Rectifier Rattle.....

[Murph]

Most of you know I gig an ES-339 through a Mesa Blue Angel 1;12 combo sitting on a flight case.

 

So last night I'm down by the bottoms (Paducah Ky.) and at the end of the night, I mean last song, my Boogie sounds a bit buzzy. Never did that before. Before I shut her down I pulled the chord out just to eliminate the rest of the (short) chain. (a TS9 and another chord, and the near new ES-339).

 

The buzz was still there.

 

This amp was built in 2000 and I bought it from a bedroom player in California, and it had the original tubes. I never tubed it because I figured it didn't have many hours on it, and it sounded great. I bought it without a speaker because he had put a Neo in it, and I didn't want that, so I put a V30 in it.

 

So this morning I bring it in the music room, set it up, power up and it sounds fine for a few minutes. Then it cuts out for a few seconds (silence). Just a few times. THEN as I power up I hear a rattle. Only on A notes. Octave doesn't matter. ? Weird...

 

So, my trusty Fender Prosonic is sitting on my Carvin Bass rig right behind it, about the same height, so I put the Mesa on standby, power up the Prosonic, and hit an A note with my head leaning into the Mesa and STILL HEAR THE RATTLE.

 

THE MESA IS RATTLING ON STANDBY.

 

Anyhow I finally, and it took awhile, figured it out. It was the 5AR4/GZ34 tube.

 

I had a NOS Sylvania Mullard (made in England) I'd been hoarding for years, and went ahead and replaced the 4;EL84's and the 2;6V6's with Mesa tubes I'd bought after I got the amp from Mesa. Powered it up and it sounds great. I'll call Mesa tomorrow and order new spares and should be good for another decade.

 

Unless a pre amp tube decides to mess with my head.

 

This tube was coming un-done, I can hold it in my hand and tap it, and it rattles. In my 35 plus years of using tube amps I've never seen that.

 

Best of luck.

 

Murph.

[otaypanky]

I've had it with new tubes as well. And oddly enough, it was a rectifier tube also, in my case a Fender labeled Sovtek 5Y3GT. And just like you said, even when playing through a different amp, if the amp with the noisy rectifier was in the wrong spot and getting hit with sound waves from the amp being used, that tube would rattle so much I had to move the amp. It didn't sound badly in the amp while playing, unless it was a quite passage and you hit 'that' note. I have often wondered if those high temp silicone o-rings would help cure that.

[MikeRom]

Was it an original tube you replaced? I had that happen in a few amps, new and used, where the original cheapy Chinese made tubes would start to rattle. New tubes fixed 'em right up -

[Murph]

So I called Mesa today. Lady answers and I said I wanted to order some tubes. She sends me to a voice mail. I was at work, didn't need a call back, so hung up.

 

Three times in 3 hours. I really wanted the tubes to ship today, ya know, I'm gigging this weekend.........

 

Finally I called Eurotubes, Bob answered the phone, took my order, shipping today.

 

Odd.......

 

Yea, slinger, they were all original. I ordered new power tubes from Mesa when I got the amp a few years back and had the new ones for spares, with my old NOS Mullard GZ34. I've got some spare NOS JAN Phillips 12AX7 (5751) 7025's, ect, in the spare box also.

 

But Mesa wasn't in the mood to sell any today.......

 

Murph.