How to Fix Noise Problem on Fender HotRod Deluxe MKIII 

I truly thank you, My hot rod deluxe crackling like that. Removed the V1 tube.. boom. That was the ticket. I also happen to have a 12ya7 in my valve stock.. I also learned how to bias today, Also un-soldered and treble pot and put a new one in.. (Yes I did discharge the the filter caps.)

Great video. I recently purchased a second hand blues deluxe which had the same noise. A search brought up your video and with a change of the v2 valve, the problem was fixed. Saved me a few quid from visiting my amp tech. Cheers Stuart :)

A good video detailing basic troubleshooting for a crackling amp. Nice to see a hands-on diagnosis!

Thank you so very much Mr. Smith for all of your great videos. You have real talent for explaining as you work. This one in particular guided me to perform a proper diagnosis on a Mesa Dual Rectifier "Blue Angel" 4-10 that suffered a house fire and has this same sort of noise problem. I have done the valve removing one at a time as you show. Low and behold, the noise issue went away. Only one of five of the 12ax7's was okay. I am replacing the whole quintet and hopefully, this amplifier will come back to life. Also, I have a Marshall mosfet 2-12 100w model 5213 that suffered the fire as well. Watching your awesome and understandable videos, I took it all apart, cleaned all of the carbon residual grime, replaced the smoothing caps, a few pots, all new jacks and put in a pair of new Celestion 12' midnight special speakers. Happy to say hooray! Works beautifully. I am an avid subscriber to your channel and will spread the word to all. Cheers to you from Southern Oregon U.S.A. Thank you again, and it's time for a cup of tea.....

Fab tutorial video as ever! I also learnt I could swap out my pre-amp valve for a 12AY7 to tame my hot rod (I have been using a Dr Watson in teh Fx loop). So I've now learnt 2 things from 1 instructional video - win win 🙂!!!

I've replaced two ECC83 tubes with this frying bacon sound. They sounded great right up until that happened. I believed they might have been damaged during delivery by a UPS guy who dropped the package hard by my door. Both were at the V 1 socket.

Hi Thomas That could be caused by quite a few things really. Try a tube swap first as it's quick and simple. If you're anywhere near Berkshire I'd be happy to take a look for you.

Such a simple, yet useful system for chasing down faults in a tube amp. Maybe if they had put transistor sockets on all the solid state stuff... :p Hope you got your second shot by now. Stay healthy Stuart.

I tank your experience ❤

Thx, I did not know one could pull the valves out while the amp is on. Isn’t it dangerous putting your hands in there ? Should you not be wearing gloves or something ?

Interesting. It's a relatively common problem but I have to confess to not knowing EXACTLY what it is inside the valve that causes this.

My HR has more of a loose rattle without finding anything loose. I did tap on valves and V1 preamp had a tonic feedback so I think it’s microphonic and will change but I doubt it will fix rattle which sounds systemic.

I would never buy another one of these amps. I own one, I basically have rebuilt the entire amp. It was like a domino effect, fix one problem and 3 more problems would arise. These amps are not built with quality parts, hence the price point. But if Fender would spend literally peanuts more and price the amps say $50 more they could sell you an amp with the right quality components and the amp would last years. Stay away from Hot Rods unless your planning on spending a lot of $ at your tech. In the end I could have bought a quality amp for what I put into my Hot Rod. I do like the amp... now. But the frusteration and money I spent was NOT worth it.

Thank you … awesome video … very useful

hi Stuart, great video. i have a fender hot rod deluxe (2002) with a low volume output - high distortion problem, if you get one in with similar problem please make a video, i want to learn how to fix it!

nice video, this guy is good

Great video. Have been having hum in the effects loop when in use on this same amp. The pedals are on battery power so I know the noise isn’t coming from the wall. When the effects loop is not in use the noise disappears or when the cables in not plugged into the effects loop. Wonder if it might be a bad tube?

so mad...to work with hands directly into high voltage devices,,,with high voltage on! rock n' fuckin' roll, man! You can heal your covid better, this way ;)

I don't mean to question your expertise, but shouldn't you, as a definitive step, taken the new tube out, and put the old tube back in? Just to make sure it wasn't simply some oxidation or corrosion on the tube pins?

It had that am radio white noise sounding thing in the beginning

Hello. I have a HR DeVille that have distorted sound on clean channel. Doesn't drop volume. I plugged on the power amp in of the fx LOOP and the distortion is the same. I only could sight a leaking capacitor C45.

Hi Stuart - subscribed and really enjoy your videos. I have a question: recently replaced a Groove Tube 12AX7 with a new Groove Tube 12AT7 in V1. It sounded great for a few hours then the 12AT7 tube went microphonic. Should I use a different brand tube or a different tube altogether in V1? The amp is a Hot Rod Deluxe IV. Thank you

How's it going with that jab?

I would have figured the valves would be too hot to pull out live with your bare hands?

Aren't those valves hot to the touch?

any advise on how to troubleshoot the crackling/popping noise on this amp when guitar is played louder?

Hello, I’ve got a fender hot deluxe. I’ve had it for 12 years and recently I’ve had volume problems. Usually it’s loud at about 2 but now I have to crank it all the way to get any sound out of it. I have taken it to an amp specialist but it’s all of sudden just decided to go back to the way it was. The master volume works with a the foot pedal it came with but it’s just the main volume channel that I’ve had problems with. Any advice? Thanks.

Did you get you 15th dose?

Being vaccinated is not exciting

All there tubes are very problematic, 12ax7, 12au7, the best pream tube is the 6h30pi the súper tube.