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BVV3000 INFINIUM Trial

#104
seamonkey said:
A "clone" in the sense that anyone can take a design that is in the public domain and recreate them for sale.
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Ampeg actually gave Pignose crap about theirs and it would have bankrupted Pignose to fight it so they had to drop it. One reason I'd rather buy a clone than something from Ampeg (just a name, not the original company anyways...).
 
#105
Subscribed and watching very closely, following a report of a post in this thread. Please keep things respectful and avoid trolling. I'm saying this to give a few people the chance to review their posts and maybe edit them before I come back to take another look. ;)
 
#106
RoadRanger said:
Ampeg actually gave Pignose crap about theirs and it would have bankrupted Pignose to fight it so they had to drop it. One reason I'd rather buy a clone than something from Ampeg (just a name, not the original company anyways...).
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Folklore I guess, but the Ampeg Book does mention that Ampeg made a "Buster" that "looked suspiciously like the Pignose" but was quickly discontinued. :wacky: Looks like it's the other way around.

An Ampeg V4 and any guitar tube amp are around because Western Electric didn't renew the patents. Look at earlier amps and they had the Western Electric license sticker on them.

Other companies can create microprocessor controlled self bias circuit, it just can't resemble Infinium in a way that Bugera doesn't sue their bAsses off. It's a good idea to take technology and improve a design. Reliability, sound wise, etc. Nothing is ever wrong with that.
 
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#108
BassyBill said:
Subscribed and watching very closely, following a report of a post in this thread. Please keep things respectful and avoid trolling. I'm saying this to give a few people the chance to review their posts and maybe edit them before I come back to take another look. ;)
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Thank you. I find it commendable that a Bugera rep would make the effort to solve the problem and share it with TB.

Edit: Will33 graciously reminded me that I'm not sounding so gracious myself! LOL!

I need to remember we read all comments and I should temper my comments with reason.
 
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#112
will33 said:
Alaskalefty....I've read many of your posts here and generally get the gist of what you're saying if not always get it. A lot of times, stuff you say makes me think, "right on". I really like your stuff here...hope some thing about behringer doesn't screw that up.
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I come here to relax and partake of knowledge with my fraternal brothers. I learn a lot from all of you. I sometimes laugh so hard at the jokes my wife thinks I'm crazy.

Thank you, Peace.
 
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#113
Bart Bolton said:
Dear All,

I just received word that the BVV3000 in question has been located and is en route to our Las Vegas facility. I will keep everyone posted once we get the unit on our bench. Thank you!
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Hello Bart,

Just wondering if there's any new update on this particular amp?

I half expected you guys were like the Maytag Repairman and don't really have a lot of things to fix :-)
I understand you're Music Group and there are a lot of products and customers to support. They come first, but it would be interesting to know about this situation.

thank you
 
#115
Bart Bolton said:
Dear All,

I just received word that the BVV3000 in question has been located and is en route to our Las Vegas facility. I will keep everyone posted once we get the unit on our bench. Thank you!
Click to expand...


Dear all,


Sorry for the late reply but we finally received this unit only last Friday March 20th. We were able to get it onto our bench on Tuesday and determined the following:


BVV3000 S/N S1200288739


Fuse 3 (1.25A for +660V plate voltage) was open, so the power tubes were getting NO plate voltage, which meant there was no audio output.

R31 (22ohm 1W) screen resistor for power tube 6 was burned. Tube #6 had failed with an internal short circuit between the plate and the screen, which blew the plate voltage fuse. Without any high voltage to the plates, the Infinium LED’s won’t light up, however the front Fault LED lit up indicating the missing plate voltage. This failure indication is intentional because if all 6 Infinium LEDs came on, then the user could try to mistakenly replace all 6 tubes trying to solve the issue.

The fault is not something that can be resolved by replacing a tube and the unit needs to be professionally serviced. While tube defects are unfortunate, these tube failure can happen and the unit behaved the way it was designed for.

As always, we're here to help!


resistor.JPG
shorted tube.JPG
 
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#116
Thanks, Bart, for the followup. Does the diagnoses mean purely tube failure or could an external problem have caused the tube to fail? Thanks.


Sorry for the late reply but we finally received this unit only last Friday March 20th. We were able to get it onto our bench on Tuesday and determined the following:


BVV3000 S/N S1200288739


Fuse 3 (1.25A for +660V plate voltage) was open, so the power tubes were getting NO plate voltage, which meant there was no audio output.

R31 (22ohm 1W) screen resistor for power tube 6 was burned. Tube #6 had failed with an internal short circuit between the plate and the screen, which blew the plate voltage fuse. Without any high voltage to the plates, the Infinium LED’s won’t light up, however the front Fault LED lit up indicating the missing plate voltage. This failure indication is intentional because if all 6 Infinium LEDs came on, then the user could try to mistakenly replace all 6 tubes trying to solve the issue.

The fault is not something that can be resolved by replacing a tube and the unit needs to be professionally serviced. While tube defects are unfortunate, these tube failure can happen and the unit behaved the way it was designed for.

As always, we're here to help!


View attachment 585654 View attachment 585655[/QUOTE]
 
#118
FWIW I'll +1 the conclusion that modern tubes can fail shorted and this takes out the screen resistor - just as intended to protect the amp. If you're going to want a tube amp it's something you have to occasionally expect :( .

I actually just traded away my BVV3000 - while it sounded awesome I'm too old to gig such a heavy amp and my other heads get me most of the way there anyhow (CTM-30, 1960, TH-350) - and at a more reasonable volume. Unfortunately I never saw the #5 fault light come on as it only does it after a couple minutes of playing and I always checked them right after power-on. Thought I checked them at power-down too but maybe mis-remembered? I had brought the amp to a TBer's house and he wanted it anyways so... I recommended that he run it either as-is or with a couple tubes pulled as he only had an 8 ohm cab - or replace the tubes with one from Bugera. He elected to replace it with a $15 "tested-good" used one and an hour or so later it fried - probably that fuse and a screen resistor, and that replacement tube. Most "tests" don't do it at 2x plate voltage which is what the peak voltage is when playing - Bugera has so far refused to tell us what voltage testing they do but I suspect it's better than most :) .
 
#119
Shorted tubes happen.
Bugera pretests tubes, including shaking them, but there is a lot shipping afterwards. Insulators in the tube can shake around. Metal parts suspended on wires shakes around. If it's a manufacturing defects, I have no doubt that if any more happen bugera will go back and beat on the supplier to get this right.

Maybe next verson of Infinium will watch the current for shorted tubes and go into protect mode before the amp needs service?
 
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#120
Well, I'm the lucky guy that got the BVV3000 from RoadRanger. After a month and a half at the repair shop I got it back yesterday. It still doesn't work. My local tech has pretty much given up on it at this point.

I'll pick up where RoadRanger left off on the story. Fault light came on with no sound from amp after about 2 hours of rehearsal. Tech says bad tube. Two fuses were blown, but all the resistors were good. All of the power tubes were replaced and two new fuses. Fault light stays on and still no sound. The fuses did not blow again and everything else appears to be ok. Tech thinks it might be something on the circuit board. Due to lack of schematics he called me and said I'm not going to charge you for any bench time, but come pick this thing up ASAP. He sounds willing to look at it again if he can get some more info for troubleshooting and repair.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm pretty bummed at this point as I got rid of some good gear to give this thing a try.
 

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