Herbert's Birthday!
- Thread starter Me
- Start date
Sigma.Xiria
Member
Woooooo!!!!
Me
Member
"About"? Don't you know it's "Birthday"? 
Tbh it's more the anniversary of me owning 'a' Herbert. I don't know how old this one is,it's slightly later than my first one, as I had so many tube problems with the first one it went back to Germany and the one I got back was a different one (S/N was 001/619, this is 001/734). I still had more tube problems with that within 6 months, but finally after throwing even more ££££s at tubes it's been very reliable since until a few preamp tube problems recently. I had a good chat with James from Diezel UK about the problems I'd had a few years back when I bought my cab off him about a year ago. He was saying tube production was going through terrible quality issues at the time and loads of them were junk, even if Peter left them to burn in as long as possible. Since all of them I had problems with were Ruby's or TAD Chinese ones this is why I have a pathological dislike of them (Chinese tubes, not the Chinese in general!) and I'm loathe to ever use them again, even though they've got better again and the Russians and Europeans were supposedly having quality issues around the same time. Peter said he didn't swap it, but I know it's a different S/N, this one's had a resistor burn out and be replaced internally as there's a scorch on the board (I discovered it when it blew an internal fuse after popping the power tubes in this one), it has 2 tiny marks on the tolex near channel 1, and it appears it was built by Peter and the original 001/619 built by Lars. It probably got mixed up when Manson's where I bought it from f**ked up and sent it to Peter Stapfer, not Diezel, and it went missing for about a week or so until it was tracked down. It's a stressful feeling when your Herbie is lost somewhere between the shop and Diezel Bad Steben, and the shop swears Diezel signed for it and Peter Diezel swears they don't have it!!! It's mildly annoying it's not the same one, but as long as I have a fully working Herbert I'm good with that. I didn't really complain at the time as I thought having an entirely different one might be a good thing in case there was an intermittent fault in the old one until the tubes went in the replacement one too! While it was away Manson's lent me a Randall. My god that think sounded shite after the Herbert. The distortion wasn't great, but the clean was like playing through a damp sock. I ended up leaving it in the van during gigs and risked using my Marshall EL34 100/100 with the old version 1 Mesa Triaxis that went mad about once a month and lost all it's presets! If you bought that Triaxis off me on eBay don't worry, I found there was a regulator mod for the very early ones I did to it that sorted it out since. Or if you ended up with Herbert S/N 001/619 I wouldn't worry as my experience of this one blowing tubes too and what James at Diezel UK said about tube production around that time you've probably got a very reliable amp I treated with the utmost care and spent all it's life incredibly well boxed whenever it was moving! I do occasionally wonder where it did end up. Hopefully it's rocking an arena somewhere in front of thousands of people!
Tbh it's more the anniversary of me owning 'a' Herbert. I don't know how old this one is,it's slightly later than my first one, as I had so many tube problems with the first one it went back to Germany and the one I got back was a different one (S/N was 001/619, this is 001/734). I still had more tube problems with that within 6 months, but finally after throwing even more ££££s at tubes it's been very reliable since until a few preamp tube problems recently. I had a good chat with James from Diezel UK about the problems I'd had a few years back when I bought my cab off him about a year ago. He was saying tube production was going through terrible quality issues at the time and loads of them were junk, even if Peter left them to burn in as long as possible. Since all of them I had problems with were Ruby's or TAD Chinese ones this is why I have a pathological dislike of them (Chinese tubes, not the Chinese in general!) and I'm loathe to ever use them again, even though they've got better again and the Russians and Europeans were supposedly having quality issues around the same time. Peter said he didn't swap it, but I know it's a different S/N, this one's had a resistor burn out and be replaced internally as there's a scorch on the board (I discovered it when it blew an internal fuse after popping the power tubes in this one), it has 2 tiny marks on the tolex near channel 1, and it appears it was built by Peter and the original 001/619 built by Lars. It probably got mixed up when Manson's where I bought it from f**ked up and sent it to Peter Stapfer, not Diezel, and it went missing for about a week or so until it was tracked down. It's a stressful feeling when your Herbie is lost somewhere between the shop and Diezel Bad Steben, and the shop swears Diezel signed for it and Peter Diezel swears they don't have it!!! It's mildly annoying it's not the same one, but as long as I have a fully working Herbert I'm good with that. I didn't really complain at the time as I thought having an entirely different one might be a good thing in case there was an intermittent fault in the old one until the tubes went in the replacement one too! While it was away Manson's lent me a Randall. My god that think sounded shite after the Herbert. The distortion wasn't great, but the clean was like playing through a damp sock. I ended up leaving it in the van during gigs and risked using my Marshall EL34 100/100 with the old version 1 Mesa Triaxis that went mad about once a month and lost all it's presets! If you bought that Triaxis off me on eBay don't worry, I found there was a regulator mod for the very early ones I did to it that sorted it out since. Or if you ended up with Herbert S/N 001/619 I wouldn't worry as my experience of this one blowing tubes too and what James at Diezel UK said about tube production around that time you've probably got a very reliable amp I treated with the utmost care and spent all it's life incredibly well boxed whenever it was moving! I do occasionally wonder where it did end up. Hopefully it's rocking an arena somewhere in front of thousands of people!
Peter Diezel
Well-known member
If there are any issues, send it to Papa´s home.
Trust me.
Thanks for your patience !
Trust me.
Thanks for your patience !
Me
Member
I do trust you Peter. Last time I sent it to Papa's home I still had troubles with the different Herbie I got back due to tubes, although it lasted about 6 months that time. 
Haven't had problems for years now though, so I have plenty of trust in the amp, and I'm sure if there was a proper problem with the actual amp rather than tubes Papa rocking it's cradle back in Bad Steben would see it right!
Just don't expect me to be too keen to put chinese tubes in it as I still feel burnt by my experience with them, no matter how much better they've got!
Haven't had problems for years now though, so I have plenty of trust in the amp, and I'm sure if there was a proper problem with the actual amp rather than tubes Papa rocking it's cradle back in Bad Steben would see it right! Just don't expect me to be too keen to put chinese tubes in it as I still feel burnt by my experience with them, no matter how much better they've got!