The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    Hello there,
    I have purchased a DV Mark Jazz 12 (and before that one I had 2 different Little Jazz that I sent back) and although I like it very much, one thing bugs me.
    I got all of the NEW in 2019/2020 and they have a lot of preamp white noise/hiss that comes out of the speaker even without a jack plugged in, much more than any other amps I own, including tubed ones.

    I can't find anyone online with this problem, everyone says it's a very quiet amp with no hiss. I cannot record with it at all at bedroom or studio volumes because the noise is just too much.

    Anyone has this problem as well and knows a way to fix the amp, maybe changing some components? This is NOT fan noise, that issue was corrected a while back. It is also not my house's problem, since my other amps work fine and I used a Little Jazz in a gig and the problem persisted.

    Thanks.

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  3. #2

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    I have the LJ. I've never heard any hiss, but that could be the silver lining to high frequency hearing loss. That said, I can hear the hiss from my Roland JC55.

  4. #3

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    my LJ is my quietest amp.

  5. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by waltf
    my LJ is my quietest amp.
    Thanks. What year did you buy it? Maybe the company has had a batch of bad units and is refusing to admit it.

  6. #5

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    With this Covid 19 situation, I have been using my LJ at home. For this home use, I find I like to have the amp to my left. I recently routed my instrument cable behind my computer table to my polytune tuner (on my right side), powering it with a 1spot power adapter, and started using my Eastman FV guitar. I started picking up audible hum. I still need to investigate this. Not sure if its the cable, cable routing, the power adapter or the guitar itself, but I really suspect I changed some kind of parameter outside of the amp thats introducing noise.

  7. #6

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    Definitely defective. They're exceptionally quiet amps.

  8. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Soloway
    Definitely defective. They're exceptionally quiet amps.
    I've had 3 though. With the same problem...

    And I e-mail them several times explaining the situation and they say it's the ''normal preamp hiss'' which I find hard to believe.

  9. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by Kikodasneves
    I've had 3 though. With the same problem...

    And I e-mail them several times explaining the situation and they say it's the ''normal preamp hiss'' which I find hard to believe.
    Are you e-mailing the dealer or DVM? If DVM then maybe it's time to return it and move on. If it's the dealer, then return it and try another source.

  10. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Soloway
    Are you e-mailing the dealer or DVM? If DVM then maybe it's time to return it and move on. If it's the dealer, then return it and try another source.
    I'm e-mailing dv mark, they say it's normal and randomly stop replying to my e-mails. And I got mine from thomann which is a super credible store. I'd still keep it for live shows, but it's such a bummer that I can't record with it.

  11. #10

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    I currently have two Micro 50s and have had a Little jazz and a 250M. Absolutely quiet. In my experience, the company's track record in answering customer queries is patchy, to put it nicely. So Italian.

  12. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Gitterbug
    I currently have two Micro 50s and have had a Little jazz and a 250M. Absolutely quiet. In my experience, the company's track record in answering customer queries is patchy, to put it nicely. So Italian.
    Yeah... I mean one of the times they just told me ''it's ok you can't hear it while playing live'' which was a pretty ridiculous response.

  13. #12

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    I have the LJ and there is some hiss if I put my ear close to the speaker, can’t say I notice it in the room though. I doubt it would cause a problem mic’ing the amp provided the guitar was at a reasonable level. In any case I only record from the direct out which does not seem to have any noticeable hiss.

    My Roland Cube has a lot more hiss.

  14. #13

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    Does the Ground Lift button in the back panel of the amp help? Try pushing it In or Out. It costs nothing to try it.

    As you turn down the Volume or Gain knob of the Little Jazz, is the hiss attenuated or does it remain the same? If it the former you have a noisy preamp gain stage. If it is the latter, you have a noisy power amp stage.

    If you can't return it to Thomann for another see if you can find a tech to check out the opamp stage of the Little Jazz. Might be a noisy opamp that is on the fritz.

    Just suggestions. Proceed at your own risk.

  15. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Jabberwocky
    Does the Ground Lift button in the back panel of the amp help? Try pushing it In or Out. It costs nothing to try it.

    As you turn down the Volume or Gain knob of the Little Jazz, is the hiss attenuated or does it remain the same? If it the former you have a noisy preamp gain stage. If it is the latter, you have a noisy power amp stage.

    If you can't return it to Thomann for another see if you can find a tech to check out the opamp stage of the Little Jazz. Might be a noisy opamp that is on the fritz.

    Just suggestions. Proceed at your own risk.
    Thanks that helps a lot!
    Ground lift does nothing.
    Only the last 1/4 of the volume knob increases the hiss, the 3/4 before all have the same hiss volume.
    I've had two others from thomann with the same problem so I don't think returning it will do much at this point.
    I'll try having an amp tech to take a look at it.

  16. #15

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    I have an older Jazz 12 (bought new at Guitar Center five years ago). I find it to be a very quiet amp. The tones it gives are wonderful, and I am sorry to hear that you are having problems with yours.

  17. #16

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    Do all amps have that hiss for you? I ask because I have some amps that do have a lot of hiss. My Vibrolux Reverb is quiet for a tube amp, but it always has hiss. My AI Clarus has a lot. But my Little Jazz has none that I can hear. My GK MB200 is about the same. Lots of amps have hiss, but even in a very quiet small room I can't hear anything out of the LJ at idle. I admit that my ears are old and worn, so I probably don't hear high frequencies as well as I used to, but I can still hear a hissy amp, and the LJ that I have is not one.

  18. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by sgosnell
    Do all amps have that hiss for you? I ask because I have some amps that do have a lot of hiss. My Vibrolux Reverb is quiet for a tube amp, but it always has hiss. My AI Clarus has a lot. But my Little Jazz has none that I can hear. My GK MB200 is about the same. Lots of amps have hiss, but even in a very quiet small room I can't hear anything out of the LJ at idle. I admit that my ears are old and worn, so I probably don't hear high frequencies as well as I used to, but I can still hear a hissy amp, and the LJ that I have is not one.
    My other amps (Fender blues deluxe and fender rumble 100) all have tiny amounts of hiss in comparison that I only hear when get near the cone. The dv mark's hiss is audible from the other corner of the room.

  19. #18

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    I have the Jazz 12 and like the others it is quiet. Mine is a year old. Try this, plug in your headphones and turn the external speaker button in the rear off. See if the hiss persists. This will at least tell you if the hiss is generated at the preamp or somewhere downstream at speaker. I only get hiss when my iPad cable is plugged into the 3.5mm auxiliary input. Are you getting hiss with no cables plugged in?

  20. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Triple_Jazz
    I have the Jazz 12 and like the others it is quiet. Mine is a year old. Try this, plug in your headphones and turn the external speaker button in the rear off. See if the hiss persists. This will at least tell you if the hiss is generated at the preamp or somewhere downstream at speaker. I only get hiss when my iPad cable is plugged into the 3.5mm auxiliary input. Are you getting hiss with no cables plugged in?
    There is hiss with just the headphones, so the hiss is generated at the pre or power amp.
    Thanks for the input!

  21. #20

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    My LJ is extremely quiet without anything plugged in, also dead quiet with my Les Paul (when I am not playing ;-) and as well with my Eastman archtop. However my Eastman pickup is slightly hissy in some of my other gear (mostly mixers with high Z inputs) where the Les Paul is quiet as a mouse.

    So in my experience hiss or hum is not always strictly an amp or guitar problem, but can be an interaction between the two. Still, you are hearing hiss without anything plugged in. Have you taken it to a different place to plug in, or do you already know that your mains circuit is quiet? Sorry for your difficulties - your experience seems to be an outlier since most here have extolled the quiet nature of their DV amps.

  22. #21

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    That sux, sorry to hear your issue, that must be very frustrating considering we all don’t have that with ours.

  23. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by lukmanohnz
    My LJ is extremely quiet without anything plugged in, also dead quiet with my Les Paul (when I am not playing ;-) and as well with my Eastman archtop. However my Eastman pickup is slightly hissy in some of my other gear (mostly mixers with high Z inputs) where the Les Paul is quiet as a mouse.

    So in my experience hiss or hum is not always strictly an amp or guitar problem, but can be an interaction between the two. Still, you are hearing hiss without anything plugged in. Have you taken it to a different place to plug in, or do you already know that your mains circuit is quiet? Sorry for your difficulties - your experience seems to be an outlier since most here have extolled the quiet nature of their DV amps.
    I've tried it in different places (at a gig) as well as all power sockets of my house and the problem prevails.
    It is indeed weird, something must be up with their current production amps that they are trying to avoid adressing since they told me ''it's the normal preamp noise''.

  24. #23
    Quote Originally Posted by Triple_Jazz
    That sux, sorry to hear your issue, that must be very frustrating considering we all don’t have that with ours.
    Yeah... and since I've had 3 of them something must be up with their current production that they are not admitting... 1 or 2 people on thomann's reviews had the same problem. I think the company has had a bad batch and refuses to adress it or something.

  25. #24

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    The problem is only in the last quarter turn before the volume control is maxed out?

    Well, now I know why I haven't heard it. I never turn it up that high. I go up to maybe 2 o'clock on the dial. The amp does not sound good to me when played with a higher setting. I've never thought of it as a problem, maybe because I've never had any amp that sounded great when pinned at max volume.

    What's happening is that you're applying a very high gain and that's amplifying any noise earlier in the signal path. If you need an amp to be that loud, maybe the LJ isn't the right amp for your application. I doubt that you've gotten defective units.

    For what I do, I'd turn the amp down to no more than 2 o'clock and turn the guitar up. I use a pedal board, so I can add some gain there without adding amp-hiss.

  26. #25
    Quote Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
    The problem is only in the last quarter turn before the volume control is maxed out?

    Well, now I know why I haven't heard it. I never turn it up that high. I go up to maybe 2 o'clock on the dial. The amp does not sound good to me when played with a higher setting. I've never thought of it as a problem, maybe because I've never had any amp that sounded great when pinned at max volume.

    What's happening is that you're applying a very high gain and that's amplifying any noise earlier in the signal path. If you need an amp to be that loud, maybe the LJ isn't the right amp for your application. I doubt that you've gotten defective units.

    For what I do, I'd turn the amp down to no more than 2 o'clock and turn the guitar up. I use a pedal board, so I can add some gain there without adding amp-hiss.
    No, that's not it. The noise is always there and it's loud even in volume 2, but there is only an increase in the volume of the noise (even more) in the last quarter of the volume knob.

    I do all of my playing at around 2 in the volume knob.