Clean your valve/tube sockets!

[mickrich]

My Triple Recto was sounding under gained and flat.
I bought it used and had no frame of reference to compare it to.
I even made a thread on the grail tone boogie board and got replies about how the recto is not as "shreddy" as 5150s etc.

When I got my Mesa MK4 last week it was way better than the Recto so I got thinking about what could be causing it to sound so flat.
I had tried plenty of different preamp valves already.
I got my can of Servisol super 10 and sprayed the input, fx and speaker jacks then took the valves out (noting positions) and sprayed the valve sockets then put the valves in and out a few times to clear any gunk.

Waited half an hour to make sure all the servisol had evaporated then fired up a session to check if it had made any difference. Sent a reamp in and WOW the amp has completely come to life. Far more top end presence and much higher saturation. I had been running the gain on modern channel at 2PM with ts808 full gain zero drive. Now it sounds super chunky on gain at 11-12PM.

There was obviously a bad connection somewhere caused by grease or oxidization.
It was sounding like the volume was turned down a bit on the guitar (muddy and not saturating)
I am going to spray all my amps sockets once a month from now on.

 

[Adrian Warren]

Thanks for your post. Will try this out with an amp.

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

Wow never even thought to try this when cleaning.

 

[Sloan]

Dirty or loose tube sockets is a pretty common problem. I think cleaning them once a month may be excessive, but it's not a bad idea to pay attention to them.

 

[Jind]

I clean all my electronic connections and switches a couple times a year on all my devices are operating in good order. I always have Deoxit on hand.

 

[Lasse Lammert]

I'm doing it whenever I'm changing tubes

 

[Ermz]

Too many of these little factors with guitar gear...

First it was 'tighten the screws on your speakers/cab, it makes a huge difference'. Then it was 'rebuild the power going to your amp, it'll make a huge difference'. Then it was 'buy ridiculously expensive guitar cables, they actually do make a huge difference' etc.

Blargh.

 

[::XeS::]

Ermin, it's the same for everything......what about tuning for a fucking day the drums and re-tune it after every song recorded? Anyway
I spray a contact cleaner every time I change tubes....it's a precaution and it takes only 2 minutes doing it. Pretty acceptable I think.

 

[Trevoire520]

Yeah i always spray a bit of contact cleaner and insert/remove the tube a couple of times to prevent buildup whenever I'm changing tubes. As said once a month may be a little excessive though.

 

[Uros]

Kontakt IPA spray, and you're golden!

 

[AceFireForce117]

huh. Pretty good to know !

 

[Glenn Fricker]

This stuff is awesome.

 

[Sloan]

^100%

 

[PhilTheBeard]

^200%!!! that stuff does rule