Author Topic: OMG MAKE THE OCEAN NOISE STOP!  (Read 3532 times)

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Offline IHatetheoceannoise

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OMG MAKE THE OCEAN NOISE STOP!
« on: October 11, 2007, 03:36:55 pm »
I have a sunn concert lead and it sounds amazing, blah blah blah. However, there is the ocean noise. Everyonce and a while with no dependence on anything at all there will be a noise like the ocean that will grow and grow until it becomes quite loud and then pops and goes back down to quiet. I have tried everything I could think of to get rid of it. I even removed the entire reverb tank from the amp and desoldered one the rca plugs from the board. Sometimes I swear it sounds like it's picking up the radio, but I can never make anything out. I found some loose peices of solder laying around and I removed those. did nothing. I cleaned out all the pots. did nothing. It must be stopped!

Offline JoeArthur

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Re: OMG MAKE THE OCEAN NOISE STOP!
« Reply #1 on: October 11, 2007, 04:35:32 pm »

Does this concert lead have one or two channels?

Offline IHatetheoceannoise

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Re: OMG MAKE THE OCEAN NOISE STOP!
« Reply #2 on: October 11, 2007, 06:01:17 pm »
1 unless I am much mistaken.
Two inputs 1 normal one bright
knobs and sunn logo are in red

Offline JoeArthur

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Re: OMG MAKE THE OCEAN NOISE STOP!
« Reply #3 on: October 12, 2007, 07:33:35 am »

You have a late model. Unfortunately I don't know what the insides look like so I can't really give you proper directions.

The ocean noise is caused by a dirty control, it's just not one on the front panel. It's on the power amp circuit board - it's a trimpot used to set the bias on the driver stage. It should have what looks like a screwdriver slot in the middle.

If you take the amp out of the case (unplug the amp from the wall outlet please!!), mark the position of the trimpot, spray it with control cleaner, rotate it with a screwdriver several times and repeat once before repositioning the trimpot to the mark you made it will clear up the ocean noise. Just make sure you let the control cleaner dry for a half hour before applying power to the amp.

The radio pickup is a slightly different problem - it's because the front controls are not correctly grounded as one or more of the securing nuts is loose. Remove all the knobs and tighten down all of the nuts (input jacks as well) about an 1/8th turn at a time - you want them evenly snug.

It helps if you do this nut tightening with a speaker connected and the amp powered up. A guitar cord in the normal input jack with the other end of the cord not connected to anything sometimes helps. Max out the tone controls and make sure the volume is up slightly so you can hear that the amp is on. Having the distort and boost on also helps.

By touching the metal shaft of a control with your finger (and moving from control to control) you can improve the reception. Snug up all of the nuts evenly until you can touch all of the control shafts without any radio pickup. Then you can put the knobs back on.

Make sure this makes sense to you before you attempt it. And ask questions if it doesn't make sense. 





Offline JoeArthur

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Re: OMG MAKE THE OCEAN NOISE STOP!
« Reply #4 on: October 19, 2007, 07:14:16 pm »

Any progress on this? I know it may sound weird, but it will fix the symptoms you mentioned.

Offline IHatetheoceannoise

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Re: OMG MAKE THE OCEAN NOISE STOP!
« Reply #5 on: October 29, 2007, 02:27:37 pm »
I bought some solvent-free control from radioshack and sprayed it into what I'm guessing is the trim pot. I then rotated it with a screw driver and repeated this process. before lining it up with a dab of yellow acryllic paint that I put on to mark the original location. I did not rotate the pot to it's limits because the screwdriver slot was phillips and I was afriad I wouldn't be able to put it back into position. could I have not rotated it enough or could I need cleaner with solvent? or should I just try to clean it out again.

The local guitar repair guy thought it might be bad caps, but that would seem to be inconsistant with the fact that the tone is still good.

another thing to note is that the person that had it before me seems to have added what I think is a large resistor, but possibly a cap to the main power switch, which I"m guessing is to get rid of the pop old solid state amps used to make when they turned on.

Offline JoeArthur

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Re: OMG MAKE THE OCEAN NOISE STOP!
« Reply #6 on: October 30, 2007, 10:23:02 am »
The cleaner I use is radio shack 64-4315. I've never heard of a solvent free control cleaner. I assumed you already had control cleaner because you mentioned cleaning the pots.

No you don't have to completely rotate the trimpot. You want to make sure the area where the wiper meets the resistance track is clean. Trimpots vary and I don't know what your's looks like, but make sure you are getting the cleaner onto the resistance track.

Did you do the control knob thing?

Can you post pics of the inside?

Offline IHatetheoceannoise

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Re: OMG MAKE THE OCEAN NOISE STOP!
« Reply #7 on: October 30, 2007, 11:48:09 am »
I assume it's solvent free because it says it's non-flammable. I don't notice any difference with the control things and the nuts seem pretty snug, I'm going to assume it's not radio pickup. doesn't really sound like that anyway.

I'll try to post pictures sometime between today and tomorrow.

Thanks.