Possible Fender Blues Deluxe buy

[Nay]

Hey guys,
I was searching craigslist and I found a Fender Blues Deluxe for $200. The ad says it makes a loud crackling sound at times. Last night I searched the forum to see what this crackling sound might be and I found several possibilities. I do not have much experience working on amps but I have worked quite a bit on my guitars. I am considering purchasing this amp as a project for myself or an amp technician but I do not have too much money to put in it. I know there is not enough info about the amp to figure out the exact problem, but I was hoping I could get some insight on the cost of fixing the amp. Whats the worst case scenario and what is the best case scenario?

Thanks,
Nay

[kiteman]

The tubes probably just need to be reseated. :whatever:

[sumitomo]

I bought a BJ alittle while back,did the same thing off and on,so retentioned the tube sockets and that fixed it.I have heard it is a prob with the sockets in the amphs with the circut boards also use the JJ tubes.If that dosent work you'll have a cab for your point to point amph project.Sumi:D

[tunghaichuan]

As Kiteman says it could be something as simple as reseating the tubes. If there is any corrosion on the pins, it might be causing the crackling. The first thing I'd do is pull the tubes and clean the pins then have your tech clean and retension the sockets.

The tubes could be almost shot, too. You might have to replace them.

Another thing that causes crackling is cold solder joints. Modern, mass-produced Fender amps are notorious for having cold soldered joints. In this case you would want the tech to "shotgun" the amp and reflow *all* the solder joints on the PCB.

Those amps aren't bad, but Fender does use a lot of cost cutting measures to produce them as inexpensively as they do. This usually isn't the best idea with vacuum tube amp. They use ribbon connectors to connect the various components, so something could be intermittent.

That is not a complicated amp, so you may have to put a few bucks in it to get it going.

tung

[Nay]

Thanks for all the info guys. Im still contemplating on the amp. I don't want to run into a bunch of problems with the amp, but on the other hand I want some hands on experience...decisions,decisions. I'm going to do a little more research before I decide.

[tunghaichuan]

Thanks for all the info guys. Im still contemplating on the amp. I don't want to run into a bunch of problems with the amp, but on the other hand I want some hands on experience...decisions,decisions. I'm going to do a little more research before I decide.

I mis-read your original post, the Blues Deluxe is a fairly complicated amp. $200 for one might be a good deal, or it might be a real headache to get fixed depending what is wrong with it.

For some reason I was thinking Blues Junior when I read the original post, my bad.

tung

[vroomery]

I bought a fender deluxe through craigslist a year or so back. Started loosing power in the tubes while playing. I reseated them a few times with no results, but i did notice that they were pretty loose. I looked at the pcb and almost all of the joints were cold. Took me about 10 mins to heat up the iron and fix em up. Good as new.

[kiteman]

Thanks for all the info guys. Im still contemplating on the amp. I don't want to run into a bunch of problems with the amp, but on the other hand I want some hands on experience...decisions,decisions. I'm going to do a little more research before I decide.

More research means finding more. Always a positive thing. :beer: