Help with Valve amp advice please :(

Lfan

Good day good people

I need some advice/direction regarding my amp.
I have an Orange Tiny Terror Combo 15w. Its a full valve amp and my 1st one hence the inexperience. The issue I have is that sometimes the amp hums really loud and during this time the actual guitar sound/output is also diminished/softer. It just happens out of the blue while playing. Most of the time it plays perfect but sometimes this occurs. When this happens I switch the amp off and on and after doing that a few times, the hum stops and the amp plays fine.
I bough it about 9 months ago so its not that old, but I also dont know how long it has been in the music shop, being demoed, etc.
I know that I should change the valves, which I am working on but I just need to know from any of you experienced amp'ers if this is normal behavior for faulty or failing valves. My thinking is that if the valves are faulty it should always hum every time when ever use it instead of this occuring intermittently. Should I be worried that it could be something else.

It has 2x ECC83 12AX7 and 2X EL84's, if it is the tubes that are failing which of these will most likely cause the issue, or will it be both.

Apologies for the noob questions ☹

IceCreamMan

before you do anything , it sounds like this is still under warranty ....

and another thing , did u register the amp on the Orange site and thereby get another years warranty.

Being 9 months old I would take it back before anything else....while the valves may not be under warranty I don't think its the valves anyway.

RobbieZ

IceCreamMan wrote: before you do anything , it sounds like this is still under warranty ....

and another thing , did u register the amp on the Orange site and thereby get another years warranty.

Being 9 months old I would take it back before anything else....while the valves may not be under warranty I don't think its the valves anyway.

I agree, if it is still under warranty, take it back and get it fixed. If not, take it to a decent teck, it does sound like you have a intermittend earth fault.

Lfan

Thanks allot guys!

I will definitely take it in as its still under warranty. Just wanted to gauge around where the problem would be.

psyx

It could be a dangerously bad power tube. I had that with some worn-out el84's in my HnK...

kensilke

Take it back to the shop and request that they replace all the tubes with JJ tubes. If you are using single coil pickups it could add to your problem

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psyx

kensilke wrote: Take it back to the shop and request that they replace all the tubes with JJ tubes. If you are using single coil pickups it could add to your problem

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Orange terror amps are usually issued with JJ's, but I guess it could have been abused in the shop a bit

Lfan

Thanks Guys!

I sent it in at Marshall Woodmead on Thurs afternoon. Its still under warranty, in fact the last month of warranty
The tricky thing is that the HUM is intermittent, so I hope the issue actually occurs so they can hear it. The last thing I want is for them to call and say they didnt find anything wrong only for me to experience it again.
Im not sure what Valves are in there or how old it is. But I certainly hope that it is the valves and nothing serious.

Thanks again

IceCreamMan

TGF wrote: Thanks Guys!

I sent it in at Marshall Woodmead on Thurs afternoon. Its still under warranty, in fact the last month of warranty
The tricky thing is that the HUM is intermittent, so I hope the issue actually occurs so they can hear it. The last thing I want is for them to call and say they didnt find anything wrong only for me to experience it again.
Im not sure what Valves are in there or how old it is. But I certainly hope that it is the valves and nothing serious.

Thanks again

Valves are generally not warranted for the entire period, merely 3 months so if it is the valves you might be billed....I ain't no expert by any stretch of the imagination but it does not sound like it is valves ...but let us know either way please

singemonkey

Actually the first thing you should do (assuming you haven't) is check the lead.

Cannon

Yip. Sounds like a power tube.
If u hav to pay for the re-tubing dont let them throw u over a barrel.
A matched pair from MrValve in pretoria is about R300 (Electro Harmonix) great power tubes.
JJ cost more and are only killer in pre-amps.
8)

Lfan

Thanks guys!

I actually got the amp back yesterday. I sent it in back to Marshall as it was still under warranty. Unfortunately the tech(who was very helpful) didnt find anything wrong :'(
He tested the valves as well and they all tested fine.

He did however advise that the Hum might be caused by all the lights we have on our stage. I do source power straight from a ups but apparently the light rays also causes amp hum at times. I actually never new that.
He advised that I play around with the position of the amp in relation to the lights and see if that makes a dif.

warrenpridgeon

TGF wrote: Thanks guys!

I actually got the amp back yesterday. I sent it in back to Marshall as it was still under warranty. Unfortunately the tech(who was very helpful) didnt find anything wrong :'(
He tested the valves as well and they all tested fine.

He did however advise that the Hum might be caused by all the lights we have on our stage. I do source power straight from a ups but apparently the light rays also causes amp hum at times. I actually never new that.
He advised that I play around with the position of the amp in relation to the lights and see if that makes a dif.

I find that our one church campus has lights with dimmers (the oldschool ones, not newer LED ones) that work with a big resistor... and this introduces a hum in our inears... The bass guitarists bass guitar seems to pick it up and amplify it through the system... Sometimes you're just unlucky... Could you try run an extension and try it on a different circuit? Next time it happens check if the lights are interfering.

BUT... I had something similar happen with my amp (Marshall DSL 401), which is apparently common in them, where the bridge rectifier starts failing...What I found is that the guitar volume would start fading down until it was completely gone and all that was left was the background his...Giving my amp a swift klap would often fix this and immediately after the swift klap the volume would slowly climb again back to where it should be. Eventually it happened more and more and then I had it repaired... Was fine for a year and now it's happening again.

Just a thought.

Lfan

I am actually experiencing almost the exact issue!!
About 3 or 4 songs in, all of a sudden the amp starts to hiss and my guitar output goes fades very low. Altho I dont knock on the amp, I switch it off and on a few times until it comes right.
The problem is that it doesnt happen all the time, hence when I took it in, the tech coudlnt pick up the issue as the amp wasnt misbehaving at the time

ezietsman

Not all lights. Fluorescent lights. Also, Fluorescents should NEVER be on a dimmer. They don't like that.

Your guitar will pick up the 60Hz mains hum from these lights as well as other things like computer monitors, electric fences, you pedal board power supply, your amp's power supply etc. The amp shouldn't be picking up noise.

Of course, if you are using single coils this will be worse and that brings us to the invention of the so called "hum-bucking" guitar pickup ?

Lfan

ez wrote: Not all lights. Fluorescent lights. Also, Fluorescents should NEVER be on a dimmer. They don't like that.

Your guitar will pick up the 60Hz mains hum from these lights as well as other things like computer monitors, electric fences, you pedal board power supply, your amp's power supply etc. The amp shouldn't be picking up noise.

Of course, if you are using single coils this will be worse and that brings us to the invention of the so called "hum-bucking" guitar pickup ?

Thanks! I'll clear that one with our lighting guy at church.

With regards to power, I'm sourcing it from a UPS, shouldnt that be clean?