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Amp Guts Photos - Official Thread - Lets see those pics

Should we also add Bass Guts to this thread too?

  • Yes, Allow Bass guts, afterall Guts is Guts

    Votes: 223 28.7%

  • No way! Keep 'em seperate

    Votes: 553 71.3%
  • Total voters
    776
#1,401
Eden WP100 Preamp
Eden WP100 .jpg
 
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#1,406
Mr. Foxen said:
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This is a fabulous photo.

OneWayPunk said:
Here is an amp I built for a buddy, I call it the buzzbomb. I have built 3 of them so far.
7591 power tubes and it's built into a 60's era Cordovox chassis using the Cordovox transformers.
High gain, super touch sensitive and great power tube breakup. It's about 25 watts in theory but I have not measured the power output.

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Michael J Toren said:
Since we are showing builds. Here is an Egnater Boutikit 20W (6V6) I put together recently.
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Very nice looking build. Loving all the DIY stuff in here.

Dave Hill said:
My two favs:

Arkham Zephyr
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P-15
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These are nice and clean looking. :thumbsup:
 
#1,410
Yeah, I'm sure. I have repaired many amps with these as failure points. Many other causes also as you mention, but these for sure. Now that you mention failing caps, I also dislike electrolytics in builds. Metal films!
 
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#1,411
tubedude said:
Tiny resistors, tubes mounted to circuit board, and ribbon cable. Abhorent things found in most mass produced amps that contribute to failure.
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These are not the reasons for failures in a Invalid Link Removed. It is my favourite preamp for a long time and I used it a lot of times. But there are two defects, which many other quadruples also have. The rectifier for the heating isnt the best one. Also the rotary switch for the "Quadrumatrix" is scrap.
 
#1,414
tubedude said:
Tiny resistors, tubes mounted to circuit board, and ribbon cable. Abhorent things found in most mass produced amps that contribute to failure.
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tubedude said:
Yeah, I'm sure. I have repaired many amps with these as failure points. Many other causes also as you mention, but these for sure. Now that you mention failing caps, I also dislike electrolytics in builds. Metal films!
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Interesting perspective, but how would you then explain how quality solid state or tube products of all typed can like long, productive and trouble-free lives using such parts and assembly methods?

As a single example, the Yamaha M-406 rack mount mixer can still be found operating 24/7 in commercial environments such as airports and theme parks after almost 40 years. They use "ribbon cables", "tiny resistors", circuit boards, no tubes, and electrolytic caps. I also have a shop amp that drives our shop speakers, it has over 30k hours on it by now without a bit of trouble. It also has all of the parts listed above.

There are of course many examples of such products all over the world, primarily in the more commercial and industrial sectors, that support our phone systems, manufacturing infrastructure, aviationics and pretty much everything post WW2. There are also examples in the tube circuitry world, especially in commercial and military communications applications, where a 30,000 - 50,000 hour lifespan (with maintenance) is not uncommon.

It's fine to generalize as long but you should acknowledge that it's an opinion not supported by factual examples all around us in the real world. There are plenty of tube amps that have dismal reliability records too, every design (and manufacturing) needs to stand on its own merit.
 
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#1,416
agedhorse said:
Interesting perspective, but how would you then explain how quality solid state or tube products of all typed can like long, productive and trouble-free lives using such parts and assembly methods?

As a single example, the Yamaha M-406 rack mount mixer can still be found operating 24/7 in commercial environments such as airports and theme parks after almost 40 years. They use "ribbon cables", "tiny resistors", circuit boards, no tubes, and electrolytic caps. I also have a shop amp that drives our shop speakers, it has over 30k hours on it by now without a bit of trouble. It also has all of the parts listed above.

There are of course many examples of such products all over the world, primarily in the more commercial and industrial sectors, that support our phone systems, manufacturing infrastructure, aviationics and pretty much everything post WW2. There are also examples in the tube circuitry world, especially in commercial and military communications applications, where a 30,000 - 50,000 hour lifespan (with maintenance) is not uncommon.

It's fine to generalize as long but you should acknowledge that it's an opinion not supported by factual examples all around us in the real world. There are plenty of tube amps that have dismal reliability records too, every design (and manufacturing) needs to stand on its own merit.
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As you stated "quality" amps and equipment. As we know, E-caps can last a long time under voltage, and the fixed equipment you list is rarely turned off so longer life is expected.
In your example, a rack mount mixer in a commercial environment, I would expect a long trouble free life, as it carries low voltage, low current signals and is never moved. The same holds true for most of the equipment you mentioned in fixed stations and phone line amp racks.
I'm specifically talking of gigging guitar amps.
Their life has harsher conditions that exacerbate the issues with the items I mentioned that make them more trouble free in fixed equipment. The mechanical shock of load in/loadout, heat, questionable club voltage and grounding issues. None of these exist in fixed station equipment, which are stationary, and have cooling and power engineered in the room design.
I worked in avionics on tube and sandy state transceivers, radars, IFF, ADF, etc. for eleven years. They used forced cooling and/or large heatsinks to shed heat, the cable connectors were substantial using larger gauge gold pins, and were screwed together and sealed against vibration. There was also use of paper and foil hermetically sealed oil caps. I still have some. Yes, poorly designed tube amps are out there also. Bad design is trouble, glass or plastic.
I do prefer tube amps over silicon, and make no bones about it. So, yes I am opinionated. I have heard some solid state amps that sound good, but few with the feel I prefer. I have had bad amps rolling through the shop for thirty years and have seen these failures repeatedly. That evidence informs and supports my preferences. That's the critical evidence that's supported by factual examples related to real M.I. amp use and conditions, not the vast numbers of commercial equipment that surround us in the real world that lives a cushy life. Apples and oranges I'm afraid.
 
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#1,417
Talking about touring conditions, something that I lived for 35 years, there are many examples of consoles, processing and power amps with literally millions of miles of "brutal" touring on them with less trouble than the average non-toured guitar amp.

I have 24 QSC PLX-3402 amps that have close to 20 years of such use, lots of tiny parts, electrolytic caps, PCBs, and (oh goodness) switchmode power supplies and I have yet to have a single failure. I have several large format Yamaha consoles, about the same age, used under the same conditions without failure, no failures of the power supplies that lived in touring racks, no problems with the processing either. All this gear has lasted through at least 2 and maybe 3 trucks.

Just putting in perspective some real world reliability in the interest of representing technology accurately. I'm not talking about junk, because junk is junk no matter what it's made of or if it has tubes or is solid state.
 
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#1,418
Agedhorse, I was giving examples of parts that fails most of the time in equipment not just in audio, it is just my experience talking and i'm not giving any lifetime or conditions of use.
All runs down to how an equipment is designed and what type of components are used.

Now, people are comparing new amps with cheap design and cheap parts to older gear which are much more expensive than many new amps.
Cheaper = greater chance to fail? Depends on the design used, i guess.
 
#1,419
Everything depends on the design, the quality of assembly and the choices made. Of course it's possible to design a product with obvious weaknesses that will affect reliability. This is true for both solid state as well as tube based products.
 
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