VH4 Hiss

Hey guys...

I dunno if this has always been the case or that I've just noticed it, but I'm getting hiss from my VH4.

I don't mind much hiss in my distortion channels however I'm experiencing it in channel 1 which I'm assuming shouldn't be the case.

I have the unit plugged into a furman power conditioner and the hiss is the same when used with the furman or not. I've also removed every other component and the hiss is still the same. I also use evidence audio for both my speaker and gutiar cable.

I've tried tapping the first preamp tube with a pencil to see if it pings but its fine... I'm just wondering what else I could try before going the noisegate route....

If its any use to you, the main power fuse blew a few days ago and I had to use the spare one to get the unit working again... But it was hissing before that.


Cheers guys...

John

i had the same problem. i changed the preamp tubes and put in low noice balanced pair (vh4-s) of jj phase inverter tubes and adjust the hum balance poti inside the amp (the white poti near the input jack).
now the hiss is gone. if you turn the volume half way up you will still notice some hum but thats normal.

thanks for that... i might give that a try...

are there any other solutions? could it just be that i need to buy another set of the same and that one might be faulty?

I don't really want to change the sound that the old preamp tubes give me...

cheers,

john

Sorry to be a pain, but I need to know that this is not normal before I proceed...

I have the master volume on 9 o clock and the channel 1 volume on 12...

The amp hisses quite loudly on this setting.. regardless of an input jack being plugged in...

No other connections are made either...

Do i Need to buy a full set of low noise pair or is there somehitng else the matter?

Please could someone give us some advice?

Cheers,

John

Ok so heres what I did...

I tried replacing V1 with an EHX tube I had lying around and the noise was still there...

So I stuck the tube I took from V1 and swapped it into V4 and the noise has lowered considerably...

What I want to do now is replace all the tubes with low noise tubes and was wondering what brand and where to buy them from. (I live in the UK by the way)

Could people do me a favour and share with me your favourite tubes? I play alt rock such as bands like Muse and so would like to be in that ball park... I Like my distortions articulate but still quite heavy... I guess I'll stick with 12ax7s seeing as they are ok but if anyone could sway me then I might buy a bunch...

Thanks guys...

John...

Try some Tung-Sol 12AX7.
I believe they're the best atm in terms of microphonic reduction.

Thanks JohnRageOn... These look really good.

So, before I buy a full set of thse Tung Sols can you just clarify this for me?

If I buy 7 of these and switch them all in my VH4 that will be ok right?

Will the gain be affected much? I read in one article that the gain is lower in these is that ok considering I'm playing alt rock?

Thanks,

John

Ehhh, the tung-sols don't really sound very good with diezel, and they totally kill the clean channel. If you can get Groove Tubes thats your best bet, just put the chinese ones in all of your gain stages(GT-12AX7-C)... except for v-1 maybe, Peter said he puts cz's in there now (jj/teslas), which would be a groove tubes (GT-ECC83-S). They're expensive but worth it.

You may want to look at your power tubes, if the main fuse blew.


-Nick

:|::QBB:

Hey_bert_whtcha_doin_bert":987ac said:

Ehhh, the tung-sols don't really sound very good with diezel, and they totally kill the clean channel. If you can get Groove Tubes thats your best bet, just put the chinese ones in all of your gain stages(GT-12AX7-C)... except for v-1 maybe, Peter said he puts cz's in there now (jj/teslas), which would be a groove tubes (GT-ECC83-S). They're expensive but worth it.

You may want to look at your power tubes, if the main fuse blew.


-Nick

Click to expand...

To clarify some things mine is loaded with Ruby (preamp and poweramp) but I've heard one with Tung-Sol preamp tubes (VH4) and it was quite fine.
I had some EH in the beginning, the power tubes were fine but to my ears at least the preamp tubes had a pronounced treble frequency, so I changed them all with Ruby except the PI and the loop tubes (are still EH and they're doing fine).
But I've heard only good things about Tung-Sol and about the R&D they've made in order to reduce microphonics.

Thanks John,

Yesterday i went and ordered 3 Tung Sols... I intend to try them in V1, V4 and the PI. I want to see if I can tame the noise that was getting previously...

Once my amp is stable again, do you suggest I switch to Rubys? This is the first time I've bothered with tubes as the VH4 is the first real boutique amp I've owned... So I guess I'm a tube newbie...

Thanks

John

:|::QBB:

edgemeister":5b629 said:

Thanks John,

Yesterday i went and ordered 3 Tung Sols... I intend to try them in V1, V4 and the PI. I want to see if I can tame the noise that was getting previously...

Once my amp is stable again, do you suggest I switch to Rubys? This is the first time I've bothered with tubes as the VH4 is the first real boutique amp I've owned... So I guess I'm a tube newbie...

Thanks

John

Click to expand...

Ruby tubes are quite good actually both preamp and power amp! Experiment with tubes, you'll find your flavor for sure and it is always good to have spare ones.