My Marshall VS100 is very noisy??

My amp is producing a fairly noticable amount of hiss, could this me related to my guitar setup as it gets worse the more I increase the volume on the neck pickup rather than on the bridge pickup?

Anything to check on the amp? How do I know when the valve in the preamp needs replacing, should it be done periodically or do you just use it until it breaks?? Sorry if thats a dumb question but it is my first valve amp.

Cheers

Matt

Alot of times hissing is from the pickups, especially single coils. If you know anything about electronics try opening the back up, and re-soldering the connections at your inputs. I did this and it reduced the hissing by about 80%, then I replaced the preamp tubes. Now I would say about only 10% of the original hiss is still there.
My amp is also a few years old and I have single coil pickups.

that stinks when that happens, does it only do it on the dirty channel? and what kinda pickups do you have(single coil,humbucker).if its doing it on the clean as well might be in your house wiring, or you may have a flouresent light or a computer monitor nearby.otherwise it may be like the other guy said and it seems it fixed his problem so that may be it either way i hope i helped and wish you luck in solving this because i know how annoying this can be.

it is worse on the clean channel than the overdrives. thinking now though that my guitar setup is part of the problem, i have twin humbucker pickups but i'm sure the neck pickup need adjusting.

Although it didn't sound as bad last night when I was using it without my computer on, usually it is on because I use the tabs in guitar pro.

Have ordered a new valve, for the sake of £9 as i'm not sure it's ever been replaced in it's 5 year, certainly not in the last couple of years by the lad who I bought it off.

Matt

Definetly open the back up and re-solder the connections. You will notice a huge difference, especially on the clean channel.

Originally posted by Tele Master
Definetly open the back up and re-solder the connections. You will notice a huge difference, especially on the clean channel.

Which connections specifically? the jack socket in? I am an electronic engineer so am happy to do any kind of soldering jobs etc.

Thinking it is more the guitar setup and cable though, the cable is so bad if you tap the cable you can hear it through the amp! With no input and the PC monitor off it is actually very quiet.

Cheers

Matt

On the green circuit board(on mine it points out, the same way as the speaker) so I needed to take out the circuit board. Now where each jack has the wire going through the circuit board is where I re-soldered. I hope this helps. I am not an electronic engineer so.....haha

I posted this site on another reply but it's a good resource for anyone doing this kind of stuff...
http://www.projectguitar.com and go into the resources area. There are wiring sites, troubleshooting... you name it, it's in there.

I also have a VS100 but it works just fine. Man along with a DS1 (Boss dist) I have an amazing solo tune and for rythm only amp dist. Great tone, hell amazing for pinchin´ screams a la Zakk Wylde. Clean along with Boss CH1 Chorus works damn fine. Great amp and best of all is that I got VS 100 and one 4x12 box for 4.000 swedish crowns. (1$ is aprox 9-10 Skr.) Nica price!!