Intermittent volume drop and spikes

Lately, when I use my PS-2A as a Power Amp (with preamp unit in front), which is how I use it 90% of the time, I get these intermittent volume drops, then spikes back to normal volume, almost sounds like it’s “farting out”, for lack of a better term. I’ve had my unit (bought new in December, 2024) for 3 months and haven’t had this issue until this past week. There’s nothing else in my signal chain - just the guitar, into a preamp unit (in most cases an Origin Effects Revivaldrive compact), and then into the Power Station Line In. I sometimes put a boost in front. I isolated every cable, pedal and speaker to make sure they weren’t the issue, and double checked my impedances. I thought it may be a tube issue, but I can’t notice any red plating, and they have been used for about 10 hours at most (still has factory tubes). I’ve emailed Support as well for advice before taking it to a tech, and to avoid voiding the warranty.

I love the unit as a power amp and as an attenuator/silent recorder. Any guidance would be appreciated, Thank you!

Marc

Hey Marc!

Welcome to the community.

Sorry to hear about this issue, where are you based approximately? Should we continue here or are you already being helped by Gil?

Firstly, thanks for describing your setup so well. It eliminates a lot of my questions. The only thing I can think of other than an issue with the unit is a bad cable that is making intermittent contact.

  • How frequently does it Fart (new technical term :smile:)?
  • If feasible, dependent on the Fart frequency, can you eliminate bad cabling? I know this is easier said than done. Maybe wiggling cables ?
  • If you have a spare 12AX7 you could swap that in.
  • If you have spare 6L6s you could swap those in too, afterwards.
  • Fryette warranty tubes for 90 days, if seems you are right on the edge. It might be still worth doing a parts request if those turn out to be the problem. You can see what the factory says. Check the FAQ section for how to do that.

There are some options and things to try, is that a reasonable way forward?

Thank you for your quick and thorough response, Dan. I really appreciate it!

I’ve been in contact with Gil and we’re working on it. I’m waiting for a new set of 6L6s and will swap them out. Seems like that’s what might be the issue.

I’ll report back here either way when it’s all resolved so it can hopefully help those with a similar issue in the future.

Thank you guys again for your help and quick responses. Love my Power Station.

Marc

Hey Dan!

I actually have the same problem with mag1993 and 12footchain from this post from last year: PS-2 Intermittent drop in volume

I had bought my unit (PS-2) from Session Frankfurt in Germany in August 2025. The problems started late September and after reading your comments here, I dropped the unit to Session Frankfurt in October for inspection, and they sent it to a technician, apparently representing Fryette in Germany or responsible for Fryette devices for warranty matters. Since the unit was within the mentioned warranty period for tubes, I was expecting a quick solution.

Today, I received a notification from Session that the tech guy could not be able to find anything wrong with the unit and he suggested that I check my amp’s tubes because such problems are generally related to faulty tubes. I wrote back to Session that the only tubes in the rig was PS-2 tubes because I went from Quad Cortex directly to the PS-2 and to the cab from the unit.

I find it frustrating because as explained by others, the problem is not easily replicated. I do not know when it happens, but it happens sometimes and it can possibly happen in the middle of a gig when the tubes are cooked. It should not happen at all.

The technician also kindly suggested that I need to check the cables, to which I replied that I had already checked with multiple guitars and cables only to see the problem to persist. Actually the only cable I did not check was the speaker cable then, but while the unit was with them I continued to use the same speaker cable with an Orange AD30 without any such problems at all. A faulty speaker cable would cause similar problems with the amp head I presume.

I do not know if it is the Session Frankfurt or Fryette representative here in Germany but I would have expected at least a complimentary tube swap to be on the safe side. Now when I get the unit back and if the problem persists:

  1. I will have lost the tube warranty, 90 days will be past
  2. I will have lost time with the unit, again. I could not use it since October 4. I really do not want to not being able to play my rig for another 5 weeks
  3. I will not be able to rely on PS-2 for my upcoming gig

This is really not what I have expected from a Fryette unit, it was supposed to be very reliable. And it is again frustrating when the technician suggests that I need to check my “amp” and “cables” without contacting me and asking if I used an “amp” at all. I’d reckon anyone who decides to use the Power Station in his rig would be experienced enough to check the other possible failure points first before driving to the retailer and saying goodbye to the unit for at least a month. You know, you really want it to be something other then the Power Station and check every other thing hopelessly, trust me :slight_smile:

What would be your recommendation with this? I’d really appreciate if you could help out because Power Station is something that I trusted and built my complete rig around.

UPDATE:
Session got back to me after I clarified that the only tubes were the PS-2 tubes, informed me that the technician actually tried the unit for one hour without any problems and he mentioned that such problems might also occur when PS-2 is placed over the cab due to vibration from the speakers. They suggested that I try the unit and if the problem persists the distributor would send me new tubes for me to swap. Fair enough.

Assuming the tubes are actually good, no other parts are faulty; would it be really the case that a 1x12 speaker is causing the tubes to “fart” when PS-2 is directly placed over the cab while playing?

Give it a go and see, it’s possible that vibration gets into signal path because the electrodes in the tubes move. Glad you feel a bit better with the process.

Will close this issue now, if you need to talk more make make a new post.