Budda amps are hot -- literally

[Hugh DaMann]

I was just playing around with an SD30 II combo that I just bought and man, was that thing hot after about 1 1/2 hours. I mean burning. Is this normal? My tech had checked out the amp and was personally offended that he measured the tubes at 16W whereas EL84 are only rated for 12W. (I call him the tube Nazi. Tubes are his life.)

Can anyone else corroborate that the amp is biased that aggressively? Although the amp seems to be working fine and sounds great (after a few initial issues, that is) I'm concerned that there might be something wrong.

Did I mention that the amp was hot? Wow! I was afraid to let my 4 year old daughter near it while it was on standby cooling down. It was that hot!

[phsyconoodler]

There are a lot of EL84 based amps out there that are biased really hot.They sound better up there.The manufacturer figures that most guys never dime the amps anyway,so the tubes last long enough to make most owners happy.
If you play it safe the amp may not sound as good.Notice I said MAY.
If it's fixed bias it may be worth changing the bias and listen to the tone.
It may even be worth trying a cooler bias setting.On cathode biased amps many amps are cookin' hot too.
I say try backing it off a bit and see,or rather hear what happens.

[onemind]

All the Budda amps I've had have run quite hot (never checked the bias though)

[Hugh DaMann]

It's a cathode biased amp. As such the tech actually canged the rectifier tube to get the amp more in line with what he would like to see. I used it that night at a jam session and the fuse blew after 20 minutes. I put the original recitifer tube back in and have played it about 3 more hours without issue.

Again, I know these are hot amps. I was just shocked to feel that much heat come from it and have the screws on top of the cabinet feel that hot.

Thanks for replies. Anyone else?

[Hugh DaMann]

Hi Joe,

Thanks for the affirmation. This is just as I suspected and I just want the amp to run as it's intended, regardless of how hot or cool that is.. The tube Nazi freaked me out, I guess. And he did put a 5y3 in there and I ended up blowing a fuse that night. I don't know if it's related, but I"m guessing it might be. I've heard say that you can run the SD30 at 18W by using a 5y3 and pulling two of the EL84s. It certainly makes me wonder about the wisdom of using that rectifier with 4 EL84s in this amp.

Thanks again, everyone.

[hollowbodyhead]

I have a SD18 head and I play it for hours without it getting that hot. I keep reading threads about this issue, but it isn't the case with mine. Ah, must be that clean livin'. LOL!

[buddastrat]

Yep my SD30 would get real hot and I couldn't touch it after a gig till it cooled down. I was always afraid of taking it right out into the cold winter car thinking the tubes would crack or something.

My SD80 doesn't get near as hot, but it has a fan in there.

[Hugh DaMann]

There are rarely any fans whenever I play. :rotflmao

Thanks for the input.