Rebel-30 not touch sensitive (problem at input jack?)

  • Thread starter Thread starter Soundchasm
  • Start date Start date
S

Soundchasm

New member
Hello All,

It's unfortunate but not unexpected that a first post concerns a problem, so forgive me. I'm really interested in having this amp work for me, so my hopes are positive.

I got a Rebel 30 on Black Friday, and it gains-up very well. But my problem occurs when I turn down the guitar volume. The notes become very "futzy" and drop off far too quickly. It seems positively unnatural to my ear. It was that way from the very first time I turned it on, although it seemed far more pronounced at a gig over the weekend. At very low volumes it almost felt similar to a noise gate.

Again, it sounds great when the guitar volume is all the way up, but if I don't hit hard, or turn the guitar below 7, everything sort of seems to disintegrate. That seems very curious to me.

I've tried all my guitars, guitar cables and speaker cables, and the ohm switch is correct. I've tried the wattage controls and volume controls and many different settings. I haven't retubed from the factory tubes, but I was hoping for insight before I did so.

Is it the way I'm using it? Is it a dream for me to imagine that 3-4 on the guitar might be fairly clean and intelligible, and I can roll up to a great overdrive with only my volume? I've been playing 40 years through 60's style amps (with a drive pedal) so I have no experience with modern designs.

BTW, I bought this because I was absolutely floored by a guy's tone from a Mod 50. I was hoping for less weight and to lug around stuff that was less valuable, plus be replaceable.

Thanks in advance,
Greg
 
Hey Greg. In short no, that just does not sound right. Mine cleans up just fine. Try checking your pre-amp tubes, mainly I would replace V1 at the input stage just to see what is going on there.
 
Thanks, 3MS.
I keep telling myself I need to record and post a clip, and that way, folks might be able to tell me I'm making a mountain out of a molehill, or what I'm experiencing is normal for running a channel so hot. The holidays are tough to get any extra projects done.

I have plenty of good preamp tubes, so I'll start with V1 and see what happens.
Thanks,
Greg
 
Sounds like yet another bad tube... it's a bummer, and a pain in the ass, but I'd try that route first.
 
This might be from left field ....

I was having the exact same sort of issue with my Rebel 20. In my case, at low volumes, the solution seemed to be using a fair amount of clean boost in front of the amp. My Rebel does not like low inputs at all, especially from my Strat, and it sounds much better with a good input boost and lower gain.

The other thing I found is that while my Rebel sounds pretty decent at very low volumes, there is a certain minimum volume where it comes to life, which is just a little louder than I want to be most of the time unfortunately.

JWW
 
Hey RSM, I tried 30 12ax7 tubes in an old Airline amplifier ([1]12ax7 and [1]6v6) today and discovered that I had two bad tubes in my stash, both old US tubes. I tried all the 7025 Eganater tubes, and none of them sounded bad, but I found one that sure didn't like being jiggled in the socket. They were all surprisingly consistent and certainly at the heart of the R-30 tone.

I'm aware I don't have any way of testing both sides of a tube.

I put 4 old tubes in I like (just to randomly see if one side was bad), and I think I got a further clue, but not from the tubes. I got a lot of static on startup. The clean side sounded like a wind-storm was blowing in the background. Additionally, I couldn't replicate the "falling off" problem consistently. It'd be there to some degree, but not terrible most of the time.

Then I started tapping the cable input to the head and got lots of static at the input jack. This has seemed mysteriously similar to a not-so-good guitar cable all along. So right now, my money is on some problem right at the input. I'm really tempted to get in there and poke around myself. I know it's under warranty, but I need this amp for NYE, and why not just fix the manufacturing defect of this unit and hopefully be done with it?

JWD, I'd try exercising your cable input and see if you get any artifacts.

Thanks,
Greg
 
OK, now I'm not very happy. As I unscrewed the first screw to take the chassis out, it felt completely wrong and I heard a metal fragment move inside the chassis. There was no turning back now. I was able to simply pull the screw out. The chassis is affixed to the head cab by means of one of those rack mount clips with a nut attached. That broke (or was broken) and a tab was rattling around in there.

I set the chassis on a table and powered up the amp. I saw one of the EL84s glowing cherry red after a minute. I powered it down and I'm going out for a movie. Rats.

Believe me, this thing has been through no abuse on my end. Assembly or shipping, who knows... All my other amps are over 40 years old.

Thanks,
Greg
 
Soundchasm":2u236dia said:
Hey JWD, I'd try exercising your cable input and see if you get any artifacts.

Thanks,
Greg
Click to expand...

I'll check, but AFAIK it is ok. Like I said, the key for me was to get enough boost. Also, I'm running 4CM with a MFX, and it's taken a while for me to get all the levels right. My rig is sounding really good right now.

I've had mine out of the headshell for some time now to play with tubes. The build quality seems pretty good on mine.

JWW
 
Big kudos to GC. They accepted the internet sale/return, and the sale probably gets transferred from the net to the store, so it's not bad for them. I traded it for their floor model. I'm kind of glad to be getting a unit that hopefully has seen and survived more abuse than I'll ever deal out.

This unit sounds markedly better than the faulty one (thank you, Mr Obvious!), and has nowhere near the "windstorm" noise at idle. So the moral of the story is that if it doesn't sound right, it isn't right.

I'd love to find out what went wrong on that unit, but I'll have to let it go. Thanks to everybody!
Greg
 
Hi!

New Rebel 30 MK-II owner here, and new to the forum also... Greetings from Finland!

As I have the exact same problem as Greg had, I'm hijacking this thread. Sorry. :D

I've tried changing preamp tubes, but no help there. I've also noticed, that boosting the signal before input does actually help, but I'd like to use my guitar's volume knob to back of drive on the drive channel, and when I do this, the problem shows up again. I've not yet tried messing with the input jack, this is the next thing on my list.

Any help would be highly appreciated.

Thank You!
JS
 
The Egnater web site shows the preamp circuit v1-v5 and the effects loop tube can not be bright or high gain tube as it smears the highs fizzy use a jj 12ax7 or 5751 vintage tube
 
thickwood":2e5av4ni said:
The Egnater web site shows the preamp circuit v1-v5 and the effects loop tube can not be bright or high gain tube as it smears the highs fizzy use a jj 12ax7 or 5751 vintage tube
Click to expand...

Ok, thank you, I'll try this. I think I have JJ's lying somewhere, both ECC83S and 5751's.

When I think of it, this might also very well be a problem with the loop, as there is some minor leak in the loop. Meaning, that when I mute the loop with a tuner, there's still a faint signal coming through.

JS
 
Those dang micro switches do that.
It should mute your loop but some contact is leaking over , low power digital switching problems are allways in the switch contact.
The next culprit is a relay gets stuck , pedal jacks have neutrik switching jacks that you need to exercise by unplugging and repeat 8 x !

Amp power tube gain is different than preamp gain and the sweet spot is found carefully blending those very carefully .
Go with what your ears tell you works the best , set clean and cut on a pedal is what I do most sometimes playin for myself !
Hear something odd , get away from the speakers the highs can fool you up close as they fade away quickly moving away !
 
thickwood":2zs7n7al said:
The Egnater web site shows the preamp circuit v1-v5 and the effects loop tube can not be bright or high gain tube as it smears the highs fizzy use a jj 12ax7 or 5751 vintage tube
Click to expand...

I threw a JJ 5751 in the FX loop slot, and that actually helped a lot. I still have a faint, thin ghost note at low gain, but now my notes don't die unnaturally anymore. The ghost note I can live with, as it gets masked by the original signal when turning up the volume and gain on the amp, and by stepping away from the speakers.

Thanks thickwood! :thumbsup:

JS
 
The rebel 30 fx loop tube is important , I re -tubed many times using 12ax7-5751 tubes but when I put that a lower gain JJ ax7 in than I had it was much better on the OD channel .
Those highs quit being harsh and chords worked much better , humm less gain tube can be great so then cut up the gain control or volume a tiny amount to make up the slightly lower gain !
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top