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Carvin BX500: Pt. 3

#841
liam_g said:
I had one club that my BX500 wouldn't work in. Sketchy power ... the guitarist was having problems also. My GK700RB works great in that club.

Cheers,
Liam
Click to expand...

liam_g said:
The old big iron transformers seem to do better with sketchy power than the new lightweight stuff, at least in my experience.

Cheers,
Liam
Click to expand...

So this is what my BX1500 does in sketchy power situation.
It starts out fine but, about half way through the gig, no sound will come out but all the lights will be on. Sometimes if I turn it off and back on it may run for a minute but then no sound again. I will do nothing to it (no cable massaging) and plug it in at another location, home, another club and it will work fine.

Is this the type of thing you get? :eyebrow:
 
#848
Yeah, I just got tired of messing with different heads for different clubs, so now I just use the 700rb. Probably going to sell the BX500 soon. Might pick up a 700rbII and retire the 700rb to backup use.

Liam
 
#852
It's possible that you just haven't played the level of dive where I encountered the problem. We found out that the entire kitchen, including huge refrigeration units, is on the same circuit as the stage. I traded that BX500 to someone, and he's gigged it all over the LA area for a couple of years with no problem. I haven't taken my current BX500 there again to see if the problem would recur. I think that place is just a terrible example of wiring.

Liam
 
#853
I am not speaking from personal experience. I'm just asking because I have owned a Class D amp and plan on getting another, most likely another Carvin HD1500. Killer power amp, especially for the money.

liam_g said:
It's possible that you just haven't played the level of dive where I encountered the problem. We found out that the entire kitchen, including huge refrigeration units, is on the same circuit as the stage. I traded that BX500 to someone, and he's gigged it all over the LA area for a couple of years with no problem. I haven't taken my current BX500 there again to see if the problem would recur. I think that place is just a terrible example of wiring.

Liam
Click to expand...
 
#854
I have had mine since May with NO problems, yea, knockin' on wood...

I am in 2 bands, the other band I play guitar and our new bassist got a BX500 (before I knew him) and he has sent it back twice, shut down on him, not at our rehearsals, he uses my amp :D
It has been about 2-3 weeks now and someone at Carvin told him they are waiting on some new mod parts to fix this problem.
I guess they got to be getting tired of said problems with this model, eh:hmm:
With that all said, I hope he has some luck with the fix :D

I dig my amp, our rehearsals are about 4-6 hrs at a time and, it performs just fine, and the gigs we have done are with no problems as well, I got lucky:smug:
Now I hope I have not gone and hexed myself, :eyebrow:

...and I do bring a backup to gigs, 'couse these threads scare me...
 
#857
The BX500 is an incredible Amplifier. IME All Class D Amps are susceptible to various degrees of damage from Crappy Power sources. I know from experience. I bought a $4 tester at Lowes Hardware and found a bad power strip at my Drummers house that fried 2 of them. I will never plug it in again without first testing the outlet.
 
#859
Even though I had one shut down due to sketchy power on a gig, I still think it's a great amp. Enough so that I bought a second one after trading my original one. I'm just more enamored with my GK 700rb these days. But I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the BX500 so long as you are aware of the ribbon connector issue and its solution (deoxit).

Good luck,
Liam
 

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