Art Nace contact infos ? Pro-18 noises...

[JoelPoirier]

Hi bro’s,

Bought a Nace Pro-18 head from a member here and while it sounds good I have strange sounds on power up and down.
Like a farting sound on power up and a loud pop on power off.

I also have a fairly loud hiss even on Stby like air conduct noise.

Might be normal or not, just strange.
Might have suffered from shipping ?

Will try to get new tubes to swap them and see if it helps...

Bringing me to Art Nace contact infos, lol.
The number I found here (480-981-9114)doesn’t seems to work anymore.

Thanks

 

[mountain man]

That's the number I have for Art. Try to email him. The last email address I have for him is: artnace@cox.net. That was good February of this year.

Did you try switching the stand-by to off?

 

[JoelPoirier]

That's the number I have for Art. Try to email him. The last email address I have for him is: artnace@cox.net. That was good February of this year.

Did you try switching the stand-by to off?

I always switch Power on then Stby on after two minutes.
Then when I’m over, Stby off and Power off after a few seconds.

 

[Crossroads]

Hiss could be interference. Have you tried moving your guitar away from computer, cell phones other sources of RF? Also check ground and try changing outlet

 

[JoelPoirier]

 

[JoelPoirier]

Hiss could be interference. Have you tried moving your guitar away from computer, cell phones other sources of RF? Also check ground and try changing outlet

Does it even with no guitar plugged in and on Standby mode.

Tried two different outlets but have two other amps in the same outlets with no noise whatsoever.

I’m kind of puzzled.

 

[mountain man]

Neither my combo or head make this noise. I get just a little puff. But my V-Power isn't dimed either. Try turning the V-Power down to 12 noon. That is also where my Master power is. I'm not trying to power a huge cab like that either......... My head is powering 2 vintage 12" Carvin cabs.

 

[JoelPoirier]

Neither my combo or head make this noise. I get just a little puff. But my V-Power isn't dimed either. Try turning the V-Power down to 12 noon. That is also where my Master power is. I'm not trying to power a huge cab like that either......... My head is powering 2 vintage 12" Carvin cabs.

Same results with everything at noon...

The cab might seems huge from the point of view but it’s only a Road King 2x12.

Does the same with my 1x12 Widebody cab though.

My thoughts are that maybe something got damaged in transport or a bad solder somewhere ...?

 

[MikeS]

I get the same hiss. I KNOW it should be dead silent in Standby, but mine isn't. It's not something that drives me crazy so I haven't looked into it. I'd like to know what you find out.
That pop at the end is because you should have it in Standby when powering off. You give the tubes a bit of time to cool down before powering off.

 

[mountain man]

I get the same hiss. I KNOW it should be dead silent in Standby, but mine isn't. It's not something that drives me crazy so I haven't looked into it. I'd like to know what you find out.
That pop at the end is because you should have it in Standby when powering off. You give the tubes a bit of time to cool down before powering off.

Except that according to Art, his design doesn't shut off the power to the tubes. It's not a normal stand-by like other amps.

 

[Crossroads]

Except that according to Art, his design doesn't shut off the power to the tubes. It's not a normal stand-by like other amps.

Yeah it was always Art's contention that a properly designed tube amp doesn't need a standby switch.
I believe it merely disconnects the output from the speaker.

BUT and this is a BIG BUTT, after powering on you should let the tubes warn up a few minutes before playing.

 

[sloslunas]

The above # for Art has been disconnected. His actual # is (480) 648-7441. Not sure that he wanted this publicized so I will check with him to see if it is okay to release it. I just got off the phone with Art. He is all on board for answering any of your questions so give him a call. Also, his Email is artnace@gmail.com
Hope this helps answer and solve any questions that you may have.

Steve

PS. Sad news is that Art is totally out of the amp business. What a loss!!

 

[blackcoffeeblues]

Art is totally out of the amp business

Sad news---but on the standby switch thing----Fender amps and Leo Fender Music man amps were noted for buzzing on Stand by....The recomendation for the cure was to remove it and go direct on/off----I thought I was going to have to do it with my Music Man---a good thourogh cleaning cured the problem for the time being---and it has been at least 7-8 years. Probably not the cure for yours but possible.

 

[JoelPoirier]

Well, Art contacted me.

He reassured me that those noise are normal but that I can ship the amp to him at my expense and that he could look it over for free.

Now if those are normal I feel that it’s useless sending it...

I ‘ll just play the crap out of it for now.

Thanks to all for the help.

 

[CapnDenny1]

I have a couple of PRS Sonzera amps, a 20W and a 50W. The 20W has a lot of hiss on the clean channel. But when you play it, man it sounds glorious. The noise does not increase with volume, and in a club setting it would not be heard at all. But I got in my head it should be silent. I've been spoiled by my Fender amps, that are very quiet, except when you don't want them quiet. I even contacted PRS customer lack of support, and they told me it was designed that way. They could eliminate the noise, but the sound suffered? Well maybe.

But it is a sweet sounding amp. Both the clean and the gain channels.

The 50W has a real issue, that I haven't sorted out yet. Without a schematic it makes it tough to track down noise. So I am slowly reverse engineering the pcb and drawing the schematic.

I've worked on a couple of boutique amps that were dead silent. The Dr Z was very quiet, and so was the TopHat. The quietest one I found was something called a Berkshire. That amp had what they refer to in the hifi world as a "black background". It was totally silent, until you played a note. The Dr. Z sounded the best, right up there with a '65 Custom blackface, a real one from '65. My '65 Twin re-issue is pretty close.

Anyway. I have to remind myself that it is about how the guitar sounds through the amp, not about how the amp sounds. Most guitars and cables are noisy as heck, even with shielding. And even when playing at home the furnace si running, or my wife is sewing in the other room, or I have the TV on. So if the amp has a little hiss, or even hum, so what? As long as it doesn't keep the sound from sounding great.

Of course when I play, people may wish the amp had more noise to drown out the noise I am creating!

 

[OG_Blues]

Good points Capn.
When I built my from scratch 5E3 Deluxe (pictured in my avatar) into an old RCA PA chassis, I had a bit more "no signal" hum/hiss than I wanted.
I put a fair amount of effort into reducing it with some, but not total success. I concluded that what was left was due to the wiring layout dictated by the existing chassis configuration, and I had reached the point of diminishing returns.
As soon as you put a bit of guitar signal into it, the magic happens and you forget that it made a tiny bit of noise before you start playing.

 

[D. R. Miller]

Does it even with no guitar plugged in and on Standby mode.

Tried two different outlets but have two other amps in the same outlets with no noise whatsoever.

I’m kind of puzzled.

I’ve got the same experience with my NACE pro 18 and it just came back from Art for that very reason and is still there so I’m considering it normal. The turn on sound is like something is charging and then goes silent. The Hiss/whoosh sound is constantly there even in standby and nothing plugged into the inputs. Since mine just came back and Art had tested it all I’m assuming it’s normal except he didn’t have my tubes though I’ve tried new tubes as well. My next thought was the speaker. In performance mode I don’t really notice it and almost all amps have some sort of residual hiss in the speaker even SS.