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Motor-boating Tubes


Tele Master
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Joined: 08/02/02
Posts: 1,329
Tele Master
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Joined: 08/02/02
Posts: 1,329
12/11/2003 11:36 pm
When I turn my amp on, it sounds like their is a motor boat inside. I don't know if there is a technical term for this. I don't know where to start looking. My dad is a technician and he says that its probably the tubes. Is he right?
Electric Guitars are the inspiration for cries of "Turn that damn thing down"-Gibson website
# 1
Hammurabi
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Joined: 09/23/03
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Hammurabi
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Joined: 09/23/03
Posts: 1,679
12/11/2003 11:52 pm
Yeah, there is a technical term for it.

"Stupid ******* piece of ****! *****! ****** *** *******!"
or something like that.

I dunno, I've never had that happen, but most of my experience has been with solid state so it very well could be something with or around the tubes.
"If one has realized a truth, that truth is valueless so long as there is lacking the indomitable will to turn this realization into action!"
-A.H.
# 2
Tele Master
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Tele Master
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Joined: 08/02/02
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12/12/2003 1:21 am
I turned the amp off, and came back after about 30 minutes. Now its not doing it anymore? I like that technical name,

Electric Guitars are the inspiration for cries of "Turn that damn thing down"-Gibson website
# 3
Lordathestrings
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Lordathestrings
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Posts: 6,242
12/12/2003 6:03 am
"MOTORBOATING"
Excessive feedback in an audio amplifier can result in a fluttering or popping sound that resembles the sound of a motorboat. This oscilation is caused by undesirable coupling between the output and the input of an amplifier or chain of amplifiers. It can also occur as a result of capacitive or inductive coupling in the wiring or be caused by the power supply. Because of the characteristic sound, this low-frequency oscilation is called motorboating.


This isn't the kind of feedback that made Jimi Hendrix famous. It may be that some of the point-to-point wiring in your amp is 'sharing' in ways that are not good for your sound.
Lordathestrings
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# 4

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