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Re: Small questions that don't fit anywhere

2362 by Dr Tony Balls
Frankie99 wrote: Sun Mar 16, 2025 12:23 am I have a traynor Mark III - 100 watt head. If I wanna run it at 50 watts, do I just pull the 2 outer tubes? MFer needs to chillax....
Yes that should be fine. Also your output impedance will double (what used to be 4Ω will now be 8Ω, etc). And finally dont be surprised if you dont hear much difference at all. You'll only get about 10% volume reduction, not half.
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Re: Small questions that don't fit anywhere

2363 by Frankie99
The reason for the experiment is actually two fold. That traynor makes a spitty fuzzy distortion sound at about 6 on master gain and 6 on volume that's unusual and ugly in a bad way. Both channels, all 4 inputs. It's done this across 2 different 100 watt 8 ohm cabs - I checked wiring myself since they're all old/used.

I've taken it to the same tech twice who has said he can't reproduce it - he did fix the trem though the first time around and it sounds great. He's fixed other amps for me before and has been a known tech here for a long long time. Before I haul off an take this to another tech and wait for it I want to see if I can run anything down that could be causing it, so I figure power reduction and removing 2 tubes, if the trouble follows I can rule out the cabs, and also pretty much rule out the power tubes.

I've ordered a set of preamp tubes (I needed a reason for spares anyway). The tech said all the tubes were fine but one preamp tube that he replaced the first time around. He didn't charge me anything for the second trip since he couldn't find anything, which I appreciated.

I had to disassemble all my recording shit to test out the traynor, or I would have recorded it last night. I'll try to get a decent recording here - maybe someone has an idea.

Re: Small questions that don't fit anywhere

2364 by TylerDeadPine
Frankie99 wrote: Sun Mar 16, 2025 11:10 am The reason for the experiment is actually two fold. That traynor makes a spitty fuzzy distortion sound at about 6 on master gain and 6 on volume that's unusual and ugly in a bad way. Both channels, all 4 inputs. It's done this across 2 different 100 watt 8 ohm cabs - I checked wiring myself since they're all old/used.

I've taken it to the same tech twice who has said he can't reproduce it - he did fix the trem though the first time around and it sounds great. He's fixed other amps for me before and has been a known tech here for a long long time. Before I haul off an take this to another tech and wait for it I want to see if I can run anything down that could be causing it, so I figure power reduction and removing 2 tubes, if the trouble follows I can rule out the cabs, and also pretty much rule out the power tubes.

I've ordered a set of preamp tubes (I needed a reason for spares anyway). The tech said all the tubes were fine but one preamp tube that he replaced the first time around. He didn't charge me anything for the second trip since he couldn't find anything, which I appreciated.

I had to disassemble all my recording shit to test out the traynor, or I would have recorded it last night. I'll try to get a decent recording here - maybe someone has an idea.
After that If you turn either of them up after that past 6 does it get worse?

Re: Small questions that don't fit anywhere

2365 by Frankie99
Yeah, replaced all 5 preamp tubes, pulled the outer 2 power tubes, ran into a 16 ohm 120 watt cabinet and the same problems persisted. I got an iphone recording of it - there's a spitty, fizzy sound that comes through, especially on louder diminishing sounds. It does get worse as it gets louder.

I mean, until I get better at this kind of repair, I am probably going to find another amp tech and see if they can figure it out.

The 100 watt orange sounds perfect through the same cabs in the same space, so it stands to reason that it's the amp.

I'm gonna bring my cab to the next tech so I can demo it.

Re: Small questions that don't fit anywhere

2366 by benadrian
Frankie99 wrote: Mon Mar 17, 2025 12:14 pm Yeah, replaced all 5 preamp tubes, pulled the outer 2 power tubes, ran into a 16 ohm 120 watt cabinet and the same problems persisted. I got an iphone recording of it - there's a spitty, fizzy sound that comes through, especially on louder diminishing sounds. It does get worse as it gets louder.

I mean, until I get better at this kind of repair, I am probably going to find another amp tech and see if they can figure it out.

The 100 watt orange sounds perfect through the same cabs in the same space, so it stands to reason that it's the amp.

I'm gonna bring my cab to the next tech so I can demo it.
Yeah. It could be tech time. Still, here's two things I'd check.

1. Is it mechanical? Put the head on the ground or on a table... not on a vibrating cabinet. Or plug it into a dummy load and listen with headphones or tiny speakers. Basically, is the vibration causing a part to move and that movement is making the noise. You can also do the "chopstick test", where you poke at the inside of the live amp with a wooden chopstick or other non conductive probing object. If that weirds you out, you can do the "Reverse Fonz", where you just whack the amp with your fist while it's on and listen for vibrational noise issues.

2. How old are the power filter caps? If they are original, they can probably stand to be replaced. I can't tell you exactly why, but I have noticed that amp distortion just sounds more shitty to me with old, bad filter caps.

Re: Small questions that don't fit anywhere

2367 by Frankie99
Yeah, I thought of #1 also, so I tested with it on a concrete floor next to the cab last night. Samesies. As far as the caps, this thing is in very good cosmetic shape, so I wouldn't be surprised if much of the guts were OG. It doesn't look like a gigged amp. This amp is new to me - less than 6 months? Maybe at some point with more experience I'll feel good about draining and replacing caps, but that's not today.

There's another guy in town I'm going to call. I can probably drop the chassis tonight if I can get to the space and take a look to see if the caps are original....thanks y'all.

Re: Small questions that don't fit anywhere

2369 by benadrian
Frankie99 wrote: Mon Mar 17, 2025 3:10 pm OK, so this is a wrinkle I didn't expect - the next person recommended to me will also do a kind of side by side repair class while he works on your amp with you. This seems......pretty rad? Anyone familiar with this?

https://aventguitars.com/school.html
Seems like an insurance liability for the shop, but pretty rad other than that. This is kind of how I learned. The amp repair guy in Indy was nice enough to tolerate me hanging around and asking endless questions. Kevin Silva of Uncle Albert's amp repair, thank you.

When I was doing amp repair by word of mouth in the bay area, my least favorite part was sitting alone in a windowless room doing the work. Since it was mostly for my friends or friends of friends, I'd give them an choice:
1. pay for the parts and repair time
2. pay for the parts, bring me a burrito (buy dinner that would be way cheaper than the repair cost), and hang out while I fix your amp.

Almost no one took me up on the latter. Basically, they'd rather pay more than hang out with me. The whole thing just makes me sad now thinking about it.
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