Noisy Herbert

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Me

Me

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Hello!

My Herbie seems quite hissy, even on clean. I don't remember it being this noisy in the past.

How quiet are they supposed to be idling? Is it tubes? And would that likely be pre/power tubes? If it's pre-tubes (hopefully) any most likely candidates? I can't afford to re-tube this thing entirely at the mo'!

If so what's the current recommended preamp tube brand?
 
Watford Valves don't seem to have any Ruby tubes in stock. :no: Anyone tried any of their own brand Harma ones? Any thoughts? Seem to be quite a few with varying gains. They generally seem to have worked for me in the past... http://watfordvalves.com/products_harma.asp#harma

I want great tone (obviously), both clean, bluesy, and full on metal, but in some ways want ruggedness and reliability more! There's no point having a great sounding amp if the tubes start acting up after someone's been bumping your amp flight case around when the tubes are still cooling!!! :doh:
 
if your signal chain is the one in your sig, i could understand if it was noisy!! ;)

i run a decimator in the loop of my herbert, and it's dead nuts quiet. run it before any of the effects in your loops signal chain.

but a re-tube is probably what you need, if you had this same set-up before and it has become more noisy lately.

good luck, mang. nothing sucks worse than a noisy amp.
 
Me":eu3narvp said:
Hello!

My Herbie seems quite hissy, even on clean. I don't remember it being this noisy in the past.

How quiet are they supposed to be idling? Is it tubes? And would that likely be pre/power tubes? If it's pre-tubes (hopefully) any most likely candidates? I can't afford to re-tube this thing entirely at the mo'!

If so what's the current recommended preamp tube brand?
Click to expand...
Hey Me, or...

Get rid of all that stuff in the efx chain and keep the FCB1010, the wah and the g-major. The rest is merely superfluous. Herbert doesn't need all that crap sound magnificent.
 
King Crimson":2bjvb9hu said:
Me":2bjvb9hu said:
Watford Valves don't seem to have any Ruby tubes in stock.
Click to expand...
Screw Waterford. Get your Ruby Tubes from Magic Parts.
Click to expand...

They don't seem to be in the UK. Watford valves seem to know a thing or 2 about tubes and run them through lots of tests. Seem to have less trouble with theirs than other places.
 
rottingcorpse":1faqhc6e said:
if your signal chain is the one in your sig, i could understand if it was noisy!! ;)
Click to expand...
Nah, this is noisy with just Guitar -> Diezel -> Herbert (with G-maj in parallel loop so shouldn't make any noise on dry patches as nothing should come from it). I suppose it may be related to the cabling and parallel hum getting in. Will try to experiment tonight and maybe swap some preamp tubes around/in/out.

In terms of my signature I don't use the Valvulator anymore except as a PSU for the pedals, and most of the time bypass the pedal board. Chorus is in the switchable loop so won't make any difference when switched out.

The other stuff isn't connected all the time, but is the full live set up for the band I was in, so use it as my sig for other music tech forums as well. It's like that so I can trigger different sections of song on the laptop from my pedal board, or make the song running on the laptop change amp channel for me in the right places. Far more fun wondering about on stage and Ch3 kicking in for a fat riff without having to go and stand on the button! :thumbsup:
 
Me":dj3w2b4d said:
King Crimson":dj3w2b4d said:
Me":dj3w2b4d said:
Watford Valves don't seem to have any Ruby tubes in stock.
Click to expand...
Screw Waterford. Get your Ruby Tubes from Magic Parts.
Click to expand...

They don't seem to be in the UK. Watford valves seem to know a thing or 2 about tubes and run them through lots of tests. Seem to have less trouble with theirs than other places.
Click to expand...

Banzai ?
 
Thanks for that. Checked Banzai and Wolfton Audio. The HG+ seem a lot cheaper from Wolfton than Banzai.

I'm a bit skint at the moment so rather than blow the full £55 on a complete set I think I'll try swapping some other spares or older ones in/out and see what happens. Then I'll just buy any I need, or stick with what I've found for now.

I've bookmarked those sites so I can get a proper full set sometime soonish though. :thumbsup:

Still be interested to hear a Watford Valves / Harma shootout in a Diezel though if anyone's bored and got spare money to spend on tubes! Be interesting to compare their cryogenic ones too! I've never fully regained my trust in Rubys since I got so many duff power tubes I ended up having to post my Herbie back to Peter who couldn't find anything wrong with it but swapped it anyway. Still had some more go sooner than I'd like in that one too. Maybe it's my very bad luck, but my old Marshall EL34 100/100 travelled loads with the original set in (Svetlana's???) then worked fine for a good few more years with some Watford Harmas in. In the end 4 of those EL34s came out and then went in the Herbie after multiple sets of Rubys went over only about a year. Haven't had any power tubes go in a long while with whatever is in there at the moment (it's not Rubys), but then I haven't been gigging and moving it around. Maybe it's just my really back luck but when you've had that much trouble with something it doesn't encourange you to buy them again (at least not the power tubes).
 
Me":2zgpadi9 said:
King Crimson":2zgpadi9 said:
Me":2zgpadi9 said:
Watford Valves don't seem to have any Ruby tubes in stock.
Click to expand...
Screw Waterford. Get your Ruby Tubes from Magic Parts.
Click to expand...

They don't seem to be in the UK. Watford valves seem to know a thing or 2 about tubes and run them through lots of tests. Seem to have less trouble with theirs than other places.
Click to expand...
"Magic Parts" ships anywhere in the WORLD - Bro! This is where Peter gets his stock - last I heard.

Ask for Donny - Toll Free: +1 800 451 1922
 
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