My tube amp is very quiet

[NewWave]

I have a laney ironheart amp.

It's a 3 channel amp the Clean and Rhytm share a preamp tube I think not sure about power tubes and it's very super duper quiet. I have to turn it to 10 to even slightly hear anything then sometimes all of a sudden it becomes EXTREMELY loud again. Like this one time it made my ears ring for a whole minute. Like I have to "fish" the volume.

The lead channel is also quiet not as quiet as the Rhytm and Clean but it's supposed to have more power to it.

I only have 2 extra preamp tubes around and tried changing the tubes one by one and it didn't help. I have no extra power tubes.

 

[RealtyViking]

Re: My tube amp is very quiet

With any tube amp my first troubleshooting step is to replace the tubes. Power tubes are much more likely to fail so they are the first that I check. Get yourself another set of power tubes and worse case is you have a backup set.

 

[GoldenVulture]

Re: My tube amp is very quiet

What happens if you give the amp case a bit of a thump ?
Does the volume jump or crackle ?
If so your looking for a bad connection some where.
That could be a badly seated valve.

 

[crusty philtrum]

Re: My tube amp is very quiet

Try inserting and removing a jack plug several times into the 'send' and 'return' sockets of the effects loop, and try running the amp with those sockets linked by a short patch cable (although the length of the cable is not important) You'll need to turn up any relevant send and/ or return level controls to perhaps half-way. You could also try the multiple 'insert/ remove' plug method on any other sockets that may interrupt the signal path, such as 'line in' and/ or 'line out' sockets.

If it's a 'head' style unit with a speaker output(s), you could also try the multiple 'insert/ remove plug' method on the speaker output sockets, but it may be best to do that with the amp off. (I have two Laney VC15 combos that I use with extension speaker cabinets, and one of them has a very touchy extension speaker socket ... being a combo, i am able to jigggle the connection with the amp switched on, because when the external speaker doesn't connect, the internal one remains connected, meaning the amp always has a load, no danger of running the amp without a speaker in such a case).

 

[NewWave]

Re: My tube amp is very quiet

I did the plug in a jack into FX Loop and no change really. When I give the head a slightly/ quite strong bang, nothing happens. is it the power tubes? Tubes are really hard to find and expensive where I live damn..

 

[zzmoore]

Re: My tube amp is very quiet

Where do you live.?
Does this amp have 2 or 4 power tubes.?

Crusty made several good suggestions above.
You said you "put A JACK into the loop". He is talking about putting an instrument cable into both the send and return at the same time.....is that what you did.?

 

[NewWave]

Re: My tube amp is very quiet

I used a jumper instrument cable (the short instrument cable) plugged from to send to return

This amp has 4 power tubes.

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: My tube amp is very quiet

a problem that comes and goes is something loose
either a loose wire
bad Jack
bad connection somewhere

a tube wouldn't do intermittent
or I would think so

 

[GoldenVulture]

Re: My tube amp is very quiet

a problem that comes and goes is something loose
either a loose wire
bad Jack
bad connection somewhere

a tube wouldn't do intermittent
or I would think so

Oxidisation on the pins along with expansion and contraction of the socket and pins due to the heat from the valves and then the cold when they're turned off can cause intermittent connection problems. Equipment in humid climates are more prone to the oxidisation. Cleaning the pins and resocketing the valve can over come this.

 

[Nostalgic Distortion]

Re: My tube amp is very quiet

Which Ironheart do you have & what kind of power tubes does it take? I know the 15W head runs off EL84's but I believe the larger 60w & 120w heads run off 6L6's?

 

[NewWave]

Re: My tube amp is very quiet

4 6l6s. I'll try resocketing the power tubes

 

[crusty philtrum]

Re: My tube amp is very quiet

Don't forget to check the speaker output sockets.

 

[NewWave]

Re: My tube amp is very quiet

Noooo bad news guys.... Resocketted the tubes still nothing changed. I don't want to be stuck playing through my small solid amp guys.

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: My tube amp is very quiet

hmm you may have a blown speaker

do you have a extension speaker or some way of connecting those SS speakers to test this?

 

[Kamanda~SD]

Re: My tube amp is very quiet

Try tapping your tubes while its powered up. Sounds more like a tube issue than a speaker issue but definitely eliminate as many variables as possible.

How old are the tubes in there?

 

[NewWave]

Re: My tube amp is very quiet

Tubes are 3 years old but I just started using this amp again I used another amp before. So I never really played this amp for say 2 years

 

[Kamanda~SD]

Re: My tube amp is very quiet

Sounds about right....swap em out and see.

 

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: My tube amp is very quiet

I don't know why I didn't think of this before, but I had an amp that was this way after I replaced all the electrolytics in it. The problem was the bias voltage being way out of wack. There was so much negative voltage on the grids that very little current could flow. If I jumpered from one of the new caps (in the bias circuit) to ground the amp was very loud. What the exact problem was, was actually a resistor gone bad. I guess with old worn out caps it didn't matter but with new caps in there the open resistor couldn't regulate the voltage properly or something.

Have a tech check go through and test all the voltages on the pins throughout the amp.