Express Swirl

[tubedogsmith]

Just for the heck of it try this if you can get it alone again. Without the airbrake crank it up and run your guitar cord under the door out into the hall. Listen to it from out there without the volume blasting your ears and see if you can hear the phasey stuff going on again. This is a great test to hear what's really coming out of those speakers.

[zambo]

I have heard of attenuators doing this before. The only answer I know of is.....The Hall Amplification VVR. What a sweet invention that thing is. I scale the whole amp and it sounds sweet down to really low volumes. For what its worth.

[Noval_novice]

Just an update on the swirl I was experiencing in my Express. I found a lot of little things that affected what I was hearing. It was more noticeable with humbuckers, especially higher output ones. I began to wonder if I was overwhelming one or more of the gain stages. I added small grid stoppers to the remaining triodes in the preamp, all without much effect. I finally noticed that it was also more noticeable when I rolled down the tone control on my guitar (any guitar) and finally when I manipulated the bass control on the amp. Examining the bass pot showed one dull solder joint. I touched it up with my iron and tucked the longest leads running to and from the bass pot up against the front panel of the amp.

Voila! The noise is gone, no matter what guitar I use or what volume I play. I should have known it would come down to a cold solder joint and poor lead dress!

-- Christopher

[zambo]

Glad to hear it!