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Hoffman Amps Forum image Author Topic: Hoffman 5e3 build - no hum/hum  (Read 2628 times)

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Offline newguitarsmell

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Hoffman 5e3 build - no hum/hum
« on: January 10, 2019, 07:11:03 pm »
Hi
I built a Hoffman 5e3 - spent a long time retiring things last night and the amp sounded great. It continued to sound great until after about an hour I started hearing noise. It was a combination of radio noise which progressed to a pretty loud hum.
I don't know how or where to take voltages - so if somebody could let me know what to post to get help.

I will recheck all the solder joints - I am so close!
Thoughts?

No filament wires are touching each other.

Offline vampwizzard

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Re: Hoffman 5e3 build - no hum/hum
« Reply #1 on: January 10, 2019, 07:28:08 pm »
Id go back through it and check for cold joints and places where you may inadvertently have grounded it.

also, https://el34world.com/Forum/index.php?topic=17701.0

Offline PRR

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Re: Hoffman 5e3 build - no hum/hum
« Reply #2 on: January 11, 2019, 03:17:53 pm »
Crap that builds over an hour has to be a poor mechanical "joint". Expands, loses contact.

Which in a guitar amp, is most likely a "soldered" joint that isn't really metal-to-metal "wet", but just globbed-up on top of tarnish. (It could be a loose ground bolt or a highly tarnished chassis at that bolt.)

Offline VMS

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Re: Hoffman 5e3 build - no hum/hum
« Reply #3 on: January 12, 2019, 12:41:10 am »
If you're using new set of tubes i would try to swap the tubes to older set that you know works

Offline newguitarsmell

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Re: Hoffman 5e3 build - no hum/hum
« Reply #4 on: January 14, 2019, 12:14:30 am »
I am going to resolder. Had a bit of a time getting the solder to stick to the back of pots, even with flux but it worked. Will check back. Might also bias the tubes.
Tubes are NOS. Amp sounds great, but starts to hum. I suspected it was a solder/heat thing.
Thanks all!

 


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