Spark Noise even with grounded plug-help!
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Hey all,
First time posting here. Hope someone here might have some advice. I’m no amp tech so am clueless. It’s a bit long. Apologies in advance.
I’ve had my Spark since summer of 2020. It came with the two prong, ungrounded power supply. I dealt with horrible noise from the amp due to this and after many hoops that tech support made me jump through, finally received a grounded power supply.
This seemed to solve it and I think noise was acceptable and more in line with the amp model chosen, amount of gain, overdrive, etc.
Recently, I have been noticing significant noise again where it almost seems like a loose connection. Thought maybe one of my guitars had a bad pot. Then I realized it was happening to all my guitars. This scratchy, loose connection type sound has been a little more intermittent. What I also noticed though (and is constant) as I listened closer was that with noise gate off or dialed down there is just a lot of hiss. With noise gate on I can tame it but my sustain goes to shit. Then too, when you hit a chord, the signal opens up and you get plenty of hiss as background accompaniment to your guitar playing. Again, this happens with any of my guitars, single coil, humbucker, and even my active pickup bass. I’ve changed which outlet I was plugged into and swapped input cables neither of which have helped. I’ve also updated the amp firmware to the most current version.
In contrast, my Fender Princeton reverb reissue with multiple effects in the chain has minimal noise with no noise gate.
I’ve owned other SS amps including a Katana and never had this issue.
I’ve now moved my Spark into the closet where it sits in shame. I miss it though. The ability to practice with headphones and backing tracks with quick as a button change of tone is pretty awesome.
Any ideas on what could be going on? -
@jsn-hgl
Sounds internal to the Spark 40 and well worth another PG Ticket. I assume you get equal results with multiple presets and left-most generic selector switch settings. The grounded power supply may have been more of a bandaid than a fix. That would be my strategy. -
@dan-lawrence thanks for the suggestions. I’ve reached out to PG. Don’t know if they’ll do anything since I’m out of warranty. Would sure like their help in at least identifying the problem and figuring out what needs to be done to fix it.
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I am experiencing the same problem with my Spark 40. It came with a grounded plug and my outlets are all grounded. The hiss is there regardless of which guitars or cables I use. It makes no difference at all when I want distortion, which is only part of the time. Most of the time I play fingerstyle and jazz on my archtop when I want a clear, clean sound. The amp makes no noise at all until the strings are moving, then it is a constant hiss which is unacceptable. I've had the amp just over a week and as much as I like the design and adaptability, I can't tolerate the noise. I'll probably return it.
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@chorndog I have exactly the same problem with my new Spark Mini. It hisses when there is a loud enough signal coming in - essentially when the strings are moving.