Amp Reliability

[boristhespider9]

Everything about my Markbass Little Mark III screams quality. And the proof is in the pudding...it has worked without fail even when pushed hard, has a clean DI, and is solidly constructed. Oh yea, it fits in a small bag and cost under $600. That's progress.

 

[Jerrold Tiers]

IMO, You greatly under-estimate the capabilities of the modern electronics industry. I too am an "old timer", but I am also completely current on modern technology. Frankly, the good old days were not as good as you may remember them to be

Good designs, well executed in today's modern era will be vastly superior to what we had to work with 30 - 40 years ago when the parts were simply incapable of the necessary performance... at any cost.

+1.....

With the comment that old designs typically had far fewer parts..... and often the number of parts has as much to do with reliability as anything else.... each part has a failure rate, and with enough parts, even a very good low failure rate will still result in poor reliability.

There are reliability estimation methods that take this into account.... the military, airplane, and auto companies, etc use them...anyone who makes/uses high reliability stuff, or complex equipment.

 

[rimbaud]

I own and have gigged both a Markbass Little Mark III and a Genz-Benz Shuttle 6.0. Both great amps. The Genz-Benz seems to occasionally clip early (sometimes going into protection mode) with very hot basses such as a Music Man Sterling. With passive basses, not a single issue.

The Markbass is my amp of choice and has not had a single issue with active or passive basses even when pushed hard.

As far as reliability data, I doubt much is available. You're going to get a lot of anecdotal evidence going both ways. I think many of the kinks have been worked out of the micros and if you buy a new one today, you're going to be in good shape.

+ 1 000 just bought a secondhand Little Mark II, built in 2009, no issue at all, and plus: perfectly quiet DI that doesn't affect too much your sound. I've got no car, always going to gig or rehearsals by tram or bus in my city, that's a winner amp....

Never been repaired or opened, all the buffers (hu??? edit: jumpers of course lol) inside are still at their original place, just the fan that isn't as quiet as it was in 2009, just took me 1 mn to pour some oil in it and it rocks quietly again.

 

[chadds]

+ 1 000 just bought a secondhand Little Mark II, built in 2009, no issue at all, and plus: perfectly quiet DI that doesn't affect too much your sound. I've got no car, always going to gig or rehearsals by tram or bus in my city, that's a winner amp....

Never been repaired or opened, all the buffers (hu??? edit: jumpers of course lol) inside are still at their original place, just the fan that isn't as quiet as it was in 2009, just took me 1 mn to pour some oil in it and it rocks quietly again.

10w40 regular or synthetic?

 

[Russell L]

BTW, since 1988 I have played Peavey (Mark IV head and Combo 300), Trace Elliot (GP7-SM combo), and SWR (Workingman's 12) with nary ever a reliability issue, just some dust getting into the SWR pots and a switch on the Trace. My Fender Bassman 150, though, has been intermittent about coming on all the way sometimes. It seems to be dust or something in the effects route or the speaker jack. But, it's not my gigging amp. The others, including all my Markbass stuff, has seen regular duty all the time. The only amp failure I've ever had at a gig was when I accidentally turned over a whole glass of Sprite down into the Peavey (damned top vents). We sprayed it with some contact cleaner, and by the time break was over the thing was miraculously back in action! Amazing, that was!

 

[Jerry Ziarko]

I'm referring to large touring companies like Claire Brothers; I could be wrong but believe most of the big boys are back using iron transformer Crowns.

Sorry to feed the derail; my question was about MI amps.

Just about every touring company out there is using self powered class D line arrays.

 

[fdeck]

Interesting thoughts.
Are you saying that the different topologies can all have the same expected reliability and, that problems are more based in in design, implementation and QC?

I'm guessing all of the above, within anybody's ability to obtain credible reliability data. But it's worth noting that a lot of stuff goes into an amp, other than the output topology, such as switches, pots, connectors, and wiring. Those things are probably less reliable than the output transistors. Also, electronics manufacturing has gone through numerous changes, with "growing pains" at each stage: Wave soldering, surface mount, reflow, water based flux, lead free solder, etc.

But there's another subplot as well, which is: How do we know if an amp is reliable? In the technical world, "reliability" is a statistical quantity, but we don't have statistical data on amps. In my view, from a practical standpoint, if an amp isn't 100% reliable, then it doesn't matter whether it's 80% or 90%. That's why I carry a spare amp. The beauty of Class-D is that a spare amp fits into a tiny bag that I just throw into the car and leave there.

 

[rimbaud]

10w40 regular or synthetic?

..... hum... what should i reply to this....

Seriously, the first that always came in my hands: Olive oil (yep... the cooking one, I've repaired/maintained many amps with just olive oil, and I also "feed" my fretboard with this oil)

 

[pbass62]

I had experimented a few years ago to go with the light weight craze and purchased one of the very popular amp brands on TB forum . The amps switch mode power supply let loose with 5 min before start of televised service. After that I went back to good old robust transformer power supply instead of SMPS amps

 

[boristhespider9]

I had experimented a few years ago to go with the light weight craze and purchased one of the very popular amp brands on TB forum . The amps switch mode power supply let loose with 5 min before start of televised service. After that I went back to good old robust transformer power supply instead of SMPS amps

That's sounds more like you got ripped off by a fellow TBer rather than any indication of reliability and quality. If the micros were falling apart like that, people would catch on pretty quickly.

 

[Indiana Mike]

The only two Amps I have ever had really bad problems with were both ampegs.
One USA SVP-CL pre
One Vietnam BA210 HP

 

[pfschim]

I have played for 40+ years and have used many brands of amps, reflecting a number of technologies (tube, ss, hybrids, smps, class D).

Before last year, I never had an amp totally fail on a gig. Last year I had an Ampeg PF500 go into fault mode for no apparent reason (it had been used in the same manner on a number of prior gigs). As a long time working player, I have often had back-up amps ready to fill in, but simply never had to use them. These days, when I do use the PF500, I keep a TC RH450 sitting right on top of it so I can be back online in seconds (just flip the modular power cord and speaker cable). I also have the TC programmed with a reasonable representation of the PF500 tone (one cool advantage of the TC design).

Despite my experience, I am not cr*pping on the PF500. It sounds good when it stays running. But to your point about amp reliability, I just don't like the feeling of constantly expecting the ampeg to fail, and would prefer a design that does not simply drop out, but rather one that "fails gradually" if it must fail for some technical or user induced reason.

good luck