My newly acquired Hot Rod Deluxe is showing signs of its age. I'm a bit frusrated by this fact. Anyway, every now and then all guitar signal goes out and the amp produces loud pops, buzzes, and just noise. I can turn it off, let it chill for a few seconds, turn it back on and it's golden. Can anyone give me any ideas whats causing it? (My initial thought is maybe tubes going out, but I'm just guessing.) Thanks.
I already told ya' what that is in the earlier thread about you trading for the amp.
As Lou said ..... it's bad solder joints. Sorry ....... it is pretty common with that series of amps.
It can be in two main places on that amp ..... it
could simply be the surface mounted jacks ....... but more likely it's the ribbon connectors that run from the preamp section to the power amp section.
All that you need to do is reheat the solder joints ..... maybe add a
tiny bit of solder to them to get it to flow properly. TINY I said!
Try the jacks first ..... if that fixes it great.
If not ....... then you'll have to drop the preamp section to get to the joints for the ribbon connectors because they're on the back of the preamp board and where they join the power section board is hidden behind the preamp board.
You'll have to pull all the knobs ..... remove all the nuts that hold the pots and jacks in place and drop that board down out of the chassis. Then the board will be hanging from the ribbon cables and you'll be able to get to the joints of those cables.
In my DeVille there's 4 of them if I remember correctly ...... 3 eight conductor ribbons and one 4 conductor. Maybe there's only 2-eight conductors ..... I haven't opened mine in about 6 years because I got tired of fixing it and after fixing it the third time I just replaced all the ribbons with individual wires.
Anyway ..... reheat all those joints ...... put it back together and it should be fine 'till the next time it does it.
Put the amp up on something so you can sit comfortably while you do it ........... first time through it's gonna take several hours. Later on you'll get quicker at it.
Anyone that's adept at electronics can do this ..... if you've never soldered anything I wouldn't try it but it's a pretty simple fix ....... the hardest part is pulling all those knobs and nuts and then putting it all back.
