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Another Red Flag On The Ampeg PF-500.....
- Thread starter shoot-r
- Start date
Back when I was doing some gigs now and then that had supplied backline, I would always get excited when I walked in and saw an 810 with a black box on top of it, then when I got close enough to see it was an SVT350 and not a real SVT, I would always think, "dammit".
Still did the gig and got a workable tone, but people really should not use those things to get any idea of what it is like to play a real Ampeg.
Liked seeing a 3Pro instead....I like those. And of course it was always a treat when the real deal, big tube daddy was sitting up there.
Get a VT pedal
Having a TH500, PF500 and a VT pedal I can say the VT will get close but it's not the same.
I have a feeling some would think otherwise if it had the Ampeg and SVT names on it.
I have a feeling some would think otherwise if it had the Ampeg and SVT names on it.
Well, actually I didn't mean to toot our old horn at all, but I'll accept what you said....
If it comes to that, we actually SOURCED parts to support older units that we never made. Just because we got calls for them, and it was actually good business to support the brand. We didn't give away those parts free, but nobody expected it either. They got a way better deal than if they bought just one custom made.
But, the point really was how absolutely rotten is the idea that the product is, or should be considered to be, "junk" after the point that the manufacturer stops "supporting" it. Which for most is when it goes off warranty.
If Magnavox (not everyone's favorite owner of Ampeg) had had that idea, there wouldn't be many old SVTs .... except for ones repaired by cannibalizing the parts from others.
yes, there ARE "grain of pepper" parts..... stuff way smaller than an "0803" SMT package. They are nearly impossible to replace, yes. But not all is like that. When it is, OK, you are stuck.
We had "repair shops" that refused to do component repairs of through-hole component boards.... They got cut from the list, no excuse for that nonsense at the time, or even now.
But manufacturers who drop their fairly simple MI product like a hot rock when it's off warranty.... won't sell parts, won't provide repair info, and ask for a credit card just to answer a simple question..... that's getting a bit greedy.... I refuse to buy another product of theirs.
It's different for a wireless, or a laptop..... you MUST have special info and equipment for them, and they usually are not as expensive to buy. Cisco did that to me, and after some thought, I decided I could understand their attitude. They must get a huge volume of calls, many of which are really caused by a "problem between the chair and keyboard" (PEBCAK) I also fixed the problem I had....
Oh, yeah..... those OSB cabs..... Yet another silly attempt to out-do the chinese at making a competitive product...... My idea was to make 'em out of ply, and proudly charge more than the importers..... I hated the OSB, and 810 size cabs were not imported enough to be an issue.
odd thing was, it wasn't the beancounters that did it...... it was largely the manufacturing folks.
When Ampeg built my 1963 B-15N, the idea that it would still be in service 50 years later would have been beyond their imaginations. Who would have thought? The marketing guys might have wanted to price it higher or build it cheaper.
This was a beater that was restored from the chassis up and is now better than new. And there are a lot of them still out there.
okcrum
in your chest
These are all good points, Jerrold. I do have to wonder how many MI repair shops would have been willing to invest in hot air solder/desolder tools, microscopes (binocular, 30-80X, large depth of field) and the like for SMT board work, even the larger multipin stuff. Eventually they'll all have to, or everything will go back to the manufacturer, I guess.
I use .020" iron tips and .020" solder (and magnifiers) for the larger 2-8 lead SMT stuff, and that would work OK for most MI repairs. But much more than that and I'd need the expensive tools, and if I were a typical MI shop that would really bite into my bottom line.
Also, I'd have to ask if the gear is finally getting too complex for the local repair shops to fix economically. That is, at anything finer than board level. There were already folks in the 70s-80s who didn't want to or couldn't understand the class D amps that ran VTR head wheels.
Not to be provocative, but being rebuilt isn't quite what i think we are talking about, as cool as it is...
If we are talking about reliable giging amps, my 25 year old gk400rb is still pumping and hasn't had more than a squirt of deoxit, and never failed...
If that's still going in 25 years as is, then we will have something to be in awe of.
Not to be provocative, but being rebuilt isn't quite what i think we are talking about, as cool as it is...
If we are talking about reliable giging amps, my 25 year old gk400rb is still pumping and hasn't had more than a squirt of deoxit, and never failed...
If that's still going in 25 years as is, then we will have something to be in awe of.
The nice thing about this amp is that it was working perfectly well despite the rough shape. The restoration was mostly for cosmetic and safety (three conductor power cord) reasons. All amps eventually need maintenance to keep them in regular service. Some components such as electrolytic capacitors have a limited lifetime. But, except for the chassis, there isn't anything on these amps that can't be replaced so they can be maintained indefinitely. As I mentioned, there are a lot of these amps still out there in original condition.
The same can't be said about modern transistorized amps. Some key parts will become obsolete and not be available at some point. Sometimes work arounds are available but more often than not, they cost too much to repair.
Oh well, that's all true, I'm hoping enough electronics squirrels have stocked up on the old npn and pnp's to last a few lifetimes but I guess only time will tell on that one...
I also hear you about the tube amps, come to think of it, the Selmer 50w el34 amp I inherited from my dad was bought in 1968 and that's also going following some minor work about 15 years ago... I do hope the class D's last, I've invested in two that I plan to keep, so I want them to survive
I work out Guitar Center, we have had a ton of the Ampeg PF series come in broken. I always stress getting extended coverage on them because of the frequent problems. Even after telling people about the issues, they still buy them. They sound halfway decent and are fairly inexpensive.
I guess I'm reaching the age of disbelief, but it seems a little psycho to expect customers to spend another $20 - $50 on warranty because the item they just bought for $300 - $500 is very likely going to fail. Why wouldn't GC or any other retailer stop handling an inferior product? I'm assuming the description of "a ton" when speaking of how many Ampeg PF series amps failed indicates much more than an average fail rate. Is that correct? Did anyone consider pulling them off the shelf and sending them back to LOUD? As a sales person, were you prohibited from telling the customer the product they were looking to purchase had a high fail rate? Not everyone has time to do in-depth research on product reliability & it doesn't sound like GC is very good to help with that, unless a salesman pushing extended warranty is to be interpreted as "don't buy this product".
Usually store bought extended warranties are pure profit for the store.
In this case they may be pure loss.
The new warranty benchmark levels are set at 5 years from the leaders:
Fender - 5 year transferable warranty
Peavey - 5 year warranty
This list should be longer
Aftermarket warranties should not be needed.
In this case they may be pure loss.
The new warranty benchmark levels are set at 5 years from the leaders:
Fender - 5 year transferable warranty
Peavey - 5 year warranty
This list should be longer
Aftermarket warranties should not be needed.
