Einstein tone trouble

M

max

New member
Hi,

I own Einstein a couple of months now, and I'm very happy with it, I had to replace stock power tubes, because they wore red plating, I ordered a set of SED EL34 and 6550 from Watfod valves, and payd a lot of money :), I settle on EL34 I just like them more, I have 6550 for backup.

Lately I started to noticed, that I get somehow harsh or fizzy or buzzing tones on channel 1 mode 2, its really hard to describe, and I hope that I'm not just paranoid about the tone too much.

If I play a chord on channel 1 mode 2 with gain around 10-11 first it sounds OK, at the end when it rings out it sounds "harsh" "fizzy", "fuzzy" for a couple of seconds, and its really noticeable. If I play single notes or open strings one by one I don't hear that.

Its less noticeable if I crank the gain, but its there only not that obvious. The same is with channel 2, but again since there is a lot more gain present its not that obvious.

I usually have the pots set to 12, presence at 1 and deep at 11 o'clock.

Is this caused by preamp tubes? Should I changed them? I don't want to spend the money for preamp tubes if this is not the reason.

The power tubes are OK, checked the bias and its OK.

Thanks for your help.
 
Hi max!!!

I'm not an expert, but if you want check if the problem comes from the preamp tubes, the common way to do it is swap the V1 preamp tube with the V5, and then the V2 with the V4 to see if that fuzz goes away (in that case, the problem is on the preamp tubes).

Anyway, maybe someone can help you better :)

Good luck!
 
It sounds like a bad pre-amp tube to me. Please document your tubes and their position and begin swapping one out to find the problem. It very well could solve your issue. :thumbsup:
 
thanks for inputs, I'm also thinking that preamp tubes have some problems. I have some JJ tubes to try just to see if it helps.

BTW, how do you guys change the preamp tubes? :) The front panel doesn’t come off so you have to remove power tubes to access the preamp tubes from behind? is this the easiest way of doing it?
 
Ok, so I played with the preamp tubes. I have 2 spare JJ AX7 selected, I changed V1, then V2 then both V1 and V2, put the old ones back, and switched the others in pairs of 2. I still hear that "strange" fizzy or buzz sound just when amp starts to distort.

I played a little more today also with the clean channel (mode1), I put the gain knob at 3 o'clock channel volume at 1 and master around 8 - 9, since I couldn't really crank it more. And I notices the same buzz, like that some low distortion is coming from somewhere, but only for a second, and only if I play a chord, if I play single notes everything is OK? Is this normal? Could someone do the test for me with the Einstein ? Thanks in advance.

So obviously preamp tubes are OK. I have currently in TAD highgrade in V1 and V2 and TAD selected in other positions.

I will swap also the power tubes again tomorrow to see if this is the problem, but they are new SED EL34 biased at 65mA.

Peter any suggestions? Or I'm just paranoid? I didn't noticed that at the beginning but I didn't use the Mode 2 on channel 1 much at that time.

Thanks for your help.

Regards,
 
Peter thanks for your reply, currently I don’t have any suitable equipment to make a good recording, since amp is sitting at my home. I will record it as soon as I have the possibility.

I also noticed that the problem is only with bridge pickup, so I will try to test with different guitar also, to eliminate all other possibilities.


Thanks again,
 
Please don't hate me:
Are you talking about that crunchy sound when playing let's say a chord distorted and let it ring until it cleans up and when making the transition from semi dist. to clean?
Have you ever played a tube amp before? :LOL: :LOL:
Because that is normal!!
Maybe you are a bit paranoid...
On the other hand. If it sounds nasty it could be cross over distortion=check your output tubes bias. If it reads fine, maybe your tubes are badly matched and you run one very hot and the other very cold. That happend to me with my new Einstein...
Damn those crappy tubes!
:D
Best,
Stefan
 
steppenwolf3080: I don’t hate you, and yes I did play a few tube amps before, but not as good as Einstein :LOL: :LOL:

The power tubes failed a couple of days ago, best possible Watford cyro valves SED EL34, they fool me only once, and forget about the warranty no way that they will change the faulty tubes, although the warranty is 6 months :doh: . They sey Diezel amp is faulty eating my tubes yeaah right. :doh:

Anyway, spend some money again on 6550, biased it to 100mA, and no more strange sounds when playing distorted chords. So it was the tubes not my paranoia.

Happy again, I hope that 6550 will lasted more than 3 months.

Do you guys using spring retainers for your 6550 tubes? I removed the clamps holding the EL34 tubes?

:rock:
 
Glad to hear you sorted out the problem!
I also constantly find myself struggling with those damn faulty tubes...
My current setup works great, though.
An E83CC Siemens as V1, a Telefunken ECC83 as V2 and the rest is JJ ECC83...
Output valves JJE34L. Seems to work great an no problems so far. I dig those E34Ls!
Best,
Stefan
 
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