SE 50 amp technical problem.

[Jeff Demol]

Hi people,

For around a year and a half i'm using an SE 50 amplifier.
i love this machine, but since a month ago it suddenly started to buzz (bzzzzzzzzzzz). But i kept playing over it.
Has this buzzing sound anything to do with the lamps inside?

Since today my amp just stopped producing sound when playing guitar. Just the buzzing sound is there but no guitar sound at all comes out of it. Can someone with knowledge guide me please... i dont know where to start to try to repair it myself. Thanks...

 

[AP515]

Yes, tubes can do what you describe, and a year and a half is a good life for them if played often. They aren't hard to swap out. It's likely one of the two bigger ones. You can have a technician service it or you can do it yourself. If you don't have experience doing it, we can help you do it. It's not that hard.

 

[László]

Or you could give PRS Customer Service a call.

 

[rugerpc]

crazy talk...

 

[László]

crazy talk...

I know, right?

 

[Deleted member 5962]

no, no guys, this is what we get for acting like "experts" all the time. People come to US with their problems now instead of the actual tech support department.

 

[AP515]

no, no guys, this is what we get for acting like "experts" all the time. People come to US with their problems now instead of the actual tech support department.

Well, what are the choices? He's got a problem. He can go to a tech in his area, he can go to the PTC. These are expense initiating options. He has a couple of non expense initiating options before he takes those two leaps. He can ask his peers. Of course he gets what he is paying for. The guesses are free and that may be all the responses are worth, but he can always take the expense route later. I don't see a request to his peers as a bad first step.

 

[Deleted member 5962]

I don't see a request to his peers as a bad first step.

I don't either. I was joking.

So, OP, Tube Amp 101 = ALWAYS check all the tubes first when you have any issue with the amp. Once you have ruled out tube problems, then you may have an issue and need to seek opinions, then help. But always have a known good preamp tube and a known good power amp tube to swap/test with. If you aren't well versed in how tube amps work, then describing your issue in detail here might help us figure out which tubes to look at first. Many times it's obvious that it's probably a preamp tube, loop tube, power tube, etc. if you describe what and when it is having the issue. If they're a year and a half old and it gets much play time, you should definitely have a whole set in reserve by now and be ready to swap them.

 

[László]

Well, what are the choices? He's got a problem. He can go to a tech in his area, he can go to the PTC. These are expense initiating options. He has a couple of non expense initiating options before he takes those two leaps. He can ask his peers. Of course he gets what he is paying for. The guesses are free and that may be all the responses are worth, but he can always take the expense route later. I don't see a request to his peers as a bad first step.

Actually, since PRS amps have an excellent warranty, there’s no expense involved in having the dealer ship the amp back to PRS, if it comes to that. If memory serves, my PRS amps came with a 5 year warranty.

Also, PRS Customer Service would undoubtedly help a customer out in troubleshooting a problem to see whether to send it in for repair.

Those are the choices, unless he bought used. And even with used, Customer Service would still give him what advice they could. Chances are that advice would be more cogent than any advice we could give, since they’d check with the amp department.

It makes a lot more sense to start with Customer Service than to ask a bunch of complete stranger yahoos who had nothing to do with the design of the product (I include myself in the yahoo camp).

 

[Jeff Demol]

Yes, tubes can do what you describe, and a year and a half is a good life for them if played often. They aren't hard to swap out. It's likely one of the two bigger ones. You can have a technician service it or you can do it yourself. If you don't have experience doing it, we can help you do it. It's not that hard.

Thanks for replying! And yeah probably better call the tech support first. i don't know why i didnt think of that first haha.
If its the tubes then i wanna try to swap them out myself. i'm sure i'l make it with some help ; ) Thanks

 

[godwentpunk]

I have a PRS Custom 20 that had been working fine for about 3 months at bed room volumes. After my first band practice where I cranked the amp a little and I'm guessing getting a little hotter then usual, my amp started to get a crazy crackle sound only in the lead channel. I pull out the preamp tubes and re-seated them to no avail. Then one day, I pulled them again and sprayed some electrical cleaning solution on the preamp tubes (the prongs) and re-seated them again, removing them and putting them back in several times... and bingo, the crackle sound went away. I'm not sure if I really fixed my problem long term or not. Maybe there was some buildup on one of the prongs that going thru the cleanup process corrected things.

The can of spray cost me around $5.

joe...

 

[Deleted member 5962]

I do that with Caig De-Oxit at least once a year, and every time I change a tube.