jbro
Full Member
Posts: 123
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Post by jbro on Jul 21, 2006 20:22:32 GMT -7
I've been noticing that when I have my Mazerati on for more than a half hour or so, it REALLY starts to heat up. Yes, I know that's what tubes amps do, but this seems so hot that I wonder if I should worry about the solder melting or something. The faceplate, knobs, switches, chassis bolts, the connector on my guitar cable, etc all get too hot to touch for more than a second when this thing is on. I've been through a bunch of tube amps over the years, but I can't recall one running quite this hot.
Is this normal for these amps? Should I be concerned?
And BTW, no other problems.. still sounds great!
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Post by billyguitar on Jul 21, 2006 21:14:00 GMT -7
Apparently some combos don't have fans. I don't know if yours is a combo or not. I think heat soak is detrimental to the long life of an amp. Look at all of the old crispy Fenders, heat soak. If an amp chassis is too hot to comfortably leave your hand on for a minute or two then I would get a fan.
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Post by Buzz Fretwear (Ignatius) on Jul 23, 2006 6:17:57 GMT -7
Put it this way - during the course of a normal four hour gig I could probably prepare a nice meal for a small family on the top of my Mazerati. But I've been gigging it nearly every weekend for 10 months now and haven't noticed any issues related to heat. I do notice that the amp tends to lose a bit of brightness by the end of the night though, but I haven't been able to tell if it's my ears or the amp.
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Post by billyguitar on Jul 23, 2006 7:38:48 GMT -7
I'd cool it down, if it was mine. Heat soak damage adds up over time.
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Post by foxx on Jul 23, 2006 14:01:02 GMT -7
What is your tube situation? New or old? My Mazerati now runs hotter with the new preamp tubes. I can still touch the chassis screws, but I run this amp at 1/4 most of the time. It gets pretty hot if I play louder than 1/2 way up, real quick. I can smell it in the room from 10ft away.
With the original tubes in the amp, I though that it ran hot, it runs hotter with mismatched output tubes. It runs hotter with the some preamp tubes. Myles gave me some preamp tubes from GT that I had requested to make my amp less aggressive and softer for turning it up at home. Now it runs hotter than before.
I also wonder about the impedence and wattage of your speakers. I run mine with one 16 ohm V30 in the 16 ohm output. I would hope that nothing is wrong with your amp, but it could be other factors. If not, get a fan. good luck.
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jbro
Full Member
Posts: 123
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Post by jbro on Jul 23, 2006 19:57:31 GMT -7
Well I'm pretty sure nothing is really wrong with it, it's fine otherwise and the tubes are holding up nicely... although, I've heard that amps sound the best right before they blow up! ;D
It's summer and the ambient temperature is pretty high already, so I'm sure that has a lot to do with it. I'll start using a little fan for gigs just incase. Thanks for the replies.
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wilzgt
Full Member
I plumb for Z-Tone !
Posts: 151
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Post by wilzgt on Jul 24, 2006 11:52:06 GMT -7
I own a head and it has a heat grill right above the tubes. So, after playing I can feel heat rise through the grill. My front panel isn't hot at all.
Dr Z uses superior parts so I don't worry about his amps overheating. A fan might be the trick for your amp---good luck!
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Post by benttop (Steve) on Jul 24, 2006 19:46:13 GMT -7
The combos run a LOT hotter because the heat of the tubes rises. I've owned a lot of combos in my life, and the one that get the hottest was the Mazerati. Sure sounded good though!
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Post by myles on Aug 10, 2006 8:47:17 GMT -7
What is your tube situation? New or old? My Mazerati now runs hotter with the new preamp tubes. I can still touch the chassis screws, but I run this amp at 1/4 most of the time. It gets pretty hot if I play louder than 1/2 way up, real quick. I can smell it in the room from 10ft away. With the original tubes in the amp, I though that it ran hot, it runs hotter with mismatched output tubes. It runs hotter with the some preamp tubes. Myles gave me some preamp tubes from GT that I had requested to make my amp less aggressive and softer for turning it up at home. Now it runs hotter than before. I also wonder about the impedence and wattage of your speakers. I run mine with one 16 ohm V30 in the 16 ohm output. I would hope that nothing is wrong with your amp, but it could be other factors. If not, get a fan. good luck. When you say you run the amp at 1/4 all the time ... the volume setting does not matter ... on cathode biased amps the output set is going at 100% as soon as the standby switch is flipped to allow play.
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Post by Buzz Fretwear (Ignatius) on Aug 10, 2006 9:09:41 GMT -7
When you say you run the amp at 1/4 all the time ... the volume setting does not matter ... on cathode biased amps the output set is going at 100% as soon as the standby switch is flipped to allow play. Hi Myles, just wondering if you can offer any advice or comments on the whole Mazerati heat issue based on what you've seen in the field. Mine gets quite toasty as well.
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Post by foxx on Aug 10, 2006 18:48:05 GMT -7
When you say you run the amp at 1/4 all the time ... the volume setting does not matter ... on cathode biased amps the output set is going at 100% as soon as the standby switch is flipped to allow play.
That's weird Myles, I swear my Mazerati gets much hotter as I turn it up. So by 1/4 volume I mean to say it's at 9:00. Is it the preamp tubes and or the transformer that might be getting hotter, or is it me just more excited as it gets louder?
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Post by Buzz Fretwear (Ignatius) on Aug 13, 2006 6:44:56 GMT -7
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