Members dante c Posted August 30, 2005 Members Share Posted August 30, 2005 i bought a block letter 5150 used about 8 months ago, and everything has been working fine until this past week. id be playing it and the amp would lose volume and become very quiet out of nowhere. sometimes it returns to normal volume after a few minutes or if i turn the amp off and back on again. but i gig with this alot and cant afford for this to happen live. maybe there's a bad tube or a faulty wire somewhere, i dont know. someone help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members freakk guitarist Posted August 30, 2005 Members Share Posted August 30, 2005 time for new powertubes...before you do that. sometimes there is an issue with the effects loop. happend to mine, and my friends. take a short patch cable, and plug it into the send and return of the effects loop, and see if it fixes it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Megadeth7684 Posted August 30, 2005 Members Share Posted August 30, 2005 What freakk guitarist said about the effects loop. A fellow forumite had the same exact problem earlier this week and that was the solution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dante c Posted August 30, 2005 Author Members Share Posted August 30, 2005 cool. ive been running a volume box through my effects loop for months to practice at a lower volume w/out sacrificing tone, and its been working fine this whole time. its weird. i dont think i have any patch cables, would an instrument cable work? thanks so much for the advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Megadeth7684 Posted August 30, 2005 Members Share Posted August 30, 2005 I think an instrument cable will work fine... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JerryP Posted August 30, 2005 Members Share Posted August 30, 2005 You can also just try switching the effects loop off with the foot switch to see if that helps. If it's not dirty effects loop jacks it's more than likely tubes. Since you're using the loop I doubt it's a jack problem. That usually happens most when guys don't use the loop. Give me a shout if you can't get it worked out FJAMods@aol.com Jerry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dante c Posted August 30, 2005 Author Members Share Posted August 30, 2005 i tried the following: 1. using the footswitch to turn off the effects loop. result: nothing changed 2. put an instrument cable in the send/return of my effects loop. result: still nothing i'm gonna go ahead and assume that it's my tubes. im getting this terrible, terrible tone, lots of noise and no power (as far as volume goes). so can anyone recommend some tubes i could swap my old ones with. i was thinking ruby tubes or something, but i have no experience with tubes. also will i need these installed professionally, or can i do it myself. ive been told that in 5150's you can just swap the tubes with out having to fine tune anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Megadeth7684 Posted August 30, 2005 Members Share Posted August 30, 2005 JerryP will help you out, he knows tons about the 5150 series and is a super helpful guy. I'd like to try the Svetlana tubes that came in the original block letter 5150's myself... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dante c Posted August 30, 2005 Author Members Share Posted August 30, 2005 so can we all agree that this is a tube problem? that way i can go to sleep knowing that i dont have to drop tons of money to get this fixed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dante c Posted August 30, 2005 Author Members Share Posted August 30, 2005 top. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JerryP Posted August 30, 2005 Members Share Posted August 30, 2005 Originally posted by dante c i tried the following:1. using the footswitch to turn off the effects loop. result: nothing changed2. put an instrument cable in the send/return of my effects loop. result: still nothingi'm gonna go ahead and assume that it's my tubes. im getting this terrible, terrible tone, lots of noise and no power (as far as volume goes). so can anyone recommend some tubes i could swap my old ones with. i was thinking ruby tubes or something, but i have no experience with tubes. also will i need these installed professionally, or can i do it myself. ive been told that in 5150's you can just swap the tubes with out having to fine tune anything. Sounds like it could be tubes. Get in touch with Doug's Tubes and Doug will set you up. I think Ruby's suck myself. Ruby does sell JJ and other brand but the majority of times when someone gets a Ruby it's a Chinese tube and I've had terrible luck with them. I like JJ, Svetlana, and SED 6L6's. If your amp is stock and hasn't had the bias modified you can get away with just plugging the tubes in. I have some stuff on my FAQ page about my feelings on biasing an amp.Jerry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BAZGUITARMAN Posted August 31, 2005 Members Share Posted August 31, 2005 I say try some JJ`s. Everyone that I know has loved them in their 5150`s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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