Fender Pro Jr tube noise fix?

[lamp]

Can someone give me a link to the thread with the Fender Pro Jr tube noise mod/fix? Searched for hours but can't find it. Thanks.

[lamp]

Bump

[Kiwiburger]

The current administration refuses to accept that Fender amps are noisy. You didn't hear this here ...

[Teddy Gee]

LOL!

I have a great tech here who just did complete overhauls and NOS retube of my Pro Jr. and my Trace Elliott Velocette.

One of the things I wanted was to see if he could reduce the ENORMOUS noise level of the Fender (the all Class-A Elliott on the other hand is dead quiet!).

I don't want to tell you what he said in detail, but suffice to say that he told me he would have to totally rebuild the Pro Jr. and would love to do it if I could give hinm a month. I opted to keep it as is and continue to use gates. I am not a Fender detractor and like my Pro Jr, but even at idle with volume off..............it is loud!, and I do not know of a fix.

Stephen

[Eric Dahlberg]

A 12AX7EH in the first position helps a tad. The Pro Jr. has an extremely simple layout, though, that wouldn't take much to rebuild.

[Eric Dahlberg]

Originally Posted by Teddy Gee

One of the things I wanted was to see if he could reduce the ENORMOUS noise level of the Fender (the all Class-A Elliott on the other hand is dead quiet!).

How's the cabinet vibration on that Velocette? How do you compare its sound against the Pro Jr.'s?

[vernier]

I had two Pro Jr's, got rid of 'em cuz of the rush at idle.

[lamp]

Thanks for the replys. What im talking about is not really the noise and hum. Sorry I should have made that more clear. Its a resonance type sound from one ore more of the tubes. Sometimes steady state, sometimes sympathetic to a certain note being played. Its a known issue with the Pro Jr and the fix has something to do with taking the tubes out and making a gasket or something like that. I think I read it here on Gearslutz awhile back. It was a pretty simple fix. I can stop the sound if I hold something against the tube. ???????

[Marjan]

Look in the Fender forum: www.fenderforum.com If you don't get what you need in the archives, register and ask those guys. There's plenty of well informed amp freaks over there.

Originally Posted by Kiwiburger

The current administration refuses to accept that Fender amps are noisy. You didn't hear this here ...

I'm a big Fender fan and I think the current Vibrolux model completelly blows that statement away, to name just one. Its a really noisy amp, perhaps the noisiest I ever heard.
By the way, I actually own one and sent it to a technichian a while back for him to see what he could do about that. He said he would only be able to decrease the noise by decreasing the loudness, which sounds like "kind of cheating".
I decided to go for it though, and I'm happier now - less noise and still pretty damn loud to my ears with no loss of charachter.

[Curve Dominant]

I'm bumping this thread because I have new preamp tubes on order for my Fender Pro Junior.

We've recorded some positively bitchin' sounds with this amp, but it is indeed noisy as all hell, with some chaotic ringing in high frequencies which are sometimes cool sounding, but not always desireable.

I suspect the stock Groove Tubes in the preamp stage posess microphonics which may be the culprit here, so I ordered new EH tubes from the Tube Store. Hopefully this will be the fix. If not, there are plate electronics issues at hand which may warrant ... a new amp? Hopefully not, but I'll post an update here as soon as I get the new tubes installed and tested.

[Marjan]

Hmm, I doubt it's something to do with microphonics...
I think if that was the case 'lamp' wouldn't be able to stop the ringing by holding something against the tube as he mentioned.

[Eric Dahlberg]

Originally Posted by lamp

What im talking about is not really the noise and hum. Sorry I should have made that more clear. Its a resonance type sound from one ore more of the tubes. Sometimes steady state, sometimes sympathetic to a certain note being played.

That's the stupid tube retainer they use. I took mine off & have never had trouble with the power tubes getting loose, even though I regularly take the amp out to gigs & sessions.

[Teddy Gee]

Originally Posted by Eric Dahlberg

How's the cabinet vibration on that Velocette? How do you compare its sound against the Pro Jr.'s?

Eric,

I do not get any cabinet vibration from the Velocette. Compared to the Fender it is pretty aggressive in the lower mid range (I rarely if ever engage the "bright" switch) and would not be my choice for clean sounds. It is pretty hard to get anything out of it that is not at least a bit distorted (in a good way). The NOS tubes help mellow it a bit but it is a pretty aggressive little amp.

I think what my guy was saying in regard to rebuilding the Fender had more to do with starting over from scratch than rebuidling the existing. He did not think much of the design and suggested starting over.

Stephen