I recently acquired a used PS2a, and have been working with it for a week, and find it unusable.
I’m using it with (ironically) a VHT D-50, a 50-watt Dumble copy. I live in an apartment, so the overdrive channel and the master are at about 8 o’ clock, clean channel about 12 o’clock. The amp sounds wonderful, even at these settings.
Enter the PS2a: it puts a distorted mid-range blanket over the sound, with no dynamics, nor highs or lows. If I play a chord on the clean channel, it is muddy and heavily distorted. Overdrive works in principle, but again with a muted, mushy tone.
I don’t know how many hours this unit has on it, but I’m suspecting it needs to be retubed. Thoughts? After all the rave reviews I read about this thing, something has to be wrong. I can retube it with JJ’s if Steve approves.
Please let me know what you think, and what we can do to correct this.
So you have audio clips? It could be the case it’s the tubes. But it’s a strong and usual description so I’d like to hear it before commenting more. Maybe @Gil has some suggestions too.
It would be helpful to know the serial number and if you can provide a photo 12” above the unit with the top cover removed, good light and high resolution, that would be super helpful.
Here’s a tutorial to assist you with opening the unit and changing tubes:
The D50 is not an original (pre 2009) VHT/Fryette product or design, so I can’t comment on how it would behave attenuated.
The possibilities are that your PS-2 could use some maintenance or the D50 output transformer doesn’t play nice under heavy loads.
Hi Dan, thanks for your quick response-I didn’t expect to hear anything till Monday. I know very little about recording at home, will my IPhone 14 give you what you need?
Hi Dave-thanks for your note, I’ll get on that tomorrow. For your information, I’m familiar with the VHT/Fryette history, I included the amp info for general information. I am located in Arkansas, I bought the PS2 from a guy in LA last week on Reverb.
Let me know if this doesn’t work for you. FYI, while I had the unit apart, I sprayed the tube sockets with Deoxit which helped some, The difference between bypass and operate is not quite as glaring, but I still couldn’t use this on a gig.
You did it! Sorry it was a busy day – catching up with things.
I really liked your playing, a Lukather/Carlton vibe
I have listened a few times with speakers and headphones. I can hear a difference between your amp and the PS-2; quite a big difference in feel, it lost the chiminess. I think the volume of the amp and PS-2 are very different because I can hear your elecrtical guitar acoustically on the PS-2 enabled clips. This will have a large effect to you in the room as the listener (F–M curves etc.).
Let’s check a few things:
What is the output impedance of your:
amplifier
speakers
PS-2 impedance select: amplfier slider switch
PS-2 impedance select: speaker slider switch
Make sure that the impedances are all matched.
What are the toggle switch settings?
Does using deep and brite warm things up?
What about exploring different presence and resonance settings?
I think I hear what you are talking about, but it’s hard to know what to suggest. Let’s see if the above helps. If not, then perhaps sending it in for a service would be good.
Impedances are 8 ohms all the way through. I set the tone switches to flat for the demo. Yes, it was recorded at a low volume due to apartment considerations.
I spent a week trying different eq settings trying to dial out the problem, but was unsuccessful. If you’ll forgive me for using home audio terms, with the amp there’s a huge wide soundstage, but it collapses when I switch to operate. (BTW, I’m using an open-back cab). Again, tinny midrangey tone with no highs or lows, nor dynamics.
At some point I would want to retune it with JJs, does it matter if you use 5881s or 6L6s?
Thank you for your kind comments on my playing-when I watched it I was horrified, I can play much better than that, but I figured it was a quick and dirty demo. For you to hear Luke/Larry is amazing from that, two of my faves.
Yes, I think I can hear what you are describing. Flat settings will be a little more lifeless sometimes—it does vary from case to case, but flat is certainly the right choice sometimes. If you have done all the experimenting with the deep and brite mode and the presence and resonance controls and still feel it is the same, I’d recommend getting it looked at. Or, if you want to try a new pair of JJ 6L6GC first to see, that is probably not a bad idea. Let me know what you want to do and we can take it from there.
Hi Dan-I’d like you guys to take a look at it-I’ve got $800 in it, I can’t use it, and I can’t just put it back on Reverb in good conscience and make it somebody else’s problem.
Please advise my next step, and thanks again. You guys are great!
