HT-5R popping sound at regular intervals

[petzval]

Greetings,

I'm new to the forum and have had my HT-5R for two years doing light work as a basement amp for an amateur hobbyist. The amp is making a single small "pop" or "click" sound at regular intervals. It's possible that it has always done this, but I only really noticed it (or it only really started to bother me) now that I'm doing some recording with it. I hear it when I'm playing or not playing (guitar volume at zero) and both with and without reverb, and I notice it mostly on the clean channel. In fact, I didn't think it happened on the overdrive channel until I went to troubleshoot it tonight. I also didn't realize how regular the interval was. It happens right around every 14 seconds on the clean channel, and it happens right around once every 28 seconds on the overdrive channel. This is without me playing (guitar volume at zero) -- I didn't try to time it when I was playing.

I wondered if this might mean something to someone here as I determine what to do next. I mostly want to confirm that this is not a user-serviceable problem (such as a tube change) before I take it to a pro.

Thanks in advance for your time and any suggestions you may have.

Cheers,
Dave.

[thephantum]

Popping is usually caused by arcing. After a certain electrical potential has built, electricity has a path to ground that it should not, thus producing a pop.

It's possible that it's a tube and it's worth changing them to find out. However, if you change the power tube, the amp will need to be biased. Having said that, you can put a new power tube in and if the popping goes away, the problem is solved...just get it to a tech to bias it.

It's the regular interval that bugs me...and the fact that OD is twice the time as clean. It almost sounds like a bad capacitor someplace...

[petzval]

Thanks so much for the reply and advice. Yeah, the regularity and the doubling of the period on the OD seem very strange. I'll post back when I find out what's going on.

Thanks again!

Cheers,
Dave.