I damaged my Herbert using a Palmer PDI-03... What's next?

pmach64

New member
Before everyone beats me up, in my own defense I had not used my Herbert for several years and forgot all about the warning in the manual about using a power soak. So I foolishly hooked the Herbert up into my Palmer PDI-03 with no cabinet attached. Big mistake!

It sounded great for a few minutes and then the fuse in the amp blew with a very loud pop and I looked into the amp and saw the power tubes glowing absolutely red-hot. I let the amp cool down and then replaced the fuse and was glad to hear that the amp was still working to some degree.

My question is "How badly have I damaged my Herbert?" The amp used to be very quiet when idling and now I have a lot of hiss and crackling an popping -- I am assuming most of this is coming from the tubes which will need to be replaced. I don't know yet if all of the tubes have been damaged or only some of them. My worry is that after all the tubes are swapped out my amp will need further repair by someone who is an expert at Diezel repair. The amp was in mint condition before I did this. :(

Does anyone have experience going through a similar repair? Can my music store in Chicago properly diagnose and repair this, or is it likely that other components apart from the tubes will have been damaged and I need to ship this to someone who knows Deizel amps inside and out? Or is the stock fuse that comes from the Diezel factory rated in a way that it truly protects the full circuitry of the amp?

Thank you in advance for your thoughts,
Paul
 
If it’s hissing and crackling and popping you smoked stuff besides tubes. PM Peter here, this is NOT a local music store fix.
 
Replace all power tubes and rebias. Seems like one tube was red-plating. Can happen. I don't think that had something to do with the power soak.
 
Thank you everyone. I should be able to get the amp in for repair in a few days and I will report back on the results. I'm going to use the Music Exchange in Chicago for the repair.
 
Hi,
Could anyone clarify whether it is safe to use a Suhr Reactive Load with the Diezel? I have done so before, but am now worried that this could damage my amp.

I don't think it should, after all, the amp sees a load that's just like a speaker. I don't drive it too hard either.
 
nightlight":1qzrf5wc said:
Hi,
Could anyone clarify whether it is safe to use a Suhr Reactive Load with the Diezel? I have done so before, but am now worried that this could damage my amp.

I don't think it should, after all, the amp sees a load that's just like a speaker. I don't drive it too hard either.

The Suhr reactive load is rated at 100w, it likely has some more tolerance built in.
With a Vh4 it’s absolutely safe,
Something like a Herbert you’d need to keep the Master lower ,
an complete guess is 10 o’clock max.
 
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