Fender DeVille Noise

[d007domo]

I apologize in advance if this thread is already out there floating around . . . I looked around for a bit but could not find it.

I am sure the solution to this problem is pretty straight forward, I just have an extremely limited knowledge of amp mod/repair.

I am getting basic waterfall/hiss out of my deville on the clean channel. I do not think it is anything that outrageous or unheard of (obviously I get way more on the drive/more channels). It is enough, however, to be unhappy with some clean guitar tracks I have recently recorded.

I know it is not just guitar related because I have just ran the amp with nothing plugged in and I get the same result.

To put it simply: How can I get the cleanest 'clean' channel possible?

Thanks for any help.

[srv-fever]

I just had a similar problem with my 410 deville, check your preamp tubes try pulling out the tube in v3 which is the tube closest to the bigger power tubes (6l6's most likely) and then see if you still here the noise and if you do keep going down the line to see if you can find the problem tube. Mine turned out to be an 82k resistor on v3 the phase inverter it was reading 200 instead of 82 so I replaced it and no more cracking hiss.(keep in mind fender issued a statement that those 82k resistors had a design flaw so most likely it is that opposed to the actual tube) If you find that pulling out the preamp tube in v3 2 or 1 stops the noise just remember it could be a resistor and you can narrow it down by swapping the tubes around put v3 in v1 etc. But I bet it is v3 82k resistor. Also check your amps bias if it is too cold i.e. Less than 60mv you could be getting cross over distortion causing that unwanted sound. My amp is biased to 75mv which is a little on the hot side but I love the tone and it gives you awesome clean tone even at high volumes. Hope that helps, let me know

[The Kirbster]

I use a Hot Rod Deluxe instead of a DeVille, but here's what I did...

I contacted EuroTubes, and I asked them what tubes would give me the most clean headroom, ordered the whole set (around $70), installed them, and followed their instructions on how to set the bias.

I only use the clean channel, I run volume, most of the tone controls, damn dear every knob on the amp except the reverb a little over 3/4 up, and it's almost dead quiet! It's as close as I can expect out of a amp running almost wide open.