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Fender Hot Rod Deluxe Repair Video
By Gary | March 10, 2008
This is an amp that was brought in for repair. Mainly dirt and worn tubes. I show some of the waveforms from the scope. I will go into more detail in later videos.
This type of repair is usually not that involved. A good cleaning, new tubes, bias, check tube sockets and circuit board.
These are good and loud once they are tuned up properly.
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Topics: amp repair (Fender), electronic equip. |
March 13th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
This is not a repair video but a i will show you a few curves…..
Not really interesting…
March 15th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Hello Colin,
It’s the first of a series, in the ones that follow I will talk more about the repair of this particular amp. Also as bloggers let me know what they want to look at will help. I get people asking for basic intro questions, so I thought I would start out keeping it simple but that could change with the response.
Thanks,
Gary
May 1st, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Hi Gary:
I found your great website while GOOGLE’ing “Fender Amp Repair”.
I accidentally broke off the stem of a volume knob/pot when trying to straighten it out. I now need to know how to replace a pot on a Fender Deluxe 85.
Do you have any resources that will instruct me on how to do this myself? Or do you suggest I take it into my local guitar shop?
Thanks.
Rod
May 1st, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Hello,
I’m almost positive that amp has pc mount pots. What this means is they are attached to a circuit board. For you to do it yourself would take a decent desolder sucker or desolder braid, a good iron, up on your solder/desolder chops. There is a video at the site on soldering. So it may come down to, do you want to invest in this equipment and practice a little desoldering before attempting or do you want to take it to a repair tech you like and have him/her do it.
You will also need to order the pot from Fender or a parts place without an account you will pay list price, I would assume this price on the pot and shipping will be in the ball park of what the tech will charge you so that is a wash.
So it’s kind of do you want to do it yourself or do you want someone else to do it. If it’s your only amp, you would want to be careful but if you have a cheapo to practice on you could learn a lot. I’m not trying to talk you either way, just letting you know what you’re in for.
Hope this helps!
September 2nd, 2008 at 2:43 am
Hi Gary, I have a Hot Rod Deluxe, I bought it new 10 years ago and have taken good care of it. However, it just blew a fuse the other day and it blows every new fuse I put in. After I switch power on then standby on, it hums for a second then the 3Amp fuse blows. I’d like to try to fix it myself. I’m experienced in electronics just not tube amps. Any recommendations? Literature/troubleshooting step-by-step?
I appreciate any info,
thanks,
Bob
September 2nd, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Hello,
Well it could be the supply going bad or you have a bad output tube. Usually if something can blow a 3 amp it’s going to be in the section that does all the work. The power supply rectifier or filter cap is where I would look. Even know your problem doesn’t kick in till you throw the standby on, if the power supply is marginal, when you throw on the load of the output section if could blow the fuse.
With that said, it could be an output tube has shorted, just stick in some used tubes and see if your problem goes away, if it does replace your outputs. I don’t really like to use new tubes to test things before I know what the problem is…
What kind of electronics work are you in?
Gary
September 7th, 2008 at 12:25 am
Hi;
I have a Hot Rod Deluxe that the reverb doesn’t work. When the amp was brand new it happened and the dealer said he found something loose and it worked again. Can you please tell me what might be loose? The dealer is out of business and I have no clue now.
Thanks!!
September 7th, 2008 at 2:18 am
Hello,
A lot of times if it’s a simple repair the problem will be down at the pan in the bottom of the cabinet.
The connections are male RCA plugs…sometimes just by twisting them back and forth on the female jack does the trick. If that doesn’t do it, mark what color goes with what female jack and unhook them.
Check inside the pan to make sure your springs are still connected. Sometimes the springs break off from the transducers (transformers) inside the pan.
Also find out which tube is the reverb tube and make sure it’s lit up with the rest of the tubes.
If it still doesn’t work, you got problems, take it to a tech.
Hope this helps,
Gary
September 7th, 2008 at 2:20 am
Follow up…
When you look inside the pan also look real carefully at the jack wires to the transducers, sometimes they pull away and have to be resoldered.
Gary
September 25th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
Bob from question #5: Hi, thanks for the info. Since then I took my amp to a repair shop, they replaced the output transformer and the 2 6L6 power tubes. I asked what could have happened and he said it was probably a shorted tube that took out the transformer. That kinda stinks if a failed tube can take out the xformer (total repair charge = $140.00) - I would’ve thought a tube failure would typically be an open rather than a short. Plus I don’t think trying to get 10+ years out of the tubes is out of line. The repair guy said I could’ve avoided it by replacing the tubes every couple of years. He gave me the bad parts if I wanted to test them myself.
Anyway, thanks for your time.
bob