How To Easily Locate A Rattling Tube - Ask Zac 134
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- Опубліковано 20 вер 2024
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After last week's 2-hour interview with Don Kelley, I decided something shorter was in order.
My old Deluxe Reverb started exhibiting a funky rattle, and I had to fix it. Usually, I play while a friend pushes on the amp's tubes one at a time with a pencil eraser. I show how to use a looper pedal to help you find the rattle.
#askzac #guitartech #tuberattle
Thanks again, Zac! You're a great guy for sharing your knowledge here with us. A big thank you from the folk in Brazil!
Always wonderful, useful and “practical” information on your channel. This episode reminds me of our days when you had you Ask Zac column in Vintage Guitar.
Zac, thank you for this video. The looper thing is so obvious yet I’ve never thought of it. This is also extremely useful when you have cabinet rattle or something in the room is rattling and you can’t figure out what it is. Trying to play and then press on random furniture with your knees and elbows will be a thing of the past! Sound and practical video.
The good thing is that you don't have to worry about any tubes going out in The Tone Master Deluxe!!
Hey Zac! I had great luck with the really thick tube dampers from Eurotubes. They have much more surface area than the typical silicon rings and apply greater pressure around the glass. Saved a wonderful '71 7 notch Mullard GZ34 I use in my Fat Jimmy. Looper is definitely the way to go for pinpointing the culprit!
I use a Sovtek 5AR4 (GZ34) in two of my amps that use them...new ones. I've been getting new ones for a while now and they really don't last long. I just changed one out and it had been in there for about 4 years. Typically I get about 2 years out of one before they blow fuses and are done. I know thtat the NOS are way better but they can be so expensive. I get my tubes here at the Tubestore in Canada...great quick service....they ship to the States.
Still have all but two original tubes in my DR. including an Amperex bugle boy GZ34.
Watching late today. All the excitement of painting the kitchen cabinets today. Genius with looping the offending note. Zac's P bass makes an appearance!
Combo amps just love to have this problem. Whole lotta shakin going on ya know? I have a divided by 13 that’s sensitive to it and I quieted the rattle a bit using a silicon ring around the offending tube. They make rings for ummmmmm adult use that are a great fit for preamp tubes 😂
Makes sense…designed to help your amp um…stand up for the entire performance. (Is that a rectifier tube in your pocket?) 🤣😂😇
This gets worse: (Opening scene with obligatory wah pedal guitar) Young lady in bathrobe opens the door to a moustached man carrying a Sweetwater backpack, who says “Good afternoon. I’m here to help you with that rattling in your tubes…”😇
Great tip buddy that one of those things that’s gonna come in real handy.
Hopefully not for a while I’ve just changed all my tubes on my ac15 got rid of the stock ones.
Lol. You did show the tapping with the pencil. That is what the video was supposed to be. Cracking up. Next time pull the cover for easy access. You can even tap on them with your finger nail like you did with the tube out... when the amp is on and idling. You can't get shocked touching the glass. The offender(s) will ring out. Get some nos tubes for that thing while they can still be got.
peculiar to the Deluxe Reverb and could carry to other amplifiers as combo amps.....IS that the cabinet resonates.....this can be manifested on the steel chassis and depending on the frequency...can manifest on particular tubes in the pre-amp section while others are not affected or the manifestation travels between tubes and frequency.....SPECIALLY with the metal spring cans on the tubes. You may find the ringing goes away when the tube can is removed......because the resonant frequency is acting on that tube and its vibrating the can & spring on the glass of the tube...AND its not a weak spring. SO the solution is to place some electrical tape between the spring and the contact surface of the glass of the tube......and you might even have to wrap the metal base of the tube socket to fit the metal can over.....or use some shrink tubing. MESA ENGINEERING used to sell the Mesa tubes with the heat shrink wrapped glass of the pre-amp tubes. In Electronics terms, you have the action going on inside the tube as it does its thing.......the metal can is mechanically connected to ground via being metal and the base of the tube socket being fixed to the chassis and thus chassis ground. The electrical tape or heat shrink tubing on the tube will sort of create the definition of a capacitor as 2 conductors separated by an insulator and would much be like the Late Fender thing of the CBS era as to place the shunting caps on the power tubes and elsewhere......the glass would be an insulator but adding the extra with the tape or shrink wrap enhances beyond the vibrational aspect & cushioning the vibrations......and part of that scenario of if the amp sounds better with the tubes in the cans or with the cans off & that hocus pocus argument that exists
keep in mind that the contact point between the steel spring and the glass....the vibrational aspect is not always as an impact like tapping on the glass with something......that metal spring can vibrate side to side as in brushing the glass. But that is basically linear thinking in 2 planes or 2D.....when things are 3D to us......and vibration is 3D. INSIDE the glass tube...the guts are fitted to like the 2 star looking spacers that touch the glass inside.....they are precision pieces with placed holes. SO on the tube assembly lines when the lines were properly maintained when production was mainstream....they strictly controlled these fixtures creating the holes for assembly.......as tubes phased out...they quit maintaining them as intensely as they did.....and retired the machinery as it broke down and kept the remaining lines going as they continued to phase out production. So depending on supply contracts....meaning military, the regular scheduled maintenance was concentrated as it was now a specialty scenario and subject to specifications. In the general production lines in the hey day, they had quality control aspects at the end of production to check tubes......the high testing within a graduation had a high test limit which designated MILITARY GRADE within the batch being tested coming off the particular assemble line. The tubes which did not make that cut off for MILITARY GRADE.....were then subject to second tier specifications which are designated INDUSTRIAL GRADE. The tubes which did not meet the cutoff for INDUSTRIAL GRADE...became 3rd tier which is CONSUMER GRADE...the average tube to the pedestrian electronics consumer ! SO if you follow time line and electronics evolution for consumer grade electronics....in our homes....the tubes represented a service issue and were thus a part of the electronics field as they created jobs for field technicians to service the TV's...other than the radio's which preceded as the NEW ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY...the infancy of electricity being available to the population......these are big business decisions to keep profits streaming on the back end after a sale. SO as tubes were going to be displaced by solid state.....and with hybrid designs in the transition to solid state electronics......they did not maintain the tube production lines properly as they did ........so NOS tubes are not always automatically superior when it comes to CONSUMER GRADE TUBES and specially the late production pieces.....unless they were from a MILITARY contract....and NOT REJECTS that didn't make the cut. In the hey day, the tubes that tested out less than the Consumer grade specs.......GOT DESTROYED. Today...the accountants would have them being sold off which would deter the cost loss of production as a waste.....but in the long term it would damage the company and reputation......and that's why accountants should mind their place and not run companies or dictate how companies should be ran........prevent a loss today as an accounting victory & the company is out of business a few years later due to the accountants........no business dynasty for the ages. BUT yes, considering the cost of NOS tubes.....subject to guarantee, I'd be using modern production tubes made on new modern machinery thats controlled & maintained. There is no reason why with CNC control & the modern 3D printing technology that somebody could manufacture "NEW" vacuum tubes...DOMESTICALLY in the USA.....in a complete automated robotic environment for the assembly line. There are the HARDCORE FLY FISHING GUYS THAT TIE THEIR OWN FLY'S......its not much far removed
one other note......when tubes were early on in production & design...think octal era......radio....the tubes tended to not always be GLASS...they had METAL TUBES. GLASS is more prevalent in the 9 pin era...considering its all you would see today unless you dug up a stash of early era NOS stuff. The "vacuum" aspect in production would be a carry over from making edison light bulbs......hence glass. NOT all electronics with "glass" carry metal tube shields as in Fender style......but some positions can carry a metal sleeve over the glass which may or may not have a contact ground aspect to the chassis of the set. Think radio and the sudden polluting of the planet with the invisible radio waves man created hahaha and how they increased in abundance from never existing before as time rolls on......and today its digital transmissions.......but they still blink at night in the night sky......in some cases.....in the 5G world now
Funny, this is the exact note that one of the tubes in my amp also takes off. G# (also D#).
Sounds like Neil Young's outro solo to Southern Man.
I have this issue on my mid 70s vibro champ. It just randomly started one day after years of use and no issues. At first I thought a tube went bad or was on its way out. I swapped them out one by one and it made no difference. I’m guessing it’s something to do with rattling from the speaker vibration. I know they sell those rings and other products that go around the tube. Have you tried any or found a solution?
You cant get shocked through glass.
The proper way to find problens is turn your amp all the way up and your guitar all the way down and tap on the botom of all the tubes. The problem will rear its ugly head
This is great - thanks Zac!!!
I have an old 59s magnatone. Crackles loudly here and there. I always assumed it was loose tube. I usually push on all of them. Do you have any insight into what it is? Through the speaker.
Any experience with tube dampers? Let go of a valuable Mullard GZ34 due to a ‘zing’ on certain notes
I 've a Mullard GZ34 metal base in my 64 Deluxe Reverb, it's a amazing rectifier, perfect compression!!!
Hey Zac. I have an old Ampeg and I shined an led flashlight in the back and one tube produces a high D note when the light hits it. What’s with that?
Huh?
@@AskZac
I shined a flashlight into the back of the amp looking for a patch cord and I hear this tone, a D. I experimented and the LED flashlight caused the amp to generate the tone when shined on one specific tube, I think it was a 6SL7 maybe for the reverb? Tube is still in the amp, I showed it to someone just recently. Weird, eh?
What is the "shshshshsh" sound in your amp? What is causing this?
bad tube
nice shirt!!
Pretty good tube life if you play alot.
Dear Zac! Greetings from Brazil ( sorry by the bad president that we've, a Trump Clone with less brain yet!! ). I would like to tell you tha I 've a 1964 Deluxe Reverb with NOS tubes that make all diference in final sound...ans I use a Celestion G12-65 that i remove from a Fender EC Tremolux Tweed ans, man its perfect to the Deluxe!! Maybe you must try it in your Deluxe. you 'll like so much, no doubt Zac!!! Thank you by your great job here!! Carlos Garcia...