Fender DeVille 212 - Distortion Channel Blown Out (checked speakers and tubes)

[tweety3537]

I have a used Fender DeVille 212 and my problem is that the distortion channel (there is a switch for a clean channel an a distortion "crunch" channel) sounds basically like a radio that is stuck in-between stations. At first i assumed that it was a blown out tube, and in fact i think one of them actually was dead, and i replaced it, but after replacing two of the three preamp tubes, all of them appear to be fine and i still get the same sound from the distortion channel.

I know that it isn't a blown out speaker because the same speakers are being used on the clean channel and either way i usually keep it at around 2 or 3 since i have neighbors.

In short, i am getting the sound of a blown out speaker or dead tube from an amp and I've ruled out both of those possibilities. keep in mind that the clean channel sounds perfect.

Any help would be appreciated

[Enzo]

Hot Rod DeVille? Blues DeVille?

I don;t know what you are hearing, but in my humble estimation, as much as I like those amps for clean, I think the dirt channel absolutely sucks. I can't find a pleasing tone to save my soul in there. SO if it is not simply that, then go through the dirt channel and see if any DC voltages are way off. The schematic has a bunch of test point voltages. Ball park close is good enough. If it says 44v and you get 41, I'm OK. If it says 44v and you have 18 or 75, not so much.


Lemme get this straight. Your complaint is just excess noise? Hiss? Or the complaint is it makes the guitar sound like that? Or gravelly or something?

Sorry to say "blown out tube or speaker" is not very descriptive.

High gain is often accompanied by hiss, so don;t be turning the gain up to 10. On the other hand, excessive hiss can come from noisy resistors and such.