My rythm guitarist loaned me his blues deluxe USA made and I love the sound of the amp he is nor selling it as he likes it too so I would have to buy a BDR1 now after reading the threads on here it seems that these amps are not very reliable due to PCB construction if I buy the Blues deluxe is there anything I can do to increase the reliability i.e re solder the boards or replace components with better tolerance values? any suggestions would be helpful.
cheers Bob
Original or RI, they both suffer from the same problems.
If you buy one, anything you do that would help increase reliability would void any warranty that's on the amp, ironically.
If it's not a warrantied amp, then re-soldering the tube socket pins and input jacks to the PCB may help. Also, the 5W power resistors that feed the channel switching can be replaced with new ones, but installed about 1/4" off the board instead of flat on it.
However, the Blues Deluxes suffer from trace corrosion as often as anything else, and there isn't much to be done about that.
I'll refrain from posting my BDlx Pic Of Horror.
"...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 would suggest not running it super hot. That might help a bit in longevity, and then again it might not. I've been using my BDRI for 3 years now without incident. I've opened it up a few times to do a visual inspection, and have seen no problem areas yet. I rarely get mine above 2 or 3 on the volume, so it doesn't get overly hot inside.
When I bought mine, I knew about the reliability concerns, so I figured with the 5 year warranty and what I paid for the amp, if anything happened outside of the warranty time period, I would rebuild it into something else. If it crashed and burned inside of the warranty period it would be fixed.
If you do decide to get one, do so knowing the risks involved and being prepared for the ultimate failure. Hopefully, the amp will last you a long time and you never have an issue.
POO DAT!!!
Thanks for the replies NTBluesGuitar and Mesotech hard to know what to do good point about the 5 year warranty Mesotech I don't know if that would apply to the U.K. NTBluesGuitar thanks for the tips re circuit I have found Eagle amps hardwire Mod with a copper cap rectifier on the web which looked realy neat that might be an option if I bought a second hand BD but I don,t know how expensive that would be ordering the kit into the U.K maybe I should save up and get a DDR1 as I tend to play with a lot of output tube OD if I can get away with it and like SAG on an amp being mainly a blues player. Thanks for the replys guys.
Cheers
Bob
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Here, bob...they're free....you can take some of mine and use them whenever you need them........
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