Musically, it was awesome! Kelly (our lead singer) knocked our socks off by playing acoustic and singing a new piece I hadn't even tried playing before (What's up by Four Non-Blondes) which would free me up to play high-gain lead exclusively... The girl plays flute like Ian Anderson, plays bass and sings (for only a few months ever trying to play bass) and now RIPS the vocals while playing the foundation on my acoustic (just learned how to play the chords)...!!! We did 3 new songs and had at least one run-through on each without any backing being played for support where we pretty much nailed them! VERY fun rehearsal! The other two were "Love Alive" by Heart (a real challenge to do with one guitar, one bass, and drums for instruments) and "Jesus Take The Wheel" which I wasn't exactly jumping through hoops to play, but it sounds really good when Kelly sings it and I think I have a good arrangement for it on the guitar while TJ's melodic bass style really suits it. Usually, when we are just learning something new, our drummer sits out and listens while we get the foundation down for the song (and the road map), but the first time we were going through JTTW, he jumped to the drums and started playing along because it soounded so good that he couldn't sit back! That's pretty cool!

The Hyde part was when a tube in the Bugera started to suddenly deteriorate and go microphonic and rattly... I reverted to my old Fender RAD with the Boss ME-50 in front of it... Sounded pretty good still... I did use the effects loop on the Bugera and it did sound really sweet until the tube started going south. It did it in Pentode and Triode mode... I don't know if it was input or output section. Thoughts? The other thing was my Monster Cable from the guitar to theamp I normally use... It started getting crackly as I moved it on the floor... Not at the jack. The body of the cable would cause a crackle just from kicking it or moving it or stepping on it. That was a fairly big-dollar cable... :X Given their history of suing everyone, I will never look at their gear again...

Monster products, while generally quite good, are seriously over-priced for what they are, (anybody can make a good cable,) & backed up by the stupidest junk science marketing bulls#@t as to why only their cables are worth buying. I would never buy any of their products. Try George L cables, unless you're subjecting them to a lot of abuse on stage.

Scott Fraser

That Monster cable of yours sounds like it's on the way out. I had one that did the same thing, and it died not long after.

Time to trade it in for a new one.

AFA that tube goes, take off any access panels or whatever you need to get to the tubes. Turn the amp on with your guitar and take a pencil and lightly tap each of the pre-amp tubes. If you hear very audible pinging out of your speakers, you'll most likely have found it. If it happens with more than one tube, take the noisier of them and see if that fixes it.

Also take note of its position and replace it. If it happens to be the Phase Inverter (closest one to the output tubes), you'll need a matched one.

Glad things are going so well with your band, Boggs!

The amp:

Yhup, what Zephyr says; use a forgiving, non-conductive object like a Sharpy marker (one without a metal clip) or a chopstick or the like to lightly tap on the tubes. Trial-and-error using fresh tubes known to be good will tell you if any of the existing tubes are the culprit.

Use said Sharpy to draw a little straight indexing-line across the side of the tube-socket and the tube itself, and observe its relation to the arrangement of the pins on the bottom of the tube for lining-up any tube you put in that socket. (Usually all the sockets will be oriented the same way in an amp, too.) Also write "V-1" or "-2" or "-3", etc., relative to socket-position.

And YES- go with a "matched" or "tested for balance" phase-inverter, aka an "MPI" in some circles, for use in most tube-amps. It can make a HUGE difference all around, and without one you won't get the most out of a matched set of output-tubes in most tube-amps.

Now, I have to wonder if it IS either a tube OR the cable, though, and not a faulty solder-joint, mechanical connection, and/or bad components in the amp itself. This amp is still under warranty, right? If so, DO NOT VOID YOUR WARRANTY by having anybody other than a manufacturer/dealer authorized repair-tech messing around in it, no matter how qualified they may otherwise be.

I hope it isn't so, but it's not too terribly unlikely that you're yet another customer to get a bum product from Behringer.

to add to Caevan's note though, if one tube is busted, replace all of them. It's not prudent to put in one new one and have all the others at the end of their life.

If the output-tubes, DEFINITELY. And if you change the output-tubes, ALSO change the driver/phase-inverter tube, they work together and wear out together as a team.

But for the "preamp" tubes, just keep good spares on hand in a safe, padded stash. It's not uncommon to have one of 'em go bad, and the others last much longer, due to both the semi-randomness of tube qualities and the different demands placed on 'em in different sockets and respective applications in the circuit.

I'd get rid of the cable (even if you don't get your money back)and see if it solves the problem before buying new tubes...then have the tubes checked...replace the power tubes as a matched set if either one is bad (all 4 if it's a big tuber), the others can be replaced one at a time, and don't forget to have the bias set if you replace the power tubes...glad the rest of the session worked out and enjoyed the part where the drummer picked up his sticks!!!

I checked the amp out last night... Tubes are perfect... Amp is perfect... I tapped on all the tubes individually... Nothin' but sweet tone from my guitar. This amp makes a mouse sound like it is screaming... Apparently it was something coming from the ME-50 effects processor. It has been suggested that maybe there was some wierd ground loop happening so I am going to try the effects on battery power next on Wednesday. I did change cables and guitars when the incident happened and the problem did not go away. It did not do it with my solid state amp... This is puzzling.

Avoiding ghosts 'n' U.F.O.s can be a full-time job in itself...

OK, clearly you have an FM* problem.

Scott Fraser

(* F&@#ing Mysterious)

Cables....FWIW...all we used at the Sound Company in Honolulu I worked for was Canare Star-Quad and Switchcraft or Whirlwind connectors. EVERY guitar cable was cut to length, cables tinned, then soldered to connector. Never a problem.
If you can solder.....secure GOOD cable and connectors and make your own. YOU know they are good that way......:)

Good luck figuring out the noise issue....

I tried several cables and two guitars... It wasn't the cables or the guitars. I believe something was going on with the multi-effects or possibly the transmission loop at church where we were rehearsing... I couldn't recreate the problem at home. I'll know more tomorrow...

Have a feeling there is a good chance the battery is going to solve the problem and/or maybe a power filter for your set up is needed...if the problem can't be duplicated at home...I have a feeling the effects are picking up a refrigerater or something else plugged in at the church....

The effects are stronger than I am, if they can pick up a refrigerator.. LOL!

Seriously, it's so true that electrical equipment is sensitive to things we aren't aware of, and behave in ways we don't expect... such as when sound systems pick up radio signals at odd moments and things like that!

I know it sounds funny Eric (and that you are much stronger than you think at times compared to effects pedals)....but....an old refrigerator down in the church basement kicks on and off and that Boss might just pick up the compressor noise in the circut...and yes, I've had the experiance of some radio channel coming in over my tube amp during inclement weather conditions...it's kinda cool to just have sounds come in from outer space, air conditioners are another culprit...it kinda bugs me when I want to record something and some weird buzz comes in from the old wall socket...could just be that Boss pedal is acting as an antenna at the church...and that's my suspect area since it's not happening at home....

Someone I know just had a similar question. He was playing with a cover band in a casino/club and his amp started to make whistling noises, which stopped for a bit when he bypassed his effects and plugged straight in but started again in a bit. He was wondering if he had a microphonic tube but we all thought it was probably the thousands of blinking lights and circuits going off and on in that place... plus the employee walkie talkie transmissions, and lord knows what else.

I'm no amp whizz and there is an expert that you can ask questions of on this forum P90...but I would suspect the amp in your friends case as it stopped for a bit after he kicked it on standby and/or turned it off to unplug his pedals and go direct, after the amp warmed up with the pedals no longer a factor, it started again...I'd check the tubes and also suspect a capacitor or some other problem if all the tubes check out good...if the problems go away when he gets home, it's a good idea to suspect the club circuts instead of the amp or pedals and think about running a power filter when out at the gigs IMHO.

Yeah, It's a Fender Blues DeVille... and I have one that's given me some episodes over the years. I burned through tubes in mine very quickly, too, but I was playing it tons. He says he made sure to play it long and loud afterwards and no whistle at home.

I advise every player I know to at least spend the $65 and get the little Ebtech Hum X thing, if nothing else. It's cut my lip getting shocked on mics down to almost never, and that's worth a great deal to me.

Will check out the Ebtech, thanks for the info...always check for those shocking polarities before you start singing...hands on strings and light lip touch on the mike ususally tells the story...most of the time the problem is solved if everyone has up to date equipment, but some old tubers with the 2 prong power chords will definately give you a thrill...

Doesn't seem to do it when I plug the effects into the standard amp input, but it does get noisy when using the effects loop at church... ???

Don't use effects much anymore so some of the other guys may give you better input, but the ME50 multi effects may work better going before the amp as some effects do not work as well on effects loops...I have an ME30 that I don't use any more as I don't like the rushy noise when I'm not playing or inbetween notes...I also noticed a difference in my amp volume and tone when I unplugged my pedals from the effects loop...but I still suspect the chuch power circut if you don't have the same problems at home....