
Be CAREFUL! Lots of stored energy in the power supply!

Tom

PS, I know from experience why shock treatment is effective, 400-500 vDC makes you REAL complacent!

This is certainly true. Always be careful when working with High Voltages. Note: If you are going to poke around with a signal tracer, make sure you have a big Cap on the probe, something that is rated more than the largest plate voltage on any of the Tubes in there.

When I was a little kid my dad would take me to the switch yard and make lightning fly between the big outdoor transformers by doing something unorthodox to the relays (He was the relay engineer) and I would run out of fright into the concrete *bunker* type building on site.

He liked to tell those stories about how scared I would get to my buddies as I got older :-S.

It has kept me fairly disciplined around hot stuff. :-)

Brutal! Here I thought I had sufficiently solved my problem and was definitely a genius. Maybe if I describe my problem more it will help me out diagnosing. I will also describe my current skill level in electronics to see if my best bet is to just take it to the tech.

First off when I turn the standby switch the amp runs fine no noies/hum. Sometimes when I plug in a guitar cable this will set the amp off into making clicks and pops and such. Sometimes though I'll plug in and there will still be no noise yet. Once I start playing the pops and clicks will definitely start and will continue to get louder and more intense the longer I play. Once the pops and clicks have started they will not stop even if I unplug everything and turn all the knobs including the master to 0. That being said if it's not that capacitor I'm pretty clueless as what it could be besides bad tubes.

Now my skill level is pretty amateur so here's where I am at. When I first started a few years back I was just screwin around and shocked myself so I decided I would look up some safety precautions. Since then I've learned how to drain the power caps and to look but not touch in most cases. I do own a DMM but am not sure really of any tests to run or how to run tests.

Also I don't plan on replacing the resistor anymore but still wonder about the cap. mainly bcuz there is no bridge on it and there is solder points on the underneath side. When they dip the board would the solder stick there even if there was no component in the wholes? I don't know I guess.

Here is the schematic
http://www.mzm.us/AC30CC_Schematics.pdf
I've been informed which preamp tube does what.

All this being said I'm pretty much at your mercy here. Thanks for all your help guys!

I'm having trouble following it.

I see VR10 but I get confused when I trace back to the two plates on the ECC83.

I'll look again later.

punk,

Tom is trying to direct you to diagnose the issue by splitting the possibilities so as to make it easier to find the problem.

Take a look at his questions and give us specific answers. Let's figure out what side of the master volume stage the problem is on.

best regards,
mike