Hello folks,
New member here with a lovely 2x12" TM that I've had for some time.  Love the amp to death but after recently playing a friends Super Reverb for a while I was kind shocked at the amount of white noise hiss my TM has when sitting at idle when I came back to playing it.  It is especially bad with the treble control anywhere above 1 o'clock.  I've heard some people describe their TM's  as "dead quiet" but mine is certainly not.  I've swapped tubes, cleaned pots, and poked around for bad connections and everything seems right, but still more white noise style shoosh than I would like.  Any comments or common experience?
Thanks,
Hipbilly

    My 210 combo is kinda noisy. I was thinking new tubes might help. But, you've tried new tubes.

   Maybe it's because they're getting so much volume from the EL-84s? The TM is definately the loudest 2 X EL-84 amp I've heard.

   Hopefully, someone more knowledgable will chime in, here.

   I know that if the wiring inside isn't tidy, you can get some noise. Does everything look stock, inside?

   Have you tried plugging the TM into a regulated/filtered power supply?  Something like a Furman power conditioner?

   P.S.

   What tubes did you put in it? And, were they better sounding than what had been in there?

Emailed Jeff Bober about my noise concerns and he replied the very next day.  This guy gets how to provide real customer support.  Killer.  Here's what he had to say.


Well, being that the Twinmaster is such an "open" type of circuit, there's
not much to get in the way of the guitar signal, which is why it's so
responsive. There's also nothing in the way of any tube-generated noise
either, which gives it a slightly higher noise floor. Bottom line is there's
probably nothing wrong with your amp. Different types of pre amp tubes have
different noise floors, and although you said that you've already tried, you
may want to go thru a few more tubes to find the quietest.

These amps have been incessantly recorded over the past decade, so I'm
guessing that the producers and engineers felt that the tone triumphed over
the noise floor, but if it's something you can't deal with you can probably
gate the loop. That should remove it.

Let me know how that works out for you should you need to try it, and please
feel free to contact me with any further questions.

Have a Great Day,

    Jeff


So I'll keep trying different preamp tubes and see if I can tame the noise a bit.  I've got current production Tung-Sol 12AX7's in it right now.  They are certainly quieter than the sovteks that came in the amp.  Havn't tried regulated power but it doesn't sound like AC line noise.  I'll check it out though if I can get my hands on  regulated supply.  As far as the wiring, looks stock.  It is a beautifully laid out circuit.  Just clean,tight, and efficient.  Guess I just have to, and can, deal with a little bit of noise in order to get sling that lovely TM tone:-)

    One of my buddies who has owned quite a few BUDDAS recommended JJ tubes (Teslas). He said they were what he'd been using in his Twinmaster.

   So, you may want to try those.

I have a Verbmaster 18 that also is noisy compared to most amps.  I've found that when the Sovtek EL84's start going out in my amp they usually become noisy.  Just something else you might want to check out.

Did some more preamp tube swapping.  I've ended up liking the JJ/teslas over anything else (tung-sol,sovtek lps, EH).  More high end sparkle than the others.  Not any less noisy, just more to my taste tone-wise. I play a lot of country and clean style stuff so a little extra high end sparkle is welcome.  Did do the "tube tap" test with a chop stick while the tubes were in the amp and of the four I had available I was able to determine one that was WAY quieter as far as how much noise it transfered from tapping it vs. the others.  That one is living in the 1st position and sounding good.  My EL84's are pretty fresh so I'm pretty sure they are not contributing to the noise.  So short story long, +1 for the JJ's.
 

    Excellent! I'm glad the JJ/Tesla tip worked. So, as long as we all share these types of stories and experiences, we'll be able to build a type of reference/database here. Something to compile all of the shared experience and knowledge, in one easy to find place.

   Here's another idea I mentioned on another thread.


   Try swapping your V1 preamp tube to a lower gain version.
EX:

Change the 12AX7 to a 12AT7, 12AU7, or 12AY7.

   These lower gain tubes will yield a "little" more clean headroom. But the reason I really like the swap is for the way they seem to help the OD tones become clearer and more detailed. Yeah, you lose a little gain. But, I don't usually Dime the volume knob, anyway.

   Anyway, keep on sharing your experiences. I think it helps us all.

   Thanks.