AmpTalk.com

[R88223]

I have a Peavey Heritage 212 combo amp with built in phaser and spring reverb from the 80's that I bought about 10 months for around $300-$350. It sounded great until recently. The guy I had bought it from just had it retubed with some Sovtek 6l6WXT tubes. One day after about 8 months the amp started making a loud humming noise, it does this all the time now. When it started doing it was when I wasn't even playing, I just left it on and went in the other room and all of a sudden this nasty loud noise was coming out of it. Some buzzing noise comes from the speakers when playing too. I was wondering what was wrong with it and was told maybe the tubes needed replaced. So I put in new Sovtek 6l6WXT tubes, it makes the same noise. I've never played this amp with the volume above 4-5 either Neither the new and old tubes seem to be dead or blown out to me. They glow they same orange tint they always have since I had gotten it. I ran an extension cab out of it to check if it was just the speakers, but I get the same humming/buzzing through the other speakers too. I ran a different pre-amp theough the poweramp and get the same noise as well so I don't think the preamp is damaged. I asked a local technician who said he was working on one and he told me that the vtx only was made for one type of tube and that they don't make them anymore and the tubes I have are probably bad, but I told him I had it running on the Sovteks , he was surprised and said that those tubes shouldn't even work in it. Every time I see them for sale online they always have the Sovtek 6l6WXT in them also so I don't think he knows quite what he was talking about, I dunno. He said he'd rather not deal with fixing a VTX, that they were built weird and that I should sell it for parts to someone and just get a different amp. I'd like to figure out what's wrong with it though even if I decide to sell it. Like I said, the tubes glow like they always have and someone mentioned tapping them to see if they make noise or anything, but they don't, they appear to be fine on both sets of Sovteks I put in. I get the same buzzing at all volumes. Is there any other ideas of what could be wrong other than the tubes on the power section?

I've got a picture of the tubes while it's turned on, but it won't let me post it on here..

[tw001_tw]

[R88223]

I talked to peavey and they think it's the filter caps. Peavey also told me any 6l6 tube will work in it and that the Sovteks are nice tubes. I have a picture of the tubes turned on if you'd like to see it. I live in central Illinois actually. I have a picture of the inside too. I'm not afraid of taking it apart (already did). It can't get any worse as far as I'm concerned, I was prepared to buy a new amp head and just use the peavey as a speaker cab. I actually went back and checked my paypal stuff and I actually only paid $225 for it after shipping so not that bad even if the amp is toast the speakers rock. remove the spaces and you'll get the images

img253. imageshack. us /img253/2811/dscn2448iv6.jpg

img45. imageshack. us/img45/6107/dscn2425ci6.jpg

[tw001_tw]

[R88223]

Did you think the tubes look normal?

[R88223]

are the filter caps the 4 capacitors on the right side, two big ones and two small ones? What precautions would I need to take if I were to replace them myself? Would some rubber gloves be a good idea? I'm guessing they're soldered in on the underside of that board so I'd have to take the board out. Also is there any way to test to see if the filter caps are in fact the issue?

[tw001_tw]

Yep, your tubes look pretty normal.

Yes, the filter caps are the large gray capacitors on the right - I would just
go a head and replace all 4. are there any mounted on the other side of
the chassis ? (they may be in a rectangular medal pan looking thing).

precautions - drain the caps:
http://studentweb.eku.edu/justin_holton/caps.html
or

[R88223]

[R88223]

I've got the caps out, but there's no positive or negative markers on them (+ -).. one end is black and the other end is silver though.. so I'm guessing the black is negative and the silver positive? Looks like I can get all the parts from mouser for $9.20 before shipping cost.

[tw001_tw]

[R88223]

[R88223]

The new capacitors fixed the issues.

[tw001_tw]

[R88223]

I would but I really don't feel like taking it apart again, the thing is so *Holy Censor, Batman* heavy. last time I took it out of the chassis I accidentally dropped it and some of the tubes popped out. After you unscrew it from the chassis you've got to pull it pretty hard to get it out so that's why that happened..but, the tubes still worked perfect even after popping out of the sockets and bouncing off a hardwood floor. I guess Sovtek makes some solid tubes. I did end up just clipping the capacitors off and soldering the old leads to the new ones, worked out great, there's just a tiny little ball of solder between the old and new leads. Works like new. I'm thinking of maybe changing the scorpion speakers out now actually though. I have a Behringer vintage tube monster overdrive pedal that I put a Sovtek 12ax7 in. It's a great pedal because it doesn't tonally change the sound, just overdrives/distorts it nicely but unless I crank the amp volume way up the Scorpion speakers really kind of sound transparent like it'd be better for a PA system, you know? I figured since it's an American amp maybe I should go with some Eminence Texas Heats or Swamp Thing speakers and maybe that will give the amp a bit more character. That'll be a different project for a different day though.