Marshall Valvestate VS65R Just makes horrible noise! Let's fix this thing!

I buy broken amps, and this is one of them. Overall, the components in this amp are in pretty good health. An easy fix, a bath, and it's ready to find a new home!

[@johnsimms3957]

Good job. I believe this was one of their best valvestates made.

[@DeadKoby]

I liked it.. and now it has a happy new owner.

[@LosoIAm]

Thank you for sharing. I think the bad soldering had been done on a late Friday afternoon and the technician was VERY late to join his mates at the pub down the road!

[@DeadKoby]

My guess was that it was soldered by a "wave solder" machine, that doesn't really consider stuff like that.

[@davemcdonald8790]

I have the VS100 and it was amazing when it was working

[@DeadKoby]

If you'd like it fixed, I can give it a shot.

[@eddieandrews3335]

"Blown to snot" remark had me laughing. Great video, thanks heaps

[@DeadKoby]

No worries. Many times the issues one finds in an amp are NOT rocket surgery. Sometimes it sure feels like it is though.

[@prodajie]

I've had a VS265R sitting for years with the same issue. I'd had it fixed once before but when the buzz came back I bought a separate head and cab. This quarantine got me looking at the amp again and I found this vid. Sure enough, it was the same capacitor. I could also see it was the same cap re-soldered when I had it fixed. My electronics knowledge is very limited but I feel I'd at least know where to start should I see this with another amp.

[@DeadKoby]

Why they didn't leave the leads a little longer, and solder them flat on a pad, I will never know. That would have prevented this from ever happening.

[@prodajie]

@@DeadKoby Thanks for mentioning that. I wasn't expecting my solder job to hold up any longer than the prior repair. I have a couple mm of lead to play with on the cap, I'll go ahead and re-solder with the lads bent down.

[@DeadKoby]

I build amps, and the soldering job can't be weak... or stuff like this happens. Glad my experience was able to help you. I did OK, selling this amp to a local upstart player.

[@claveduo8264]

Easy repair ! Lucky you !

[@DeadKoby]

Indeed. I am always happy to have a quick-fix.

[@myleswillis]

Everything's easy once you know how.

[@jcsydney4763]

Thanks for showing your video.. o get the same squealing sound on my Fender Deluxe when I switch to over drive.. fingers crossed it just needs a new capacitor

[@DeadKoby]

Could be... or it could be something more. More likely a tube in that channel.

[@gunnerjenson]

Enjoyed this. A very underestimated amp range. I use a 65r with a Dark matter, both cheap but what a sound. My band won't let me change it 😅

[@DeadKoby]

Glad you enjoyed it.

[@carlosgarciasandoval9993]

Great!!!

[@5892Andy]

Just went looking for the same kind of noise in a Fender Ultimate Chorus and found both filter caps all wobbly with bad solder joints. I believe the cause is the "modern" wave solder process that uses low temp solder to automatically solder all the components at one pass on a board. The big heavy components like filter caps , tube sockets, standoff high power resistors etc always seem to fracture their joints on the board after time. Really well done video BTW and I admired your Cap tester ...what brand is it?

[@DeadKoby]

Lead free solder cracks... Simple as that. The testing thing is marketed at a transistor tester/component identifier. 25$ on eBay.

[@leeanucha]

Never knew valvestat has a real tube in it

[@DeadKoby]

Valve (tube) + Solid State = ValveState

[@gib412]

Been searching on YT for a video on this problem for quite a while. I have a 8100 head that is doing this very same thing. I have been suspecting the filter caps. Maybe this is all the problem is. I'll give it a check tonight and see what I see.

[@DeadKoby]

It is usually something simple like that.

[@gib412]

@@DeadKoby I will say that it states that it wants to see a 4 ohm load but I have been running it above that into a 16 ohm cab. The previous owner was doing the same thing. I do not know if the hum has always been there but it is intermittent. Sometimes when I power up, it's there, other times it's not. When it is, I can lightly bump the amp and it will stop. That made me think a bad solder joint is the issue here. However, at a gig recently, I had the amp turned up higher than I normally would at home and I lost a speaker. This made me think that I had DC on the output - so I am not sure which is which at the moment.

[@DeadKoby]

This has a solid state output....... 4 ohms or more is safe.

[@gib412]

@@DeadKoby That's what I assumed but thought I better make sure.

[@cwl1000]

I have a 265VSR and got him too. I’m booking it into Marshall for a service later this month. Actually bought it directly from Marshall in 1995. So, that’s pretty good reliability. They used Semelab (SML) transistors in there. That’s what made the amp special. I was a QA Manager there from 89-1998. 🇬🇧💥🚀📺

[@DeadKoby]

I'm just glad I could fix and find this amp a home. Too many good electronics meet the grave for reasons that should be directly fixable.

[@rebeccaseeley8980]

I have a Marshall AVT20 that has horrible ground hum and drives me crazy! Ive read a article about moving the Reverb tank away from the transformer and makes them a lot better. Have you done this to any of these Valvestate 2000s. I would really like to settle that hum down. If I turn my gain above 3 or 4 its just too loud for me

[@DeadKoby]

Ive had reverb tanks picking up noise in other projects. I haven't worked on the amp you speak of.

[@ringostarr4520]

Not sure why you said you needed to have the amp on a load? I guess you must have tested for DC voltage on the output and did not find any. At that stage you used the 120hz ripple noise to find if the caps reacted to movement. Easy fix but I am waiting for a video where you might go down a rabbit hole. Those are fun!

[@DeadKoby]

Some solid state amps (especially those with modules) will burn up the output stage if there's no speaker or dummy load. (I made that mistake once) I'm sure I could have read the schematic and determined whether or not this one had the potential to do so, but I've made it a habit to never turn on a SS power amp without a speaker on it. In this case I just poked that cap, it sparked, and the problem was obvious. Seems like lately the projects have been pretty straight forward, but I feel also I've gotten better with another year of practice. Overthinking is my worst enemy.... Comparing this to the Standel of a few years back, I KNOW I'm more confident with solid state.

[@ringostarr4520]

I always use a light bulb limiter 40-60 watt bulb no load on all suspect SS amps, with the exception of old ones that used an OT. Which SS module are you referring to? A load on an amp with huge DC offset is what I avoid first.

[@DeadKoby]

There's some Marshall heads that are subject to this, but the one I burned up on accident was a TDA2050 module in a Fender practice amp... those can "run away" and overheat Unless there's a speaker or dummy load attached. After that incident, I've always had some kind of load on the output.

[@jessejorgensen3931]

I just picked up a marshall 2510 1987. 25 bucks. Plugged it in. Turned it on had dirty pots. Cleaned them out. All the noise basically went away. Sounds fantastic. But I was having a hard time getting gain boost on. So i went to turn it off, and there was a boom and a squel. The rocker was stiff, and the light doesn't work? No leaky caps. I am very nervous to turn it back on. Should i be?

[@DeadKoby]

It's hard to say, but it sounds like something is shorted out.

[@lukedavern2205]

Theres a valvestate vs102r for 50$, it's broken and I'm just looking for advice on whether I should take the risk or not, apparently no sound comes true it and the headphone jack doesn't work either. Do you think it's worth the risk of buying and trying to fix?

[@DeadKoby]

It's plausible.... Usually these aren't crazy hard to fix. The circuit is pretty straight forward.

[@lukedavern2205]

@@DeadKoby with this covid going around I'm just gonna give it a miss, thanks very much

[@DeadKoby]

Heck, I just had an item I've been looking for for YEARS turn up on Ebay. I'll unbox with with gloves if I have to... I want it! You'll see that on the channel soon.

[@lukedavern2205]

@@DeadKoby I'll make sure to check it out, thanks very much

[@lorencing]

Nice video of solving the problem. Have a similar issue with my PRS MT15 and it sounds a lot like that and it started doing that 2, 3 week s ago sporadicly. Before I sort of fished for the buzz using the full/half power switch, now I don't even have to fish for the buzz, it is just always there. A question regarding the repair, did you empty the caps before soldering and did you have to unmount the pcb to do that? For me to do that on my amp it looks like a hole lotta work to get the pcb out and I'm no professional electrician. Do you suggest I give it a try or take it to a repair shop? The amp was born on 2018 and besides noisy FX loop did not have any issues till now. Thankful for any advice.

[@DeadKoby]

The caps usually don't have anymore than 50v in them.... (read the voltage) solid state stuff doesn't run that high of voltage. I think I tipped the PCB up to get to the underside. This was a long time ago... so I don't remember it 100%

[@lorencing]

@@DeadKoby as I can not check the cap like you did cause they are glued together with silicone and there is no movement when I push lightly on them, do you think it would be of any use if I take out the pcb and just resolder them on the underside in the position they are? And in my case it is a PRS MT15 tube amp and there are 16V and 450V caps inside. I also noticed that the ground wires are all chassis mounted, separately, maybe I should make a star ground hub and solder them all to one place. Think that could improve anything?

[@DeadKoby]

@@lorencing Oh... so you have a standard tube amp running at full voltage. That changes things a little. Checking the solder joints on the PCB is always a good start.

[@lorencing]

@@DeadKoby yep, standard, full voltage and I hope there is a power sucker circuit built in for those caps ;) ... of course I will check that before I start fiddling around. That is all I am prepared to do at the moment as I do not have sufficient knowledge to really diagnose the amp and will probably take the amp to a technician if that does not do it ... and start learning about tube amps and electrics in general as I would like to be able to diagnose and repair stuff by myself, as there are many good devices with poorly executed builds or with trivial flaws that can be easily corrected, but the average Joe (like myself) does not know that.

[@lorencing]

@@DeadKoby well, here is an update ... went online and read on Rob Robinette's site an advice on how to go about troubleshooting tube amps and read about bridging the FX loop ... and ... it fixed my issue, no more 50Hz noise (mains freq in EU) and guitar signal back to normal. But this is just temporary as I want to use the FX loop and now have to figure out what to do with the small FX loop pcb, where to connect a wire to ground or maybe replace a jack socket. Any idea how to start?

[@eathanstraker2691]

I have the same amp. it's puzzling me.. it works fine until i dial in some built in reverb then i get a continuous feedback sound on the open D-B strings very weird ive been getting by just using a reverb pedal but i would love to fix this issue any ideas or recommendations 😁

[@DeadKoby]

Try isolating the Reverb tank from the vibration of the cabinet

[@littlebaw]

I have the same humming sound yet all solder looks fine under a mignifying lens. Do you think it could be a bad capacitor? I bought it a few years ago brand new and always been like that I thought it was normal and is the same brand Marshall!

[@DeadKoby]

Bad filter caps are common. Its a good possibility.

[@littlebaw]

@@DeadKoby thanks will pull off the caps and test to see which is the faulty one, appreciate the response, take care!

[@eazyrider6122]

Its a Marshall so it just needed some ACDC LOL!.

[@DeadKoby]

Sounds about right.

[@loupoplaski4995]

if i mail you a marshall bluetooth speaker will you take a look at it?

[@DeadKoby]

What's the issue?

[@tuonglukim8973]

If it's made in England you're supposed to SOLder it, not Sodder it. Just for good measure, a valve ... not a tube AND it's Alluminium ((Al-you-minium) ... not Alluminum. The British amps need the correct terminology or else they start throwing crumpets and tea everywhere.

[@DeadKoby]

Sounds about right. I think this one was new enough to be made in China. So I have to work on changing my r's to l's

[@tuonglukim8973]

@@DeadKoby If you think that's hard... just wait until you try changing an IC with chopsticks. Hahahaha great video man, I enjoyed it. The signal injection was pure genius.

[@tjsogmc]

I buy broken amps all the time. 99% of the time the problem is nothing more than a bad solder joint or bad cap.

[@DeadKoby]

Many times, it is something minor.........but sometimes not. As long as you bought the whole thing for below what the pieces are worth, it's worth a shot.

[@tjsogmc]

@@DeadKoby I've bought amps with serious problems that would be too expensive to fix. In those cases I strip them for parts and sell what I can and keep the rest. Usually I can buy the amp for under a hundred, if not for free. Ultimately I make out pretty good 👍

[@DeadKoby]

That's usually how I work also. Auctions (Local) have been my #1 source.

[@RetroPlus]

I have an amp that just makes a 120hz hum noise and that's it, although the headphone out works fine so it might be just the speaker. I checked the input and speaker output jacks and they were fine

[@johnd942]

The reason this is such a 'crappy' video is that it was ALL TALK! How about showing your testing and repair procedure!

[@DeadKoby]

I poked around in it in with a stick until I got sparks... Great thing to recommend to the public.