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Post subject: Hot Rod Deluxe Special Edition: Tube Eater
Posted: Thu Dec 24, 2009 3:31 pm
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About a month ago, I got a Hot Rod Deluxe Special Edition: It's a blue enclosure with an upgraded speaker.

After 3 weeks and maybe 20 hours of playing at moderate levels, 1 of the 6L6 tubes starting glowing blue with lots of terrible noise.

I took this back to the store and they just gave me an entire other amp.

Well, a few days and maybe 5 hours of playing, both 6L6 tubes have started glowing blue with lots of terrible noise.

The first time was with an american standard with volume set to 10 and and the amp on drive channel with amp volumes on 5 and drive on 6.

The second time was a different house, an ec strat with guitar volume set to 10 into the number 2 channel. The amp was on clean channel at a volume of 3. A different cable and a different circuit in a different building was used.

I know tubes don't last forever and they can just blow for the sake of blowing. But, two different amps, two different guitars, two different cables, two different buildings makes me scratch my head.

So, what could I be doing wrong that causes this? Are there better 6L6 tubes that I can use that would give me a longer life?

note, I have a 59 bassman reissue that I have played ALOT and played hard and knock on wood, have never had a tube fail.

So, while I love the sound of this HRD, I'm beginning to dislike the reliabiliy.

Any advice appreciated.


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Post subject:
Posted: Thu Dec 24, 2009 5:54 pm
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you are going to hear from a lot of guys that really dislike this amp. i personally have the blues deluxe ri and have had it for about a year and i had a bad speaker jack but i had it fixed. as for tubes you can get a bad set from time to time but your problems sound like a factory problem. it seems that the hrd has some issues. eventhough i have an amp in that line i have had all good results. i did change out the speaker to a jensen p12n and put in a gt fender soft touch pre-amp set. mine sounds great with my standard strat and e.c. strat. power tubes do show some blue florescing. that is usually ok. its when they glow cherry red and do the real bad distortion thing just before they go by-by.return the amp and complain about the problems and you might be able to get a good price on a different amp. good luck.


Last edited by blackstrat71 on Fri Dec 25, 2009 7:56 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Post subject:
Posted: Thu Dec 24, 2009 6:02 pm
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Maybe the bias is set really high so that it cooks your tubes and kills them.

And the blue is known as "Florescent" and thats normal for tube amps.

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Posted: Thu Dec 24, 2009 7:37 pm
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Tubes can last for years or they can blow in minutes :/ though a bit unusual.

Also very odd it happened on two different amps, the HotRods tend to come biased on the cold side from the factory in an effort to make the tubes last longer than normal.

For a bit about the blue glow: http://thetubestore.com/blueglow.html

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Posted: Thu Dec 24, 2009 7:39 pm
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I will see what the store will do for me on the 26th. I really really like the way this amp sounds. I just don't want to sink alot of money having this tweaked and that tweaked when IMO it should just freekin work :-)
Thanks for the comments guys.
Merry Christmas


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Posted: Fri Dec 25, 2009 11:03 am
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Thanks for the link to the article. The blue I see is definitely the fluorescence seen in the article.

I took the tubes out and put them back in and the noise that I was experiencing yesterday has gone. So, maybe this was an anomoly.


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Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2009 8:46 am
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glad to see you fixed the problem. maybe they weren't seated very well, they could have became loose during shipping. sometimes we panic over a simple thing.hope you enjoy the amp...play it loud.


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Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2009 8:54 am
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I've had mine for a couple of years with no problems. Tube may have been loose in sockets. good luck, I think they sound great, easy to lug around.

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Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2009 5:52 pm
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If you get rid of the GT's you'll get rid of a lot of problems. I never had good luck with them in any amp I've ever owned that came with them.


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Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2009 6:13 pm
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You could also have a wiring issue with your guitar and/or cable.

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Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2009 6:24 pm
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SeanGephardt wrote:
You could also have a wiring issue with your guitar and/or cable.


That won't make an amp eat tubes. Under biasing will. Meaning the bias is set too high. Look for red plating on the power tubes.


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Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2009 8:13 pm
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63supro wrote:
If you get rid of the GT's you'll get rid of a lot of problems. I never had good luck with them in any amp I've ever owned that came with them.



+1 Get rid of GT's. JJ in those amps......just has to be IMO.

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