Marshall JCM 2000 is making strange noises

You don't need the ground plug to measure the voltage, to plug the amp into, yes you do.

I have multiple multimeters and voltage meters none of them have a ground. I like this meter because I can plug it in, set it and forget it. As there is demand on the system I can see how the power is fluctuating or instantly see the voltage if my amps do something unexpected.
 


Large households electrical loads like electric stove / HVAC / elec dryers will drop drop a couple volts here or there but what you described sounds like a vacuum tube problem not a household wire problem.
I never run large appliances wile setting the bias on an amp if possible.
I use a couple layers of Furman PC with my gear to prevent EMI / RFI but even with that its not going to cause the bass in your speakers to "fart out" as you described.
 
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I have multiple multimeters and voltage meters none of them have a ground. I like this meter because I can plug it in, set it and forget it. As there is demand on the system I can see how the power is fluctuating or instantly see the voltage if my amps do something unexpected.

DMM have a shunt resistor to keep you from getting killed in case you ground out.
Anything you plug into a standard 115v / 230v 3 prong system that not grounded is a potential problem.
 
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Large households electrical loads like electric stove / HVAC / elec dryers will drop drop a couple volts here or there but what you described sounds like a vacuum tube problem not a household wire
I use a couple layers of Furman PC with my gear to prevent EMI / RFI but even with that its not going to cause the bass in your speakers to "fart out" as you described.

Thank you for your advice. I am not having the problem in my house it is in my rehearsal studio. We are talking a lot more gear and industrial heating and cooling systems than what you are showing in your picture. It is not just my amp that is having problems it is multiple amps.

I am glad you have your power issues at home figured out. I am talking about an older commercial space with multiple PA systems, appliances, amps, and lighting. As I said earlier in the post when I bring the amp home, the problem seems to go away. For $9 we want to first rule out the power before tearing our amps apart.

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Voltage fluctuates everyday no matter what. No telling whats going on in that space. But voltage changing a few volts does not necessarily cause noise in a guitar amp.
Beware of showing up to rehearsals and a band member sez "here plug into this", find out where "this" goes and what it plugs into.
Speaking from experience.
 
With a 100-watt amp, you are likely only pulling about 150-200 watts out of the wall. This won't draw down the voltage much if at all. Now once you have several amplifiers going full steam, the amperage draw will increase a bit, dropping the voltage down perhaps a few volts. A few volts is of little concern. The voltage out of the wall will fluctuate that much or more over the course of the day.

I have been doing sound for roughly 20 years and haven't come across a band yet, where all the backline instruments couldn't work on a single 20-amp outlet. Most amplifiers only draw between 100 to perhaps 300 watts. A 20-amp circuit has 2400 watts available, and a basic 15-watt circuit has 1900 watts or so that it can handle. So as you can imagine, you would need a band with 5 guitarists, a bassist, and a keyboardist with 4 keyboards to fill up a full circuit. By the time you start getting a full band plugged into a single circuit (speaking only of their instruments), you can see now how even a basic band is of little concern for a single 15-amp circuit. You need to be drawing nearly 90% of the circuit's available wattage before extreme voltage drops can become an issue. For most basic devices such as amplifiers, a few volts, and even 6 volts is not going to hurt anything. I would say that the point of worry comes when you are dropping more than 10 volts over a sustained period of time. I.E. if you hold a HUGE bass note for 10 seconds and the voltage drops 10 volts and doesn't recover, you are coming near the end of the line for that circuit. That is not a practical reality in most music though. Every time you stop playing even for a split second, the current demand stops, and the system will recover from the previous current draw.

Music is extremely dynamic and especially with distorted guitars where the signal is extremely compressed ( because of the clipped signal ), the current demand from the wall from each instrument is meager. 99% of bands are formatted pretty much the same. So a 5 piece band is not working a 15-amp circuit much at all, assuming they are on their own circuit.

If your band's rehearsal space only has a couple of outlets that are tied to the same breaker, you could have issues if you have the band's PA and the backline running full tilt. A basic powered PA speaker has a typical rating for its 1/8th power usage. What this means is that when the speaker is operating at 1/8th of its full potential, it will start to limit and control the speaker's output locking the power consumption down to the speaker's rated current draw, typically around 2.5 to 5 amps. 1 amp at 120 volts is roughly 120 watts. So 5 amps of total current draw (the highest most powered PA speakers are rated for) is only 600 watts. So, when the speaker is screaming bloody murder and every red light it has is on and flashing, it will only be drawing roughly 250-600 watts of power. This means that you can have 2 powered PA speakers running at full potential (full-on clipping) and only just be getting into the worry zone for a 15-amp circuit. Often you can run up to four powered speakers on a single 15-amp circuit before you start running into issues. The reason being is that it is pretty difficult to get all four speakers to start clipping simultaneously; unless you are demanding significantly more than the speakers have to give in the first place.

So to get on point for the OP, I don't think voltage is your issue. I would start by trying new tubes or at least known good tubes. And if the issue persists, then and only then start looking into more serious work. At the age of the amp, I would suspect that a re-cap is probably on the books.
 
DMM have a shunt resistor to keep you from getting killed in case you ground out.
Anything you plug into a standard 115v / 230v 3 prong system that not grounded is a potential problem.

Solid advice. :bigthumb:
 


Large households electrical loads like electric stove / HVAC / elec dryers will drop drop a couple volts here or there but what you described sounds like a vacuum tube problem not a household wire problem.
I never run large appliances wile setting the bias on an amp if possible.
I use a couple layers of Furman PC with my gear to prevent EMI / RFI but even with that its not going to cause the bass in your speakers to "fart out" as you described.

Nice Jr. you got there... but not a Gibson (so it seems) - what brand?
 
With a 100-watt amp, you are likely only pulling about 150-200 watts out of the wall. This won't draw down the voltage much if at all. Now once you have several amplifiers going full steam, the amperage draw will increase a bit, dropping the voltage down perhaps a few volts. A few volts is of little concern. The voltage out of the wall will fluctuate that much or more over the course of the day.

I have been doing sound for roughly 20 years and haven't come across a band yet, where all the backline instruments couldn't work on a single 20-amp outlet. Most amplifiers only draw between 100 to perhaps 300 watts. A 20-amp circuit has 2400 watts available, and a basic 15-watt circuit has 1900 watts or so that it can handle. So as you can imagine, you would need a band with 5 guitarists, a bassist, and a keyboardist with 4 keyboards to fill up a full circuit. By the time you start getting a full band plugged into a single circuit (speaking only of their instruments), you can see now how even a basic band is of little concern for a single 15-amp circuit. You need to be drawing nearly 90% of the circuit's available wattage before extreme voltage drops can become an issue. For most basic devices such as amplifiers, a few volts, and even 6 volts is not going to hurt anything. I would say that the point of worry comes when you are dropping more than 10 volts over a sustained period of time. I.E. if you hold a HUGE bass note for 10 seconds and the voltage drops 10 volts and doesn't recover, you are coming near the end of the line for that circuit. That is not a practical reality in most music though. Every time you stop playing even for a split second, the current demand stops, and the system will recover from the previous current draw.

Music is extremely dynamic and especially with distorted guitars where the signal is extremely compressed ( because of the clipped signal ), the current demand from the wall from each instrument is meager. 99% of bands are formatted pretty much the same. So a 5 piece band is not working a 15-amp circuit much at all, assuming they are on their own circuit.

If your band's rehearsal space only has a couple of outlets that are tied to the same breaker, you could have issues if you have the band's PA and the backline running full tilt. A basic powered PA speaker has a typical rating for its 1/8th power usage. What this means is that when the speaker is operating at 1/8th of its full potential, it will start to limit and control the speaker's output locking the power consumption down to the speaker's rated current draw, typically around 2.5 to 5 amps. 1 amp at 120 volts is roughly 120 watts. So 5 amps of total current draw (the highest most powered PA speakers are rated for) is only 600 watts. So, when the speaker is screaming bloody murder and every red light it has is on and flashing, it will only be drawing roughly 250-600 watts of power. This means that you can have 2 powered PA speakers running at full potential (full-on clipping) and only just be getting into the worry zone for a 15-amp circuit. Often you can run up to four powered speakers on a single 15-amp circuit before you start running into issues. The reason being is that it is pretty difficult to get all four speakers to start clipping simultaneously; unless you are demanding significantly more than the speakers have to give in the first place.

So to get on point for the OP, I don't think voltage is your issue. I would start by trying new tubes or at least known good tubes. And if the issue persists, then and only then start looking into more serious work. At the age of the amp, I would suspect that a re-cap is probably on the books.

Thanks, this is very comprehensive. It is not only the band equipment and PA but two PAs, a professional lighting system and some larger appliances in the space, a fridge and AC and heating system. I would be quick to look at my head if it was the only amp having problems. The other guitarist across the room is having issues with his 5150, my bass player is having issues with a solid-state Fender, and another bass player is having issues with his Carvin stack. All of these gremlins happening at once has us thinking it is the power. I got the voltage meter if the circuit comes back at a steady 120v I will start investigating the amp.
 
DMM have a shunt resistor to keep you from getting killed in case you ground out.
Anything you plug into a standard 115v / 230v 3 prong system that not grounded is a potential problem.

I will throw out my phone charger, 9-volt adaptors, television, and all of my kitchen appliances the second I get a chance.
 
I will throw out my phone charger, 9-volt adaptors, television, and all of my kitchen appliances the second I get a chance.

Tube amps have 500 volts inside i was under the idea you ran your Chinese voltmeter with a tube amp.
But yes throw it all out we don't need that sh*t.
As for your practice space its a mess you'll likely have to live with it.
Gigging bars and clubs has the same issues, doesn't get much better.
My local vintage shop has 100 yr old wiring and the owner makes no attempt at clean power ect. He just cranks the amps and plays.

.:headbang::flush::bling:
 
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Nice Jr. you got there... but not a Gibson (so it seems) - what brand?



Its the Badass 58 Jr kind.
Thank you for the compliment its probably the most best sounding & easiest playing ive had in 45 years.
A guy out of Philly made it.
You would think that's non compensated regular TP the intonation would be wacky but not at all, its totally spot on.
 
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Its the Badass 58 Jr kind.
Thank you for the compliment its probably the most best sounding & easiest playing ive had in 45 years.
A guy out of Philly made it.
You would think that's non compensated regular TP the intonation would be wacky but not at all, its totally spot on.

Yep the Jr.'s have the toanz.

What P-90? And that little micro switch does what?
 



Its the Badass 58 Jr kind.

It is badass. I love the TV Yellow, wrap around bridge, and single pickup. It looks like a barebones screamer, I love it. If I were to look for a Jr. it would look exactly like that. What does the switch do?
 
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