ENGL Savage Mark II Barely any Gain

  • Thread starter Thread starter Oldstinkybutt
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Oldstinkybutt

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I recently bought a Savage Mark II as an open box item, so I got a decent discount on it. The amp doesn't seem to have much gain at all. It sounds extremely choked off or something.

I checked the plate voltage and it was around 550v. Even turning the bias up to around 600v it makes it sound worse and has a loss of volume.

Not sure if anyone has an idea what could be wrong? Any feedback is appreciated!!!

I attached some pics of settings and a couple other things.
PXL_20220225_232427883.jpg
PXL_20220208_235702017.jpg
PXL_20220208_231940387.PORTRAIT.jpg
 
Did you try and change the preamp tubes before taking the amp apart and risking to kill yourself...?
 
blackie13 said:
Did you try and change the preamp tubes before taking the amp apart and risking to kill yourself...?
Click to expand...
Yes, I've changed and biased amps previously. The pre amp tubes are all lit up. Non seem dimmer or brighter than the others.
 
You mentioned turning the bias up to 600v. Not sure exactly what that is? Did you mean turning the bias up to 60%? Or 60ma? But yes the preamp tubes, as others said, could still be bad even though they light up as normal.
 
Oldstinkybutt said:
I recently bought a Savage Mark II as an open box item, so I got a decent discount on it. The amp doesn't seem to have much gain at all. It sounds extremely choked off or something.

I checked the plate voltage and it was around 550v. Even turning the bias up to around 600v it makes it sound worse and has a loss of volume.

Not sure if anyone has an idea what could be wrong? Any feedback is appreciated!!!

I attached some pics of settings and a couple other things. View attachment 109466View attachment 109469View attachment 109472
Click to expand...
When you crank up the bias, you are not adjusting the voltage you are adjusting the current. There is a resistor that is converting the current to voltage for you to read for biasing. You can only adjust the voltage by swapping plate load resistors which are configured in a voltage divider. Unless you started desoldering stuff from the board, you did not adjust voltage. The glow you see in tubes is from the heaters, not signal. I'm not sure what you are looking for there. Bias adjustments are to the power section. The distortion comes from the preamp section. The issues you describe usually come from bad preamp tubes.
 
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