My son just bought a second hand LV300H – his first proper amp, so no need
to say ‘he was excited’! It’s a great amp that does exactly what he wants, but
within a day of buying it we discovered a problem.
I have contacted Lany direct about this, and will await their reply, but I know there are some very techie and knowledgeable people here, so maybe you can offer some thoughts?
The issue first occurred on channel 2 (mid gain channel) with the volume on about
4 and the gain on about 7-8. All of a sudden the amp spluttered and crackled,
almost like poor connection on the jack, and immediately the guitar volume cut
to very quiet and a loud hum overwhelmed the guitar volume. Sometimes, switching
channels or unplugging the guitar and plugging it back in again resolved this,
but sometimes the loud hum (and reduced guitar volume) persists. We then noticed
that the same issue occurs on the 3rd (high gain) channel.
Essentially, that describes the issue, but it may help to know, that when
turning the amp on (with volumes set to zero and no guitar plugged in) I hear a
very faint ringing (a bit like hall reverb). This continues until you turn up
the selected channel’s volume (still with no guitar connected), at which point
the ringing stops and is replaced by a low hiss/hum which I would say sounds
fairly normal. When the volume is returned to zero the quiet ringing
returns?
Thanks...
Comments
ICBM and other techs will no doubt have deep knowledge of the amplifier but if the problem is confined to channel 2 then it could be the single ECC83 valve in the amplifier.
Since the amplifier is second hand it might be worth contacting the vendor ASAP because if it needs to go into a shop it could be quite expensive to sort out.
Dave.
If it's a problem on the distortion channels it's likely to be the valve - either faulty or not making proper contact with its socket. If it's not, it's likely to be a bad connection somewhere in the circuitry for those channels, so it shouldn't be expensive in parts, but these things can sometimes be time-consuming to find. I've never worked on one of these, so I don't know whether it's an easy or difficult amp to disassemble - or if that means removing the PCB, which it often does.
If you bought it from a shop, I would ask them to sort it out. If you bought it privately you're probably less likely to get the seller to fix it, but worth a try. Failing that, the first thing is to check that the valve is securely seated in its socket - if you can get at it simply by taking the back panel off.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
@DJH83004 - is this what you do for a living, and if so, is a repair like that economically viable?