Valve newbie question

solar

UPDATE: This was just beginner's inexperience. After fiddling with the amp, I sorted it out. Sounds great  

Finally took the plunge and got a tube amp - a second hand Carr Mercury V from this lovely forum. Totally happy with it, sounds incredible and very versatile, from crunch to clean.

One slight niggle - on cleaner settings up to lighter overdrive, it has a noticeable fizzy background noise. Almost like everything I play is being doubled with a gated fuzz, in parallel with the clean sound, but very quiet. It’s definitely related to the input level - if I back the guitar volume off it’s less noticeable.

I’m wondering if it’s a dodgy preamp valve? I’ve tried pulling and reseating them all, with no change. I suppose the next step is to order a 12AX7 and try replacing them one-by-one.

Unless it’s just me being unaccustomed to this particular amp, and/or valve amps in general, and this is what it’s supposed to sound like? It’s just a bit frustrating because if the fuzz wasn’t there, the sound would be absolutely perfect.

Advice appreciated

SunDevil

Hi,

its definately worth having a spare set of valves regardless and swapping a new one into each of the positions in the signal chain (starting with P1) is a good shout for debugging any valve issues.

It could also be mechanical - loose connection to the speaker terminals or the speaker mounting itself for example - very possible if it’s been couriered 

If your still scratching your head after that, then a brave man might get a wooden (!) chop stick and start tapping components and wires to attempt to detect a bad connection. A sensible man may be better taking it to an expert.

solar

Thanks, I hadn't thought to check the speaker, I'll have a look at that later. Have also ordered a couple of new valves.