Presumably this shouldn't be like this

[NippleWrestler]

IMG_8704.jpg (398.5 KiB) Viewed 2910 times

I was inside my amp today (story incoming) to clean the tube sockets after a few years of inactivity to track down the cause of background pops and futz and static.

This resistor (a screen resistor?) Is hanging loose. There's another identical resistor that is connected about 2 inches away by the other power tube.

Presumably this guy wants to be reconnected?

The markings on there, as best I can tell, say Mexico M0338 (could be 330).

Amp is a Mesa Stiletto Ace 50w if that helps, but this doesn't seem 100% kosher.

[NZTone.e]

Probably 330 ohms, I think I can remember buying 330 ohm resistors for the screen grid on an Fender hotrod way back.

I can’t help you at all but logic would dictate any dangling component can’t be a good thing!

[NippleWrestler]

Probably 330 ohms, I think I can remember buying 330 ohm resistors for the screen grid on an Fender hotrod way back.

I can’t help you at all but logic would dictate any dangling component can’t be a good thing!

Indeedy, that was my thought process. I can't find them in the schematic which makes it more fun.

[sizzlingbadger]

Screen resistors are probably 1K if its EL34's, can you measure them both ?

[NippleWrestler]

Screen resistors are probably 1K if its EL34's, can you measure them both ?

I did, they're both 1k on the nose. Schematic says they're the screen resistors (as you pointed out and as I suspected but the 338 threw me off) so I soldered it back in and touched up the other one.

I also cleaned out all the tube sockets, pots, jacks, and the background noise has all but totally gone. There's fan whirr because this amp awesomely has a fan pointed at the power tubes but overall a great success and this is a hell of an amp upon first impressions.

And to answer my own question, it should not have been hanging loose.