volume drop on Stilletto deuce fluid drive, any ideas?

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shapes

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Hi Guys

I've had the amp now for 4 years and never replaced the rectifier tubes and am now experiencing a volume drop from my clean channel when i go into the fluid drive at a matched setting.

The amp has never done this before. I have replaced V3 with a new pre amp and trouble shooted all pre amp tubes with new pre amp tubes, no dice.

I replaced all the el34's just over a year ago and have only done 16 gigs in the last year plus practices at 3 hours a week or thereabouts.

Any ideas what it could be?

I checked the rectifier tubes and one seems to be a bit colder than the other when the amp is put on standby, should i replace those first and see what happens? They've never been replaced. Do you replace both at a time or is one at a time ok?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Chris
 
Try running in diode mode and see if it does the same thing.
 
If the problem is still there in diode mode then its definitely not the rectifier tubes as these are switched out of the circuit when diodes are selected.
 
yeah ill have another check tonight but pretty sure that was the case. Sooo frustrating when these amps fail and hard to diagnose. Ah well, sound **** hot when their in tip top condition though :)

Im going to ring a tech guy if it has the same problem.

Could it be that I am not using the right tubes for the right positions? I saw something on a forum that suggested russian tubes should be used in v3 and v4? Is this still correct?

If so could anyone link to the official announcement so i can read it?
 
okay i have had another look at it, the silicon diode mode it isn't so bad as tube rectifier tracking. I'm thinking i should change the rectifier tubes? Its also a bit crackly now argh! This amp gets so fiddly its unreal.

Any ideas?
 
you should also try to the replace the preamp tubes one by one (there is the usual 'tap on the preamp tube' to see if you hear anything unusual like noise or microphonics).

tubes fail all the time although I've been very lucky with all different brands and amps in the past may years.

if you replace the power tubes, they must be matched pairs. I just did a full re-tube (minus the recto tubes, which remained stock) in my stiletto II via eurotubes JJ's (preamp and power tubes). no issues thus far.

i've heard that recto tubes last longer than power tubes generally speaking.
 
shapes said:
Hi Guys

I've had the amp now for 4 years and never replaced the rectifier tubes and am now experiencing a volume drop from my clean channel when i go into the fluid drive at a matched setting.

The amp has never done this before. I have replaced V3 with a new pre amp and trouble shooted all pre amp tubes with new pre amp tubes, no dice.

I replaced all the el34's just over a year ago and have only done 16 gigs in the last year plus practices at 3 hours a week or thereabouts.

Any ideas what it could be?

I checked the rectifier tubes and one seems to be a bit colder than the other when the amp is put on standby, should i replace those first and see what happens? They've never been replaced. Do you replace both at a time or is one at a time ok?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Chris

Chris:

You only have two rectifier tubes in the amp, and they can last quite a while depending on how hard you drive the amp using that particular mode/channel. You must get back to your owner's manual and read pages 14/15. You can use the silicon diode setting versus tube on either channel, and that can make a difference. Calling Mesa can also solve various questions too. Rectifier tubes doe not need to be matched or biased like power tubes, so that's not a problem (IMHO). But having matched power tubes when changing is essential, whether in 50 or 100 watt mode: swapping out one at a time would be a mismatch/mistake if not "in spec" or at the same bias. Call Mesa on this problem.
 
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