slight hiss

[Lonewolf]

I have a question for you guys. I have a Trayonr ycv40wr that I had for only three months. This weekend I moved it from a large room filled with couches and such to a much smaller room, and have to sit closer to it when I play. I don't know if it always did this or even if this normal operation for it. But now that I am closer to it, I hear a hiss from the speaker, but only on channel 2, the lead channel 1 is totally silent,with only half the hiss of channel 2 when put it on overdrive. It doesn't matter were you set the EQ. I just thought the hiss is normal, but why is the lead channel silent. I hope this makes sense.

[bcmatt]

I won't pretend to know how to solve the hiss because I need to eliminate some varying degrees of hiss in a couple of my builds too. I'm wondering if there is a master checklist to work your way down when hunting down and eliminating hum or hiss. Wouldn't that be a good idea? I guess there are too many categories and ways to eliminate possibilities.

In this instance, we can narrow it down to not being the guitar, or a general output stage ground problem. So, would we start with swapping the 1st preamp tube of each channel to see if is the tube? Then move on to...

[Lonewolf]

Do channel 1 and channel 2 on this amp have their own pre-amp tubes? If they do, maybe I have a tube that is going bad. This is my first tube amp, I have always been a solid state man, till my son talked me into trying these out.

[Wild Bill]

Do channel 1 and channel 2 on this amp have their own pre-amp tubes? If they do, maybe I have a tube that is going bad. This is my first tube amp, I have always been a solid state man, till my son talked me into trying these out.

A slight bit of hiss can be normal. The more gain, the more it shows up. Sometimes you can get a tube that hisses more than it should. TungSols seem to be nice and quiet.

Treble boost can make hiss show up even more than gain. Hiss after all is in the treble frequencies.

Carbon comp resistors can be some of the best hiss generators on the planet.

Some designs just beg for hiss problems! Whenever you see 220k plate resistors and other resistor values used to flog more gain from just one 12AX7 you can expect the hiss level to increase. That's the sound of a tube hurting!:smile: Lots of amps do it, like Peavey Classic 50's, Carvins and Boogers. It's cheaper to try to get more gain from one tube than by adding another stage, with more room, socket, tube and parts being necessary. Those amps that do add tubes might cost a bit more but you get benefits, like less hiss! The Peavey 5150 uses LOTS of 12AX7 stages! By getting a reasonable amount of gain from each stage and letting them all add up you get a smoother, creamier distortion with less hiss.

The best cure is to play louder!:eek:

Hopefully all this is useful!:smile:

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