Hi. Im not much of a poster in the amp forum, so if this has been covered ad nauseum, please forgive me. The search terms I tried were all too common to give much help.
The problem I'm having is intermitant. Happened once, nothing for a few months, then the other night and all the next day. Now I'm back to a working amp.
What happens is there's a static, crackling noise especially on low notes. The thing is, it doesn't sound like clipping, it seems too be distinctly after the note's attack and last after I mute the string. The amp seems to be working fine otherwise, in that the sound I'm getting doesn't seem to sound much different than I expected it too... I just get that bonus crackle.
The problem is that I don't have a passive bass to try, but the preamp in my bass has never given me problems, it seems to be at any setting on the preamp, and I've tried 2 different fresh batteries (I have no other amplification to try my bass through, and the only other thing I can think of to put through my amp is a signal from an ipod). It seems to be irrelevant of cables or which power outlet (on the wall) I use.
Unfortunately the warranty is up, but are there any suggestions to try to isolate the problem that I'm overlooking? Especially as it is so intermitant... do I just wait until it starts up again?
Also, with a solid state amp, once it's unplugged, what would the hazzards be to working on it? I assume that I need to learn to safely discharge certain capacitors, but once that has been done I should be pretty safe to do what I want? If that's the case, can anyone recommend resources regarding safely removing residual charges or for working on solid state amplifiers? I imagine that with a good multi meter I can test most of the components fairly easily, and otherwise look for bad connections/etc.
Thanks for any suggestions...
The problem I'm having is intermitant. Happened once, nothing for a few months, then the other night and all the next day. Now I'm back to a working amp.
What happens is there's a static, crackling noise especially on low notes. The thing is, it doesn't sound like clipping, it seems too be distinctly after the note's attack and last after I mute the string. The amp seems to be working fine otherwise, in that the sound I'm getting doesn't seem to sound much different than I expected it too... I just get that bonus crackle.
The problem is that I don't have a passive bass to try, but the preamp in my bass has never given me problems, it seems to be at any setting on the preamp, and I've tried 2 different fresh batteries (I have no other amplification to try my bass through, and the only other thing I can think of to put through my amp is a signal from an ipod). It seems to be irrelevant of cables or which power outlet (on the wall) I use.
Unfortunately the warranty is up, but are there any suggestions to try to isolate the problem that I'm overlooking? Especially as it is so intermitant... do I just wait until it starts up again?
Also, with a solid state amp, once it's unplugged, what would the hazzards be to working on it? I assume that I need to learn to safely discharge certain capacitors, but once that has been done I should be pretty safe to do what I want? If that's the case, can anyone recommend resources regarding safely removing residual charges or for working on solid state amplifiers? I imagine that with a good multi meter I can test most of the components fairly easily, and otherwise look for bad connections/etc.
Thanks for any suggestions...
