Amp nearly blew up?!?!

[NZBassman]

My on-going problems with my Warwick Profet 5.1 have been well documented and yesterday was nearly the last straw!

We did a charity gig yesterday (Sunday) - only had to play for 1 hour and there was a full PA and sound men, so we just had to bring our own amps / guitars /drums.
I set my bass and amp up and it's all ok, but literally 30 seconds before were about to play my Warwick 4x10 speaker cab starts crackling very loudly like fireworks exploding! I look at my amp and the red light on the gain was flashing wildly (gain was only on 4.5) and the speakers were almost jumping out of the cab!!!
Turned power off immediately, waited about 20 seconds then turned it on again and amp was normal, but there was no sound coming out of the speakers - tried wiggling / adjusting speaker lead, main lead to my DI and DI lead to amp, but nothing.....
So in the end I had to plug straight into their DI and go through front of house - bypassing my amp completely.

After gig when we start packing up I said to our drummer / singer that I have either blown my amp or speakers
Sound guy asks what happened and I told him and he said - just plug it in and see.... so we did and what do you know? the bloody amp starts working fine!!! AAAARRRRGGGGHHH.
Drummer then adjusted my gain and the horrible noise came back when he did that, but didn't make a noise when he stopped.
I've always had a bit of a scratchy gain pot and usually just leave the gain volume where it is and use the master if I need to be louder / quieter.

I don't know if it is just a scratchy gain pot playing up or something more serious.... Drummer is taking the amp to the guy they use to fix all their gear (he tells me the guy is really good), so hopefully if will be fixed by Saturday as we have a wedding to do!

I know this sounds weird but I am hoping my amp is completely f***ed so I can buy a new one!!

[beans-on-toast]

It could be an oscillation in the amp. I can take on different forms. Sometimes it is like popcorn popping other times it can be a high frequency howl. That kind of thing can blow your speakers so I wouldn't use the amp. It might help the tech to have your speaker cab there as well as the head.

[NZBassman]

yeah - I think something is not right with the amp, but I will see what the repair guy has to say

I thought about leaving my speaker cab with them too, but then thought it's only the amp that has the problem?

We will soon see anyway!

[dincz]

Originally Posted by beans-on-toast

I can take on different forms

Now you're scaring me!

[Crater]

Sounds like your scratchy gain pot is failing. Get that replaced, and I'll bet the rest of the amp is fine.

[Nephilymbass]

Maybe its a dirty pot. If its the gain control doing it. Turn off the amp. And spin the knob back and forth all the way in each direction for a few minutes is the cracklings improves at all its probably just dirty. Really its a good idea o do this to all your knobs from time to time