Bad power?

[ABarry]

I have several amps that I play at home and they sound fine, two Princeton Reverbs and a 5E3 set at 2.5. If I bring one to the cabin, most of the time I can’t get a good clean sound, just bad distortion. There is a power line running by about 100 yards away. Is there something about the location that is making my amps sound bad? Would a battery powered amp solve the problem? What battery powered amp would be best for clean telecaster playing?
Thanks for any advise

[xtian]

Just because an outside power line runs close does not suggest noise or poor AC from utility. A scope would be userful for examining the AC.

To answer second question, Spark amps from positivegrid.com are pretty cool practice amps.

[TUBEDUDE]

What gauge is the 100 yd. Wire? And does it power lights, heat or air conditioning also? You may have only 85 volts due to IR losses.

[Stevem]

Plug a voltmeter into the other outlet in that wall socket to
1st see what you have for wall voltage .
2) to see if it drops down when you play the amp.

[maxkracht]

Not sure what your cabin is like, but assuming it is more rural than your house you could have some power distribution weirdness. Maybe low or inconsistent voltage from the utility, maybe the correct voltage from the utility but you have a single wire earth return system or some other oddity. Can test with an AC volt meter.

It could also be different acoustics in the cabin. I have had more than one repair client bring me something that works fine, then later discover it was something rattling in the practice room, standing too close to a ceiling fan, or just a weird sounding part of the room.

[ABarry]

Thanks for the replies. I haven’t figured out how to respond to individual comments but I’m going to test the voltage at the outlet. I wouldn’t be surprised if the grounding for the cabin is not the best.

[Stevem]

Poor or no ground would not effect a amps distortion caractoristics .

[maxkracht]

I was referring to a single wire transmission line, not a lack of a ground wire. I don't think they typically fluctuate so much to give an audible voltage drop, but might under certain circumstances. Not an expert, I've just heard of some weirdness in rural areas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-wire_earth_return. Probably more likely that your system can't handle a guitar amp and a refrigerator at the same time.

[R.G.]

You're right Max. Poor or downright bad AC power lines are common in remote/rural locations. I interpreted "cabin" as rural/remote too.

@ OP: You don't mention the vintage of your Princetons (or I just missed it ) so I can't readily tell if you have old amps designed for 110Vac or more modern ones designed for 125Vac. Low AC mains voltage will certainly affect the sound of the amps - as will the room acoustics. You may have a high impedance (or missing!) AC ground as mentioned. This can cause unbalanced halves of the 240Vac CT at the power transformer. A high impedance ground can let a big load on one side pull down the voltage it gets and raise the voltage on the other side. Do the lights dim/brighten at odd times in the cabin?

[ABarry]

I’m going back up this weekend to try a few things. I don’t think I have single wire power. High voltage lines run by about 100 yards away. Three lines come over to a transformer on the pole. It supplies a couple of camps with 220 power.
I have a late 70’s PR and a Mojotone PR clone. Also a Super Champ X2 sounds bad.
I’m going to check AC voltage with a meter. Although I have connected one amp to a variac at home and it sounds fine even down to 85 volts. I’ll turn off everything else in the cabin to see if some other device is causing a problem. I’m also going to try powering an amp from an RV inverter and see how it sounds without any connection to the power grid.
Thanks for all the replies.

[Stevem]

It would not be the first time that a utility step down transformer out on a pole took a indirect hit of lightning and all the utility company did was replace whichever fuse blew, leaving a somewhat defective transformer out on the pole.

If you know any of your neighbors there see if you can try a amp out at there cabin.

If there's a lot of noise hash coming in on a power line, which can effect the audio quality, the only way you will see that is with as scope