Been experiencing some sound issues the past couple of weeks, and I think I've isolated it to the amplifier. But as I know very little about amp quirks, I thought I'd put the question to y'all...
The amp in question is a Vox AD50VT (flame on, gear snobs, if you must
). Yes, I know it's a solid-state hybrid amp with a tube for the sweetener.At the past couple of band practices, I'll be playing and the sound coming out of the amp just dies to a whisper, ssst!, then comes back, stutteringly at first, then full force, after ±15 seconds. Not just once, but repeatedly, and usually when things are just getting good with the rest of the band.
The details: volume knob's @ ten o'clock, wattage knob's at ±35 watts. Miked through a PA. Doesn't seem to happen when it's run direct to the board (which cancels the speaker output), but that's for "quiet" practice, so I'm not... pushing things... quite so hard. Smoking studio (yes, flame on again, heh). Amp's maybe 3 years old (4?).
What I've done: Swapped guitar cables. Swapped guitars. Plugged guitar directly into the amp (removing the pedal board from the signal path). All for naught. Percussive maintenance (aka a good firm smack) did work last night, but I haven't had the opportunity to repeat that experiment for better quantified data.
The WTF: Is this a tube characteristic/quirk/peccadillo? Have I given the amp cancer? Will you help me get my cat out of the tree, officer?
