A mere 4 days after I brought it home. It had been on for a few minutes, I was getting ready for the session. Then it started crackling and squealing and making all kind of funny noises - a bit like when you're messing w/ the plug on a guitar. Bad connexion or something.

Except there was nothing plugged in the amp yet.

I powered it off, unplugged the power cord. Checked my power bar - everything ok, no wiring fault or nothing unusual.

Tried again. Powered it on, waited a few minutes and it started all over. Tried the same thing, plugged in a different room. Only took a few minutes before the noises were back.

At first I thought it might be the connexion in the back of the amp - where you plug the power cord. It does wiggle a tiny bit, but not that much.

So I'm thinking it's likely to be the tubes - any idea? Ampfixer? Would defective tubes cause such issues?

What a frickin' joy, after 4 days, I tell you...

Sudden crackling and, especially, squealing can come from a tube going bad.  But, since you just got it, I'd take it back and let THEM diagnose it if it was me.

That's the sound of the electrons in the tube begging to be plugged into a custom hand made John Templeton amp.


Or it could be an input shorting jack that has temporarily begun doing a bad job of being a shorting jack.

The clues is that there's nothing plugged in to it yet.

That's easily fixable, but don't let my enthusiasm deter you from lusting for a custom made John Templeton amp... it'll last a lifetime.


:-)

best regards,
mike

Take a look at the jack schematic on the right.


The arrow head between the Tip and the Tip Shunt indicates a temporary or switched connection. This is probably not a good connection at the present... it could be a loose spring tension or there could be some smutz in there... when this happens the amp squeals when there's nothing plugged in.


Sometimes the condition is exacerbated when the amp heats up and the metal expands a very very tiny amount.






The Blackstar uses a Reann style of jack assembly... I'm not 100% sure how to re-tension them but it should be sort of obvious. With a Switchcraft style jack you just take a needle nose pliers and retension the spring in the metal tab so the contact is complete and secure.


Let me know what you figure out.


:-)



best regards,
mike

what kind of amp is it?

 A Blackstar 1watt. ...man I would be returning that.

 Something could be loose inside or it could be the jack  but unless its used I would get another one if you have a warranty. If I could reach the tubes I would maybe see if they are loose other than that it sounds like a warranty repair.Plugging and unplugging the jack may also help.

As Starise mentioned, Blackstar HT-1.

The first thing I noticed was a constant hum coming from the amp - even w/ speaker bypassed. That was the second night, and actually the first time I tried it at home w/o the headphones on. 

Now, since I haven't used amps in such a long time, I wasn't sure whether it was normal - my hearing has changed a lot in those 10 years. And frankly, back then I think it wouldn't have bothered me.

But it was loud enough for me to hear it from 5 or 6 feet away.

And then the other night, the noises started. The closest I can think of really is when you're plugging your guitar, when the jack hits the input or if it isn't properly connected.

Since I know nothing about all that stuff, I'm taking it back to Sam Ash tomorrow and we'll see what they say. It's the only one they had in stock - and I picked this one up specifically because I needed to cut guitars this week and next week.

Otherwise, there was a used HT-5 for approximately the same price at GC which was my first choice but which wasn't available for pick up before 12/26. But I couldn't wait... :s

Looking at my receipt, it seems that Sam Ash has a 30 days grace period if you're unsatisfied w/ an item for exchange/refund or 45 days (exchange only).

Considering that this was the only one they had in store, I'm kind of back to square one, evaluating my options, either having this little guy fixed (which would mean a downtime again) or picking an alternative - which probably means Line 6 Spider or Peavey Vypyr.

IIRC, someone here has the Vypyr (w/ the footwitch) and digs it quite a bit. As for the Spider, I wasn't so sure about it, but I've heard some interesting tones. The one thing that bugs me is that the output is stereo only.

It could be a number of issues. It's very possible a tube or other component is shot. Component failure is the highest when brand new or very old. If the store gives you a new set of tubes and that fixes it, you should be fine. If not, you don't want it. The circuit board could be bad and they can never be like new again and they don't like to be worked on.

Happy to discuss studio amps. I'm wondering how to interface my own amp with my quad capture. I'm thinking that it's time to design a proper recording interface for myself. 

Glad you're around John - actually, you're the first person I thought of when the amp started behaving. "Hmmm, wonder what would Ampfixer think..."

My uneducated guess was the tubes - and this'll sound silly for a ton of reasons - because it took a while every time after I power it up. I figured it was just enough for the tubes to warm up. 

Fortunately, I won't be troubleshooting it myself, so my uneducated guess serves absolutely no purpose but to entertain myself and expose my ignorance on these boards.

At first I also thought it could be that thingie where you plug the power cord in the back - I can't say that it's loose but, you can definitely move it. But I guess they made it so so that you could change the fuse.




Anyway, we'll drop by and see what they have to say tomorrow. Worst case I'll grab that Spider and be done with it...