Sylver Posted November 21, 2001 Share Posted November 21, 2001 OK, so I finally made the dive into a real tube amp. Yay! I got the hotrod deluxe and boy, the sound is unbelievable, just sweet. BUT ... When I am on the "More Drive" channel with the drive set to about 4, and my guitar at about 5-7 on the volume(Fender American Strat), there is a little tinkling sound coming from the amp(It's hard to tell if it's coming from the speaker of the cab). But its just that condition and it almost sounds like it's the preamp on the verge of saturating, because when the guitar is volume is on 1-4, there is no drive at all, and the drive kicks in at about 7 1/2. This is the only channel it does it on and I'm not likely to have the guitar at a lower volume when on this channel anyway. I guess what I'm getting at is: Does this sound like a problem to anyone, or do we just think it's the nature of the beast? I really don't know what to put here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strat0124 Posted November 21, 2001 Share Posted November 21, 2001 Sounds like something rattling. Maybe its just me, but I find it odd to barely turn your volume pots on, at the guitar. Its a terrific tone suck, until it gets 3/4 wide open, in my humble opinion. The Hot Rods are good working mans amps, versatile and plenty of oomph when you need it. Does it have the tube keepers with the springs? They'll make that tinkling sound fo sho. If you wanna add another dimension to that particular amp, try some Yellowjackets, which are tube adapters that allow EL84's, and cut the total output down where you can crank it a bit without suffering permenant hearing loss....and adding that EL84 edge. Good Luck. Down like a dollar comin up against a yen, doin pretty good for the shape I'm in Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D. Gauss Posted November 21, 2001 Share Posted November 21, 2001 good amp. check your preamp tubes. the fender amps ship with really shitty chinese tubes that are prone to making all kinds of noise. turn the amp on with nothing plugged into with the volume up, take a wooden pencil and lightly tap each tube. if the tapping makes a sound through the amp, you've a got a microphonic tube. it's no big deal, it just means it will make crappy noises. also, you might want to change the speaker in that amp. don't know about now, but several years ago, they shipped with really crappy speakers that were very very muddy. cheers, -d. gauss Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sylver Posted November 21, 2001 Author Share Posted November 21, 2001 Originally posted by strat0124: Sounds like something rattling. Maybe its just me, but I find it odd to barely turn your volume pots on, at the guitar. Its a terrific tone suck, until it gets 3/4 wide open, in my humble opinion. The Hot Rods are good working mans amps, versatile and plenty of oomph when you need it. Does it have the tube keepers with the springs? They'll make that tinkling sound fo sho. If you wanna add another dimension to that particular amp, try some Yellowjackets, which are tube adapters that allow EL84's, and cut the total output down where you can crank it a bit without suffering permenant hearing loss....and adding that EL84 edge. Good Luck. Tube keepers with springs? Not that I can see, but I haven't pulled anything apart, and I'm not sure I would know what to look for if I did. I did make sure the tubes were all well seated. Well, the reason I found this was purely by experimentation. As far as tube amps go, this is my first one and I guess I need to play around a bit. I'm a converted bass player and bass players don't really use the instrument volume knobs too much(lol). On the drive channel, (not more drive), backing off the volume knob with the power amp up high seems to clean up the sound nicely, and I really can't say that I notice any degradation in tone. But, like I said, I am new to this whole tube amp thing. Thanks for the tip about the Yellowjackets. Is it a complicated mod? I mean I like the tone as it is and I live in a single, so volume during the day isn't much of an issue. Some of the reviews said that a good addition for this amp, would be a tube screamer for that extra bite. I already tried my Digitech RP14D in the effect loop and it's pretty much usless. Haven't tried it straight in yet, but I don't expect good results, so I guess I'll need to get some stomp boxes. I also tried going out to my bass cab, an old hartke 410(the big old heavy one), which is rated at 8 ohms. OMG, I felt like Tony Iommi with that bass push. Who'd have thunk a Fender amp could roar like that? I really don't know what to put here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sylver Posted November 22, 2001 Author Share Posted November 22, 2001 Originally posted by d gauss: good amp. check your preamp tubes. the fender amps ship with really shitty chinese tubes that are prone to making all kinds of noise. turn the amp on with nothing plugged into with the volume up, take a wooden pencil and lightly tap each tube. if the tapping makes a sound through the amp, you've a got a microphonic tube. it's no big deal, it just means it will make crappy noises. also, you might want to change the speaker in that amp. don't know about now, but several years ago, they shipped with really crappy speakers that were very very muddy. cheers, -d. gauss Thanks for that tip, I'll try it. It's curious that they would use Groove tubes for the power section, but not for the pre amp. I don't really have a problem with the stock speaker, it hasn't sounded muddy to me so far, but the reviews on harmony central, a bunch of people suggested replacing it with a Vintage 30. Maybe I will when I have the $$. Of course, first things first. Let's see, now I need an Sm-57 to record it, a drive unit, a chorus ... I really don't know what to put here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sylver Posted November 22, 2001 Author Share Posted November 22, 2001 Originally posted by d gauss: good amp. check your preamp tubes. the fender amps ship with really shitty chinese tubes that are prone to making all kinds of noise. turn the amp on with nothing plugged into with the volume up, take a wooden pencil and lightly tap each tube. if the tapping makes a sound through the amp, you've a got a microphonic tube. it's no big deal, it just means it will make crappy noises. -d. gauss Yep, two tubes out of three tink when tapped. One considerably louder. Should I replace them? What should I replace them with? I really don't know what to put here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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