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Amps you have blown up?

M.R. Ogle

M.R. Ogle

Supporting Member
Commercial User
Nov 5, 2004
6,680
8,840
70
Mount Vernon, Illinois
Disclosures
Backstage Guitar Lab owner
#1
I just had a second "incident" with a second Carvin Amp, this time it just started making static noises as soon as I turned it on. So I'm shopping for a new little versatile combo amp, and was going through the list looking for one, when I couldn't help but notice how many different brands I was passing on because of previous bad experiences with them.

Here's a partial list of stuff I've blown up over my years of playing:
SWR Workingmans Series, Carvin (2), Peavey, Acoustic, Sunn, Behringer (not that great to begin with), Crate, Ampeg, Hartke and a Randall.

I'm honestly NOT a miistreater of amps, yeah, I may have pushed a few past their comfort level, but generally I take reasonable care with them.

What have YOu blown up? This should be fun...
 
#2
Maybe I'm lucky?
In over 30 years of playing bass and skinny string guitars, both professionally and semi-professionally, I've only had two amps go down. One was caused by an internal short in an output tube. The on/off switch needed replaced in the other. Brands have included Peavey, Fender, MusicMan, Hartke, G-K and Genz benz.

I've never blown a speaker, either.
 
#4
My GK1001RB. We were to start playing in 15 minutes. My bass rig was set up in front of a fireplace. My drummer had just put a large glass of ice water on the mantle above...the warped mantle. I was tuning up, and watched as the glass of water slid off the mantle...right into the vent/fan on top of the GK. I still haven't fixed it. I do have the service manual and will eventually.
 
#5
My Ampeg BA-108 just "went" on me. Never turned it up past 2 on the volume level. Probably will get it fixed eventually but just bought a new head (Hartke LH500) and my Ampeg PF-350 now become swapped back and forth as gigging/practice amps. I have no other issues with mpeg stuff and that is pretty much all I own.
 
#8
I blew my old crate bx-100, but it lived a good life and got me through far more than I had ever expected of it first, and then there was the carvin. First gig I took it to (after a year of LIGHT use in practice), no power, no nothing. I got it fixed (bum solder joint on a capacitor), and then after a year (or about 15 gigs) it started acting up. The mute doesn't fully mute, and some of the tone seems to be missing. Now I'm shopping again.

In terms of general brand failure, carvin seems to have issues with bass amps (guitar and pa's seem to be fine, but tons of issues with bass amps), and a buddy warned me about gk after he worked in an amp shop for a few years and saw a neverending stream of busted gk's.
 
#11
My Aggie db750. It was cold out and I had it I the trunk. I took it in to the gig fired it up and after a few seconds a huge pop out of the speaker. I jumped ten feet. Basically the tubes blew up. I took it in to the Aguilar guys and they were gracious enough to charge me for a basic repair plus the cost of the tubes. ( I was not the original owner)
 
#12
While playing an outdoor gig on a hillside, I placed my guitar stand directly behind the banana-plug connector of the cab,,,maybe an inch or so away. As the nite progressed, the vibration on the stage (which was anything but level!) caused the stand to slowly walk toward the exposed banana-plug wires.

Eventually, it shorted out the speaker output :eek: and the amp (SVT II) immediately cut out. Fortunately, Ampeg had some built-in protection and the amp went into a "safe" mode, so once the short was removed, it came back to life. *phew*

So I shoulda blown it up, but it survived!
 
#14
never blown a guitar amp up. but we did blow up 2 1200 watt yorkville power amps up (spilled my beer, oops) rentals anyway , just called them up and the music store dropped us off 2 new ones for the night , never a word said about it by them when we dropped the PA off that monday after. We rented Pa and lights from them for years after that
 
#15
M.R. Ogle said:
I just had a second "incident" with a second Carvin Amp, this time it just started making static noises as soon as I turned it on. So I'm shopping for a new little versatile combo amp, and was going through the list looking for one, when I couldn't help but notice how many different brands I was passing on because of previous bad experiences with them.

Here's a partial list of stuff I've blown up over my years of playing:
SWR Workingmans Series, Carvin (2), Peavey, Acoustic, Sunn, Behringer (not that great to begin with), Crate, Ampeg, Hartke and a Randall.

I'm honestly NOT a miistreater of amps, yeah, I may have pushed a few past their comfort level, but generally I take reasonable care with them.

What have YOu blown up? This should be fun...
Click to expand...

And 11 amp failures is just a PARTIAL list? :confused:

No offense, but you are either the unluckiest "jinx" on the planet or you just don't have any idea what you are doing.
Do you hose them down while you are playing or something? :D

Seriously, why do YOU think you have personally killed about 10 times the number of amps as most working professional players, many of whom have been actively gigging for several decades?






M.R. Ogle said:
This should be fun...
Click to expand...
 
#16
LOL!
To be fair, several of these were "house" amps, very used, two or three were borrowed by someone and then were returned damaged, a few were used junk to begin with(got in trades), and two of them I simply pushed too hard, admittedly.

Of course, this is over 25+ yrs.
 
#18
I've been playing bass since 1969. I've lost a few speakers, but as far as I can remember, my GK1001RB was the first. A few weeks later I was using my backup, an Acoustic 370, and it started losing volume and got progressively more distorted as the night went on. I have yet to fix that but I will.

I had a PV CS800 go down on a gig in the 80's, took it apart onstage, and fixed it during the break.
 
#19
I had an old GBX 4X10 powered 1/2 stack back in the day. I was young and STUPID!!!

I tried to solder something on the power amp while it was turned on :rollno::bawl:

Lets just say that sparks hit the ceiling (literally) and that was the end of my trying to do amp repair.

I remember I borrowed a 400 watt Fender tube head for about 6 months which worked ok, but then I moved and ended up selling off all my gear and never played again for about 10 or 12 years ago, until about 6 years ago when I had the accident with my hand and started to play again for therapy
 
#20
Never had a MI amp go down in 35 years of playing.
I did have an MCI 24 track machine go down at a gosple gig in the 80's
Our tech was the greatest; he said he thought a transistor in a spare DC150 might be close enough to work. Swapped componenets in about 30 minutes, recorded the last 2 songs, wound the tape tails out and then the logic board went again.
Greatest tech I've worked with.
 

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