Author Topic: Intermittent distortion on Tribute guitar (Read 113 times)

jmccal · « **on:** May 13, 2005, 10:40:20 PM »

The guitar is a tribute model TLG6, serial 04T13243, purchased Nov. 2004. I am using a practice tube amp, Marshall AVT20. I discovered, a few months ago, that the tone changed from its normal clean tone to a distorted effects tone. After changing the battery it was OK. It started again a month later. I replaced the battery again but the distortion remained. I tried my alternate Alembic Skylark guitar but distortion was still noticeable. Thinking it was the amp I took the amp and guitar to where the amp was purchased. The Marshall AVT20 tube amp was checked first with a different guitar and sounded fine. Next I checked the Alembic TLG6 with the Marshall AVT20 tube amp again and there was distortion. I then took the Alembic TLG6, plugged into a Crate solid state amp and then the sound was clean again. I returned back to the Marshall AVT 20 tube amp, plugged in the Alembic TLG6, and now it has been playing clean since. I?ve also noticed a slight smell from the pickups on the Alembic TLG6. It borders on a burnt electronics smell or just electronics heating up. As of now the guitar is working fine. Has anyone heard of such symptoms or feel it should be checked by Alembic? I know it sounds confusing bit confusing. Intermittent problems are hard to trace. I have been using a higher quality cable since.

jetbass79 · « **Reply #1 on:** May 14, 2005, 02:36:16 AM »

I have sold tons of Marshall AVT20s...when they first came out they were notorious for having issues from tubes to circuits but to my knowledge they have rectified the problems. If your amp (which is a tube/SS hybrid) was built in 2000 or 2001 it could be from this batch. My guess is that it might be the 12AX7 in the amp that could be crapping out given that the tubes we get these days don't even come close to what we got in the 1970s when tubes were taken for granted by everybody. Again though I don't know how old your AVT20 is but if it is 4 or 5 years old it could be an amp problem. As far as funky smelling pickups that doesn't sound normal to me but I'm sure the Alembic people would be more than happy to address that issue.

jmccal · « **Reply #2 on:** May 14, 2005, 05:21:45 AM »

Thank you for your response. The AVT20 is only 6 months old.

David Houck · « **Reply #3 on:** May 14, 2005, 12:53:48 PM »

I know very little about electronics, but the burnt smell from the Tribute along with the rest of the story suggests to me a bad capacitor in the guitar (if there is one). However, the fact that you had the same problem with the Skylark suggests the amp. An electronics tech should be able to check the capacitors in the guitar and the caps and tubes in the amp. Try doing some more experimenting first to see if you can nail down whether it's the guitar or the amp.