GZ34, what’s that?
Adventures in trying to find a GZ34 at local guitar stores.
My Ceriatone DC30 started blowing fuses this week. Sometimes when you switched the amp on, sometimes when you switched it off. Or switched between standby and operate. Or while playing. Sometimes it would run fine for a while, then crap out.
This, as you can imagine, was frustrating. Why, o, why was my amp doing this? Was there a short? Bad capacitor or resistor? Bad tube? Loose solder joint? I pulled the amp out of the cabinet Thursday night and went over everything. It all looked fine, even the unloaded voltages were normal. (I spent some time pulling out various components that I had left in after abandoning my failed attempt at power scaling. Not that there was much left, just an extra choke, a PEC potentiometer, and a couple of MOSFETs still mounted to the chassis. They were all disconnected and the wiring neatly tucked away, but I pulled it all out anyway.)
Some research on the Internet led me to believe the GZ34 rectifier tube may have failed, so I drove around to some local guitar stores—Guitar Centers and smaller shops—asking if they had a rectifier in stock. No joy. None. Most of the smaller shops knew what a rectifier tube is, but none had a GZ34 in stock. One clerk at a Guitar Center looked at me and said, “a GZ34, what’s that?” After explaining it was a rectifier tube, he asked if it was like an EL34 or EL84. Er, no.
Sooooo today I ordered a new Sovtek 5AR4, plus a pair of EL84s and some miscellaneous 12AX7s from Tube Depot today. They should be here next week. Stay tuned.