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Hum that just started

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Dave Kolars
Posted on Tuesday, October 28, 2003 - 12:32 pm:   

Let me start out by saying that I'm not an electric guy, at least I wasn't... been playing acoustic for 30+ yrs., but about 6 mos. ago picked up a Music Man 210 Sixty-Five and do a lot of Travis picking thru it.

I replaced the original tubes (2-6CA7's & 1-12AX7A) as they were fading out after the amp had been on for about 45 min. and the cut-out stopped and the volume increased.

But now I find, about 2 months later, that the amp has developed a hum. If I touch the metal straps on either end of the top of the amp or the ends of the strap handle holder or the amp chassis the hum diminishes by about 50%. BUT, if I touch the corner reinforcements, nothing happens. Any clues or hints?
http://www.slingerlandguitar.com
Paul
Posted on Tuesday, October 28, 2003 - 06:17 pm:   

Dave,

Your straps have contact with your amp chassis. The corner protectors don't. Almost sounds like a simple grounding problem. When your touching the straps, your providing a ground. Try this... In the back of your amp should be a ground switch, and there should be three positions to it. If your house or gig's power outlet is properly grounded, then the switch should be in the middle position. Most places today provide power outlets that are grounded, but there are still some taverns that even though the outlet are three pronged, are not grounded, in which the ground switch should be left or right depending on what polarity works best. So long story short, try playing with your ground switch.

Good Luck
Dave Kolars
Posted on Tuesday, October 28, 2003 - 07:52 pm:   

Thanks for the assist, but the ground switch doesn't make any difference... BUT, I did find the problem... looks like it is a bad cord from the amp to the volume pedal. It wasn't bad when I first hooked up the volume pedal a couple of months ago. Didn't know that cords went bad like that!! When I unplugged the cord and touched the center of the plug on the old cord, the hum would stop... with a different cord there is no hum, and when I touch the center of the plug, it makes the amp hum and howl.