Deluxe Reverb Reissue Questions

[Coop47]

Hello everyone. I'm a newbie to this forum - it was highly recommended by a good and wise friend. I did some searching, but still could use some help figuring out the smartest, most cost-effective way to fix and improve my 2002 DRRI, which I bought used a year ago. Since then, I've been borrowing tubes from other amps to deal with microphonics and to try to mellow out the tone a bit. Over the weekend and during a gig, I noticed a couple of symptoms that happened once or twice, but that I couldn't repeat:

1. Three or four times during a three-hour gig, the sound started cutting in and out for about 10 -15 seconds. This happened after breaks where the amp had been left on and was completely warmed up, but not played for about 10-15 minutes

2. The jewel light started irregularly dimming and brightening, regardless of whether or not there was sound coming through the amps. Not flickering, just sort of pulsing.

3. The was a noise coming through the Vibrato channel, but stopped when the footswitch was unplugged. I've been unable to make that happen again, and I think that might be related to it being near a TV or a computer.

I should add, I love the amp overall, but it sounds a little harsh to me and I'd like to tame it a bit and try to make it sound a little more like the early 70's SFDRs I love. Everything I've read so far suggests tubes and a bias adjustment are the way to go.

I'm looking for a job right now, so would like to avoid bringing it to a tech. I also want to limit repair costs to my (meager) gigging earnings. So my first question is: Am I right in thinking this is tube-related?

If so, since this is my main gigging amp, so I'm thinking that it might be worthwhile to order a set of replacement tubes from Eurotubes (both for the tone improvement and peace of mind) and then use the old tubes as spares/fixes for my other amps. I'd also order a bias probe to do the biasing myself. Is this a worthwhile thing to do? Are matched tubes worth the expense?

Please let me know if I left out any important info. Thanks in advance for any help and expertise you can provide!

Thanks,
Coop

[Jazz P Bass]

Three words of advise.
Resolder the amp.

[Gibsonman63]

Sage advise on resoldering. To be more precise, reflowing the solder that is already there will cure a lot of what ails you. Pay particular attention to any componant that has any weight to it. They tend to crack the solder joints when the amp gets jarred around.

Buy the matched power tubes.

I haven't worked on any of the BF re-issues, but as long as you have a bias adjust pot, then getting the bias probe is good thing to have.

BTW, tubes vary quite a bit even amongst the same brand and type of tube. After fixing your solder issues, try the preamp tubes that you have in all the combinations you can. The second pre-amp tube is the first stage of your reverb channel, so that one will be the most critical, so try all the tubes you have in that position.

[Coop47]

Thank you both! Can you explain to me what led you to resoldering? Was it all the symptoms or something in particular?

[Jazz P Bass]

The fact that you are having so many issues leads me to believe a reflow will benefit the amp.
I have worked on a lot of "Modern" amplifiers that require reflow of the solder joints.
The old amps were point to point wiring that had the soldering done by a human.
The modern way with printed circuit boards is called "vacuum wave soldering".
The boards (a number at one time) are "stuffed" with the components & placed on a titanium rack.
This rack is then inserted into the solder machine.
There is a preheat time to get the parts hot enough to accept the solder.
You can tell by looking at the board whether or not the process was effective or not.
The biggest components (the heat suckers) are the first to not solder well if the process is poor.
You also have the "assembly line" mentality of getting more in less time.
It all adds up to crap.

[52 Bill]

You need to do some basic maintenance to the amp which may or may not require resoldering the pc board. It's a 9 year old amp and you've only had it for a year. Do you know how well it was maintained before you owned it? I mean really know?

The pilot lamp problem is probably socket related. This is very common on a lot of newer Fender amps. Clean the socket connections and the bulb contacts and see if it stops. I usually test by removing the red lens and I press in on the top of the bulb with the amp on. A dirty socket will cause the light to vary in brightness as you press in the bulb.

The foot pedal cable carries the reverb signal return connection, so it is subject to picking up hum and noise. Check to see that the shielded wire is cleanly grounded in the plug and in the pedal housing as well. Also be sure that the plug and socket ground connections are good and clean as well. Keep the cable away from any noise sources like computer monitors, TVs, Cell Phones, etc.

As for the signal drop out, you need to see if you can isolate the problem to track down its' source. When the signal stops, is it total, no hum or hiss or noise, or is it just a reduction in volume? When it happens, does the pilot stay lit? How about the tube heaters? You need to look deeper into this problem before you can try and fix it.

[Coop47]

Good info, and a lot to chew on - thanks to all.