Hello, new to the forum. I recently purchased a HRD....played it for about an hour and heard... sizzle sizzle pop! OHNO!
Turns out I had a power tube going bad and it fried the output transformer? Is there anything I can do to protect the transformer from this happening again? Thanks...
Yes you can sell the amp and buy something dependable.
You're going to hear a lot of uncomfortable opinions about this...just getting you ready. It's nothing personal, just that there's a lot of people with a lot of bad experiences with failures like this.
The Hot Rods are subject to their very fragile PCBs and some of the placement of components on that fragle PCB. Trust me, I've had dozens of these come through my hands and I see pretty much the same things over and over.
One question, are you 100% that it the OT is fried? Have you tried new tubes to make sure it's not just the tubes?
"...pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field;
that, of course, they are many in number; or that, after all, they are other than the little,
shriveled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome, insects of the hour."
-Edmund Burke
Hot Rod's are not highly regarded here for the reliability issues, like stated above you need something more dependable. What that is I can't tell you only you know what sounds best to you.
yeah LOL , I noticed the dependabilty was lacking from reading through some of the forums. DOH!
I don't think I'll sell it, I really bought it for recording purposes so it'll mostly just sit in the corner. I only gave $100 for the amp, $50 for a new transformer. So far I'm not out to bad.
Hmmmmm.......
You know........
I know a guy...........
Kenny Belmont
>:^{I)>
Yeah, it blew the fuse. I replaced the tubes and it still blew. Took it to the local fender guru. 1st he shook his head and laughed. Then called me back a few days later with the bad news.
I'm not sure how the OT being bad would blow the fuse...usually that has to do with a short in the power supply; power tubes, filter caps, bad rectifier diodes, bad bias capacitor, etc.
If you've put new tubes and a new OT in there, does it still pop the fuse?
"...pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field;
that, of course, they are many in number; or that, after all, they are other than the little,
shriveled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome, insects of the hour."
-Edmund Burke
No, He had a used OT in the shop he wired in and played a cd through it for a few hours with no issues. he said it had a burnt something between the power tube and the OT as well.
Interesting. He tested it through the Power Amp In connection then?
Thanks for sharing the information!
"...pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field;
that, of course, they are many in number; or that, after all, they are other than the little,
shriveled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome, insects of the hour."
-Edmund Burke
no clue on what he did. I was just hoping to put something between the tubes and OT to maybe protect it from future suges or whatever would blow the OT when a tube goes bad.
I've seen a few mods on here I want to do. The cement resistors that are to close to the PCB and the volume pot change. any others you would recommend?
The only other two mods that are worth doing, are the clipping of the reverb resistor, and the BF tone stack mod (done with the jumper on one of the pots...can't remember which one it is though).
I have my own idea as to what's the 'best mod' to the amp. I think those posts are still around here somewhere.
"...pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field;
that, of course, they are many in number; or that, after all, they are other than the little,
shriveled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome, insects of the hour."
-Edmund Burke
Thanks, i'll do a little searching for the posts!
Tee hee...you've been warned.
"...pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field;
that, of course, they are many in number; or that, after all, they are other than the little,
shriveled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome, insects of the hour."
-Edmund Burke
I have had no problems with mine (HR Emerald) My tech changed out the caps to a higher value to accept 1960 vintage GE tubes and a celestion speaker was stock. Major improvment in tone
Put in switchcraft input jacks too, get rid of those CE jacks they break
thanks for the warning, lol. for the small amount i have into it its a good learning amp. I'm just getting into tube amps, been on a SS or a modeling amp since forever. Ive built a few guitars now, time to build an amp, lol.
It's the mid pot. This is also a good mod to do on the Blues Jr.Originally Posted by NTBluesGuitar
My HRDlx had me on a first name basis with my amp tech. I finally sold it while it still had 6 months left on the warranty to appease the amp gods and dodge bad amp Karma. Personally, I'd dump it while it's still working. I replaced mine with an Egnater Rebel 20. So far the Rebel has been bulletproof.
As much as I know that this is going to jinx me......
Mine has been solid and gigged pretty regularly......over the past 4 years......and gigged 3-5 times a month over the past year and is sounding as good as one ever will. It actually sounds pretty bad ass considering what it is. I replaced the speaker and a couple of caps/resistors.......glued a few parts down and resoldered a BUNCH of points on it.
I think I would want a more dependable amp if I was a regular guitar player, but in all, not bad when they are working.
I have had my eye on a certain Harvard clone, AND will eventually get a workhorse like a DRRI or Similar eventually.
seriously, I think mine is a freak........it works well!
EDIT -
All that being said.....My HRDx had VERY similar issues - Popping/fizzing, and it was a certain set of resistors and maybe the cap at that time. I thought it was the speaker, which is why I replaced it. the Speaker is fine, and I keep it as a backup. Once the resistors and cap were replaced, I had MULTIPLE solder issues, mostly on preamp tube socket pins. I de-soldered and resoldered them.
It took a little while, but it FINALLY hit a point where it began to function as it should.
again - 4 years - and it has held up pretty good (I have had it 5 going on 6 years now)
One of my guitar players uses a Blues Dlx and has had NO issues, and has ABSOLUTE great sound from it.......also uses a 4-10 Deville, among others (Twin, DRRI< ANd a few other great amps).
I got to say - It may be a luck of the Draw issue.
Like I said before, if it goes tits-up........I know a Guy!
Last edited by FrankJohnson; 01-27-2010 at 05:35 AM.
Kenny Belmont
>:^{I)>
yup, he can fix what's wrong with it.
short of that, the stock PCBA is gonna be an issue (sooner or later) and you end up with...
< see avatar
do I look like I know what I'm doing?
I've had my '06 HRDx for 4 years of fairly heavy use (2, 3 gigs a month, tossed in the truck and dumped in a garage until next practice) and have had no real issues with it (crossing fingers!). I just don't like the sound much anymore...can't do a whole lot without pedals.
I'm looking for a 'drop in' project....something where I can reuse the iron and just have a decent, Marshallesque, dirty rock n' roll amp rather than a flabby blues amp. Anybody have any ideas on that one?? I've done a Marshall 18W (which is now going to take the HRDx's place), and am interested in something similar around the same difficulty level to fit to the HRDx chassis....
Thanks~!
~Mike
Someone we know does a nifty Tweed Pro conversion!
"I'm gonna find myself a girl
that can show me what laughter means
And we'll fill in the missing colors
In each other's paint-by-number dreams..."
If it's still working, and you're not happy with it, I recommend you try to sell it while it's healthy.
That's the only way you'll be able to re-coup money on this. However, I have experience with these, and re-builds are not terribly expensive at all if you have a bit of patience and can do a little drilling.
Last edited by NTBluesGuitar; 02-19-2010 at 06:37 PM.
"...pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field;
that, of course, they are many in number; or that, after all, they are other than the little,
shriveled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome, insects of the hour."
-Edmund Burke
Send it to TJ and have him make into a 5E5A Tweed Pro... 'nuff said!I LOVE mine!!!
well.... i took it to the local fender guy. He went through it until he found that the output transformer had a short to ground in it. replaced the OT and power amp tubes. $100 otd.
I got it back played on it for a few hours at band practice all is well. did a few small 15-20min practices on it still a good and sounding great. last night a few buddies come over to jam and it was good for 15 mins. then started to get quieter and quieter. i just got home and it seems ok now but a little fizz pop here and there.
I think I want to do the rebuild kit NT. I'm not up on all the workings of dc electronics but I know enough to be safe and not kill myself(I hope). I was an electrician for a few years before I went into sales. And I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night so I'll give it a try.
TJ is your man...
FYI: TJ =NTBLUESGUITARTJ is your man...
Shoot me an e-mail and I'll get you all the information I have for this.
"...pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field;
that, of course, they are many in number; or that, after all, they are other than the little,
shriveled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome, insects of the hour."
-Edmund Burke
As I have said,
I know a guy
Kenny Belmont
>:^{I)>
Hey everyone. I just purchased a Hotrod Deluxe before I read all the ugly stuff about them here. My luck...
Didn't even get it yet. It is going to be delivered today.
Anyway, I really don't want to have to sell it right after I just bought it.
I was looking at a place called Fromel Electronics - where they have a mod kit to replace a bunch of things in the amp (caps, input and such)and claim to give it that vintage tone back. Anyone ever heard of them? Would it be worth doing? I think their total supreme kit is under $100.
The HRD I bought is a limited edition which has the Jenson P12N speaker and laquered tweed and I think different tubes (could be wrong) - so I'm hoping that is one plus of my purchase.
I also talked to a really nice (and super smart) guy yesterday from Eurotubes. He told me to play with it for a little bit and get to know the tone and if I like the amp output at least 80%, then he could help with a retube kit.
It seems everyone on here is against putting money into these amps - but I really do want to give the amp a chance. It is my first tube amp, so it has to be better than my junk Marshall MG series solid state (I hope)
When you mod them you void the warranty. You will probably need it at some point unless you're really lucky. I wasn't and needed it a lot. With the Limited Editions, it's usually just a better speaker and cosmetics. They are still prone to all the design flaws the regular one's have.
With the 5 year warranty, you should be fine for a while, and you might be one of the lucky ones that never has a problem with the amp. However, if you're planning on pushing this amp hard, or relying on it for a paycheck (as in steady gigging), you might want to reconsider your purchase now before you take possession.
I also concour that it's when you try to mod the amp is when things start to go downhill. The amp isn't designed to be modified in the least. Doing so voids the warranty, but it also destroys any degree of electronic structual integrity it might have had. The circuit board is quite fragile, and even a professional soldering on it can cause severe problems.
New tubes might change the sound of the amp slightly, but it won't help a tremendous amount. After a short time, you'll be accustomed to the new tubes and still unsatisfied with the overall sound of the amp. Then you'll be even more tempted to mod it internally.
If you decide to keep it for a while, relying on the warranty as your security blanket, and then later decide to sell it for something better, you'll most likely wind up losing money on the deal. If it breaks and has to go in for service before you decide to sell, you'll definately lose money on the sale. So it's not really a wise gamble from the financial aspect.
A lot of folks around these parts (myself included) will suggest returning the amp and going for a DRRI instead (even though it's a little more money). That amp will last you a lifetime and a 5 year warranty is trivial. The chances you'll ever need to use it are slim. Aside from that, the DRRI just sounds better, is lighter, and smaller, but dispite the fact it's 22 watts, it's just as loud (and significantly louder than you'll most likely ever need unless you're playing unmic'd in a stadium arena).
POO DAT!!!
This.
"...pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field;
that, of course, they are many in number; or that, after all, they are other than the little,
shriveled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome, insects of the hour."
-Edmund Burke
Well, my hrd was delivered and I set it up and played it for a couple hours this weekend. I like the clean channel. It didn't blow me away, but it was nice/ok. The overdrive channel was just ok, but noticed the lows sounded washed out or something - not sure if it is a tone I would even want to use alot. The super overdrive (or whatever that button is called) sounds like complete GARBAGE.
I have a Digitech RP-1000 multiprocessor which I tried using on the clean channel and it sounded pretty good using a few different presets - but I guess that defeats the purpose of even having the amp for it's own tone.
Conclusion: This limited edition is a 2006 model so the warranty is only good for less than a year - that is: if I can even still use it since I bought it used. I think I might sell it (even if I loose a little bit on the deal) and look for a DRRI.. I don't want to have to deal with all the BS if/when it happens and have to change everything to make it sound "somewhat" better or even have to use a multiprocessor/pedals to make it sound good.
Thanks for the advice!
The 5-year transferable warranty is only honored if a subsequent owner has the original bill of sale. Trust me, an authorized repair center will ask for it before any work is performed.
I traveled the same sad road when I bought a new Hot Rod Disgrace in 2004. I did manage to sell it on consignment two years later for more than I paid, leveraging my price with the promise to provide the new owner with the original receipt from GC. As an aside, I noticed recently that the buyer who took it home now has the amp up for sale on our local C/L......for about $200 less than what she paid me.
I'll NEVER purchase another new "FLO" (Fender-like object) again!
"When injustice becomes law then rebellion becomes duty."
The reason the HDX on max gain sounds like garbage is ths speaker.
Change it out to an 8 ohm celestion ( or similiar) and make sure your gain is not more than 1 o'clock and let er rip!
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