Greetings from Seoul

Tell everyone about your background and why you chose Blackstar
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symbiont
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Dec 21, 2016 2:14 pm

Wed Dec 21, 2016 2:26 pm

Hey Blackstar....

I've got one of your HT studio 20s. Its been about 4 years since I picked it up second hand and I am now experiencing some tube issues.

The symptoms are as follows:
1) Clean channel started to whine a few days ago.
2) Checked the lead channel and it is completely without any gain at all.
3) When I twist the clean volume knob I am able to alter the pitch of the whining noise up and down.
4) Master volume still works and am able to turn up/down volume on command.

I've ordered some replacement tubes (both power and preamp) and will replace the preamp ones first to see if that is the problem.

Any feedback on this issue is appreciated.

Cheers from Seoul

nick_s
Posts: 18
Joined: Sat Jan 02, 2016 3:56 pm
Location: Stoke

Fri Dec 30, 2016 11:35 am

Morning!

Have your tubes arrived and if so, have they rectified said problems?

I've seen failing tubes cause these sorts of problems (in fact, the failing pre-amp tubes in my old TSL-100H caused almost identical issues).

symbiont
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Dec 21, 2016 2:14 pm

Sat Dec 31, 2016 1:17 am

Hey nick_s

Valves are still out for delivery...argh! Even had to cancel the power valves order due to stock issues.

There is some sunshine however...In my efforts to include a new multi fx pedal into my chain (which apparently caused the problem), I discovered how one can utilize the fx send port to bypass the preamp and still get a loud tone. This was the reason my dirt channel was not responding and my clean channel was whinging. After a few reroutes of the cords, I am back to a reasonable state of normal.

I'm still curious how a set of JJs will sound in the preamp....

Cheers from Seoul

symbiont
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Dec 21, 2016 2:14 pm

Fri Jan 06, 2017 12:43 am

My JJ ECC83 S valves arrived the other day. I replaced the stock TAD ECC83WA selected preamp valves with them.

The new tubes seem to sound slightly 'crisper' in clean mode. Head room is higher and the gain channel is much more defined and less muddy. The new tubes take my overdrive, flanger and chorus pedals differently as well. I have a Boss GE-7 equalizer pedal as well, but it seems to be less useful with the new JJ tubes.

I must say, I have learned more about valves, circuitry and signal chain during this episode than I expected to. I even bought a multimeter to explore the voltage, ohms and amperes dimensions further.

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