Egnater Tweaker 15 Problems

  • Thread starter Thread starter Savagery
  • Start date Start date
S

Savagery

New member
Hello,

Maybe 5 months ago I purchased an Egnater Tweaker 15 head and 1x12 cab new from Musician's Friend. I own a recording studio and this amp was purchased to record one particular artist.

We have been tracking guitars for months and getting a great sound. However, last week while playing alone, I noticed the Tweaker was giving me some microphonic squealing-type feedback when I get too close to the head with a guitar. Even 5 feet or so away, it would do this. This is at moderate gain settings, maybe 12 o' clock to 3 o'clock on the CLEAN setting. This was definitely a new thing. The cab is 20 feet away in another room.

Today I had my client in and we worked on more guitars, and for the life of me I could NOT match the sound we had gotten for months. Same mics/placement, same settings on the amp, same guitar etc. Also, there is the squeaking feedback between notes, which had never happened before.

The tone is noticeably darker, with a much less pleasing overdrive. Instead of the smooth bright distortion I was getting before, now I have a crusty mid-rangey breakup. Tried the other guitar we use, same deal. I just don't like the sound of the amp anymore, it's not even close to what it was and I'm positive something is wrong.

I'm thinking (hoping) tubes, and I have some extra brand new 12ax7s I can swap in to test. I don't have spare power tubes.

Any more recommendations? Send it back right now? Replace tubes and then send back? I don't want to be without this amp, since that puts this project on hold. I wouldn't mind just throwing in tubes to get going again, but if something is wrong with the amp and it's burning tubes, I would rather just exchange. Are there known issues with tubes in this amp?

Thanks,

Dave
 
Yup, tubes. Just checked, one power tube not even lighting up. Swapped the two around and the problem followed... ordered a new set of tung-sol 6V6s.
 
Just a FYI, check to see what your power tubes are biased at? I know its cathode biased but I found my tweaker running way to hot, (50ma a tube) there is a resistor that sets the bias R29 on the board. Stk it is 10 watt220 OHMS I had to change mine to 10 watt 500OHMS to get the amp to bias right.
 
Back
Top