Fender Hot Rod DeVille - issue (relp!)

[tremoloman]

Yes it's me.... Tremoloman... I'm back from the dead! I had a falling out with music for awhile but now I'm back into it. I blame it on my ADHD... I tend to bounce around from hobby to hobby at times. :P

Anyhoo... my Hot Rod DeVille is acting up. when I play on clean it hit a note hard I get some crackle and sometimes a constant thumping sound. I've tried multiple guitars and even swapped tubes yet it still does the same thing.

Any idea what could be causing this?

Good to see you all and hope to hear from you soon!

-Trem

[tjcurtin1]

I'll say it again here since it marks your reintroduction... Great to hear from you and have you back on line! Did you move in the meantime, or are you still Boston area?

Ted

[birv2]

An amp tech told me that the entire Hot Rod series of amps (HRDX, DV, Blues Jr, Pro Jr, etc) all suffer from poor design/construction, and that they all develop problems after a year or so.

My PJ had some of that crackling going on. It was a bad solder joint and high frequency oscillation -- he put another resistor in and it's fine now.

You might just have to take it to the amp doctor.

Bob

[Robert]

Maybe Tung has some ideas?

But welcome back, Scott! We've missed you! Been hoping you'd come back posting one of these days, and here you are!

What you been up to?

[marnold]

Trem! Great to see you! Unfortunately, I don't have any words of wisdom for your particular issue.

[Spudman]

The most common issues I know of with the HR amps are:

Input jack solder joint - which is an easy do it yourself fix (maybe not if you are ADHD). It requires patience. You'll have to disassemble a bit of stuff to get to it but it's easy to access and solder.

Tubes - make sure the replacements work and don't have issues as well. The oscillation or thumping happened to a couple of my tube amps. I replaced the preamp tubes with good tubes and problem was solved.

Others have mentioned the jacks for the loop being dirty causing issues although I've never experienced it.

Does it do it on both channels? Does it do it regardless of where the volume knob is?

Nice to hear from you again by the way.

[Jimi75]

Welcome back....is ADHD = attention disorder hyper...blablabla????

Well, the issue could be the tube cap/socket.

I had a buzzing when I received my JTM45, but it went away...without reparing something.

[marnold]

Welcome back....is ADHD = attention disorder hyper...blablabla????
Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder--although I think I like your version better.

[Jimi75]

Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder--although I think I like your version better.

Thanks for liking my version better and thanks for explaining the abbreviation :-)

I know that disorder, my son's suffering from it in a slightly weaker form, I guess without the hyperactivity....tough at times.

[tunghaichuan]

Spud and Birv2 have it right. I'd suspect a flaky solder joint.

The best advice I can give is to take it to a tech and have him/her look at it. Sometimes "shotgunning" (i.e., reflowing all the solder joints) the amp will do wonders for improving reliabilty.

tung

[tremoloman]

Wow! Thanks for welcoming me back with such open arms! I was shocked to see so many replies so quickly! I missed all of you and it's good to be back.

I suffer from ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). That's one of the reasons I named my band after it because musically we're all over the place and 3 out of 4 of us have been diagnosed with it. Strange but true!

So it could be a bad tube, solder joint, or other weird issue? The crackling will happen on either clean or distorted channels. This amp has been great to me for years so I'm not too upset. I'll take it to my local guitar tech and have them give it a look over.

Thanks for all the input and it's great to be back! I promise not to be such a stranger!

[HouseOfLeaves]

Hey guys, i'm new to this forum. In fact i just made an account so I could reply to this particular thread haha. Anyways I have the hot rod deville 410 and i'm having the same crackling problem regardless of channel or volume. Trem i was wondering if you ever figured out what exactly was wrong with yours in hopes of that info helping me diagnose my problem. Thanks!

[SuperSwede]

Hey T-man! I must have missed this thread earlier!! Glad to see you!