Rocker 30 combo harsh?

[Captainquackolot]

Hi, I recently picked used Rocker 30 combo and have been playing it for a few days now. I have found it to sound extremely harsh to the point that it actually hurts my ears.

Despite the fact that I've been rolling most of the treble and mid off and adding a lot bass it still sound very brittle and harsh, even though many people have been telling me the rocker 30 supposed to sound warm and thick, whilst mine sounds the exact opposite. Even my 5 watt fender champion 600 and shitty solid state fender mustang sound more pleasing to my ears that my rocker 30.

Does anyone know why this may be? Do I just need to re-tube it? And if so, what tubes do you recommend?

Thanks!

[Bensnake]

Hi and welcome! With all tone controls set at noon you should have a neutral tone that pleases your ears. If everything's alright it shouldn't sound harsh at all, even at high gain settings. Rolling off the treble and mid down to almost zero makes the tone really dark. It does seem like something's wrong, probably tube related (preamp- and/or power-). How does the natural channel sound? Full and dynamic or thin and "lifeless"?

[Captainquackolot]

Hi and welcome! With all tone controls set at noon you should have a neutral tone that pleases your ears. If everything's alright it shouldn't sound harsh at all, even at high gain settings. Rolling off the treble and mid down to almost zero makes the tone really dark. It does seem like something's wrong, probably tube related (preamp- and/or power-). How does the natural channel sound? Full and dynamic or thin and "lifeless"?

Thanks for the response. I pulled the back of to find there were some worn out looking no name tubes in it. So, I bought a set of tubes from some thetubestore.com and replaced all of them and it sound wonderful
Thanks for you're help

[Bensnake]

Great! Enjoy your playing.

[Les Paul Lover]

Great news!!!

You might want to hang onto the preamp valves. They might be good still. Power valves burn a lot faster, whereas preamp valve can often last a very long time of normal use.

Glad you got its tone sorted anyway!!!!!

[a.hun]

Great news!!!

You might want to hang onto the preamp valves. They might be good still. Power valves burn a lot faster, whereas preamp valve can often last a very long time of normal use.

Big +1.

In fact I'd go further and start swapping your old preamp valves back in - one at a time - to see how they all sound. (Ideally in the same slots they were in before, but you'll have probably forgotten those.) If they still sound good definitely keep them as known good working spares. I'd never chuck good working valves out, and the chances are high that some or all of the preamp valves may still be fine. It only takes one duffer to destroy your sound, or a worn set of power valves. Preamp valves should on average outlast several sets of power valves, with probably 3 - 5 times the useful working life!

Also valves - just like lightbulbs - can fail at any time, so you'll always want some spares handy. But the most likely time for failures is actually in early use when any weak ones tend to die or get noisy. Which is what I meant by 'known good working spares'. Valves which survive the first few hours of regular use are very likely to go on for much longer. I'd actually prefer not to gig or hit a studio with brand new valves, always putting at least a good few (tens of) hours on them first as a sort of 'burn in' period to make sure they really are good!


Andy.

[nlimbaugh]

Did you check out the speaker, just curious.

[a.hun]

Did you check out the speaker, just curious.

New valves sorted it!


Andy.