spring reverb cacophony

mellowgerman

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I've been having a problem with my 80's peavey amp. When engaged, the spring reverb has been creating an unbearably loud and continuous static/white noise sound whenever the amp gets the slightest bumb or vibration; sometimes even the speaker movement is enough to trigger it. It does this sound, which completely drowns out the guitar signal until I flip the polarity switch. Anyone have a clue what it might be?
 

capnjuan

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Hi Mello; If the reverb works when the amp isn't disturbed, chances are the problem isn't electronic ... it's mechanical. You might try taking the reverb can out and looking at the connections to the transducers and the connections between the transducers and the springs. Also, see if the springs seem to have too much travel; they're are supposed to be suspended so they can move around a little but maybe the little springs that restrain them have lost their tension.

You might also look at the plug/jacks at the reverb can and amp; they may not be snug enough to withstand getting bumped; if they are too loose, they can send the 'reverb-send' tube section into oscillation. Incidentally, if you have a working polarity switch that actually does something, then you probably have a two-wire power cord; if so, that power cord needs to be replaced with a 3-wire cord.

If all else fails, you could try scolding it and shaking your finger at it ... instead of saying 'bad doggie' ... say 'bad amp'. :wink: If that doesn't work, you can always give it the finger but most professional techs agree that hostility rarely works. Good luck with it.
 

dapmdave

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capnjuan said:
If all else fails, you could try scolding it and shaking your finger at it ... instead of saying 'bad doggie' ... say 'bad amp'. :wink: If that doesn't work, you can always give it the finger but most professional techs agree that hostility rarely works. Good luck with it.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

John, yer killin' me, here.

Dave :D
 

capnjuan

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Okay Mello; also ... you might have either a tube pin that's wobbly or maybe a poor connection in the tube socket ... the socket having lost enough tension to keep the electrical connection snug. If you get to poking around, if you are not sure which are the reverb drive and recovery tubes, then just pull each one one out by itself and see if gentle pressure on the tube pins causes them to wiggle or wobbly more than the others. I mean, in one sense, you might get lucky ... maybe all you have is a tube with a bad pin. Good luck. J
 

mellowgerman

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Took the reverb tank apart the other day cleaned it a bit, couldn't find anything obviously wrong with it. Check all the connections and put it back in. Seems to work flawlessly now... not sure what I did, but it seems to have fixed the problem. Thanks again for all the pointers!
 

capnjuan

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Maybe it just needed somebody to pay a little attention to it? :wink:
 
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