Brand new Fender Blues Deluxe reissue problem

brucegill

Hi guys

a mate just bought one of these today and got it home only to find a problem. Hoping someone on here might have some tips and tricks to share? Of course he can take it back next week, but hoping there’s a quick fix at home rather than the long(ish) round trip back to the shop. 

It’s only effecting the gain channel. Both inputs do it, maybe worse on the first input. Clean is fine and sounds right. Tried x3 guitars and another cable. Valves all tightly seated correctly. I didn’t get time to pull the valves out to see what they looked like. Seems odd it only effects one channel - do they use all the valves for both channels? I might have some spares here to try but not sure I have x3 12ax7 to replace them. Might have the power valves. 

It cuts in and out, but not fully. Sounds like a dicky cable does. Goes fuzzy and volume drops down intermittently. As said, sounds just like a buggered cable. 

Thanks for any help! 

rlw

Take it back to the shop ....

NickL

According to the schematic I have, which may be the original rather than the reissue, the clean channel uses both sides of preamp 12ax7 V1, the drive channel additionally uses half of V2 (with the other half not connected to anything), and V3 is the phase inverter.

brucegill

NickL said:

According to the schematic I have, which may be the original rather than the reissue, the clean channel uses both sides of preamp 12ax7 V1, the drive channel additionally uses half of V2 (with the other half not connected to anything), and V3 is the phase inverter.

Many thanks! I’ll check V2 first I guess. 

ICBM

Yes, try changing V2 first. If it’s not that it’s not really your problem on a brand new amp.

I always think it’s odd to describe these as “reissues”. I know they went out of production for a few years, but they’re a modern amp... not a reissue of anything.

brucegill

ICBM said:

Yes, try changing V2 first. If it’s not that it’s not really your problem on a brand new amp.

I always think it’s odd to describe these as “reissues”. I know they went out of production for a few years, but they’re a modern amp... not a reissue of anything.

Many thanks! 

Yeah, I know what you mean. Odd naming for sure. 

Telejester

The hot rod deluxe is famous for two cement type resistors which sit side by side on the circuit board and literally scald the board beneath them, it's a common fault over and over again, the hrd and bdri aren't that radically different, the hrd has an extra gain stage I think. Is it worth looking to see if the bdri has those resistors which are such a headache with the hrd ?

Danny1969

The Blues Deluxe has the same relay swit ching I think and the voltage dropping resistors but it's not something you want to get into on a brand new amp 
Take it back I say

ICBM

Telejester said:

The hot rod deluxe is famous for two cement type resistors which sit side by side on the circuit board and literally scald the board beneath them, it's a common fault over and over again, the hrd and bdri aren't that radically different, the hrd has an extra gain stage I think. Is it worth looking to see if the bdri has those resistors which are such a headache with the hrd ?

It’s not an issue until the amp has been used for a long time - usually years, and certainly not on a new amp.

brucegill

Thanks all! Appreciate the help. Swapping v2 for a new valve didn’t help. Amp going back. Cheers!

rlw

You have, of course, potentially invalidated your warranty.....

brucegill

rlw said:

You have, of course, potentially invalidated your warranty.....

By swapping a valve?! 

Thanks for all your input. Really helpful. Hopefully your day gets better now. 

ICBM

rlw said:

You have, of course, potentially invalidated your warranty.....

Not if you put the original valve back in before you return it .