No guitar sound after frequent loud noise from Spark
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Hi, guys!
Great 2023 for everyone here!My beloved Spark started having this problem:
No guitar sound after frequent loud noise.This is happening every 2 minutes or so. There is this loud noise and no guitar sound is heard anymore.
When it happens, I turn off the unit and turn on again, and it works correctly for 2min or less unfortunately, then the loud noise comes again and there is no guitar sound anymore.Bluetooth devices keep connected and sounding normally, but no guitar.
I did a factory reset, but the issue is still there.
My cables and guitars are very good and in perfect conditions.I did not read about any similar issue here.
Has anyone seen something similar? Any tips/suggestions?Any help is highly appreciated!
Best!
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@stilettoking
Is it a Spark 40 or a Mini? How old is it? Do you hear the noise through both the amp speaker and headphone jack? Have you submitted a Customer Support Ticket to PG?This could be an infant mortality issue common with less expensive hardware components. When I hear that it works correctly for a few minutes before going bad, I generally think about a component with an intermittent thermal problem. With no power applied, it appears within spec. Once power is applied, it works correctly until it heats up to a certain internal temperature and then fails, either opening, shorting, or going way out of its specified range. Turn power off, the component cools down again.
There are other possibilities of course, so it’s best to submit a Support Ticket through Positive Grid, especially if the amp is still under warranty.
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Hi, Dan,
Thank you very much for the insightful help!Mine is Spark 40, 18 months old. I’ll check if the noise is heard through headphones as well. It is very loud regardless of the volume the guitar or the BT is.
Makes sense what you said about a cheap component getting warm and stop working.
Yesterday I opened a ticket. Awaiting on Positive Grid.
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@dan-lawrence
PG’s customer support replied with a few questions.
I post PG’s questions and my answers below:
———————————————————————Did you do firmware update to latest version? Or, did the issue happened after firmware update?
I updated the firmware to the latest version. The same issue happened before and after the update.
Is the issue remain when you turn off bluetooth connection?The issue still remains even if I turn off Bluetooth
(I mean the issue remains even when I turn off the bluetooth on all my devices such as iPhone and iPad)
Is the issue happened when you play with certain frequency/volume?The issue happens even when no guitar is plugged in. Also happens when no bluetooth music (from iPhone, iPad, etc.) is being transmitted to the amp.
It happens regardless of the volume I play. -
@stilettoking
Looking for potential external causes. Probably see a couple cycles of questions as they try to exclude external sources and possibly isolate internal amp failure site. -
My Spark 40 is on PG’s repair center since Monday, Jan 30.
It should be simple… let’s see…