AmpTalk.com

[bohoo2u]

I have had my Traynor YCV40-WR for about 3 years now. It is a great amp, but its major flaw is its persistent humming. It is a low pitched hum that makes recording the amp impossible because you get the hum in every take. The amp has done this from day 1. I switched out the stock tubes for some JJ Tubes 6L6 GC's in the power section and some ECC83 S tubes in the preamp. Compared to stock the humming was alot less, so I have continued to buy the same tubes every 3-6 months or so. Do you think it could be the tubes or could it be something else? When I turn off lights such as a fish tank light I can hear an audible pop come from the amp. Any ideas?

Also
I am currently debating between buying an attenuator or selling the amp and getting a lower wattage combo. 40 watts of tube is too much for someone who only plays at home and at friends houses. I can barely get the volume above 1.5 without waking everyone in the house. Anyone have any suggestions for a low wattage tube amp around $500?

[tw001_tw]

bohoo2u - as far as the hum... I copied and pasted this from some webpage.
It might help start getting you thinking in the right direction. But some amps
are just more 'noisy' then other amps. I'm not familiar with your model so
you might want to do some searching regarding that particular amp.

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Strictly speaking there's a difference between noise and interference. Many lump them together and just call it all noise as they're both obnoxious.

Noise is the thermal and shot noise from resistors and active devices due to random electron motion. It generally sounds like hiss. It is usually due to poor circuit design, a bad component, or really excessive gain. (change or eliminate pedals, get quieter preamp tubes, reduce gain, etc.)

Interference can be a hum/buzz from power lines, transformers, fluorescent lights, TV's, any digital device, computer monitors, radio/TV stations, etc. With any interference problem there are 3 things you can go after.

1) the source - quiet it, move or reorient it, turn it off, slow the edge rates (digital interference) balance it, kill it... if possible.

2) the transmission path - electromagnetic (capacitive or magnetic) coupling or a conducted path (wire) - attenuate the path by shielding or filtering

3) the receiver - the device in the signal chain that picks up the interference, including wires/cables that act as an antenna. - not much we can do outside of making sure the layout in the sensitive area is short and clean. You can bandwidth limit (filter) the signal path for RF interference but if the interference is in the middle of the audio band you pretty much stuck.
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Amp replacment - The Peavey Classic 20 or classic 30 come to mind.
Crate also makes some 1x12, 1x,12 or 2x12 under your price target.
And of course we can't forget the Fender Blues Jr., Hot Rod deluxe,
and Blues deluxe (The HRD & BD may be a little bit over your $500 price
depending if you get used or new).