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Genz Benz Shuttle 9.0 Appreciation Thread

#261
I've got a few more gigs on the 9.0 now. I had one horrible night dealing with bad power at a club. The 9.0 did not do so well there. But the other gigs I couldn't be more pleased. What a great warm tone you can get! I was doing a classic rock / country gig and dialed in just a wee bit of overdrive, man it sounded sweet! Blended with the guitar player's Marshall perfect. I did a jazz / fusion gig and got a great punchy clean hi-fi type tone. A very versatile amp indeed! :D
 
#262
Bad power presents an amp company with two choices... allow the amp to operate but put it at risk of damage and failure or protect the amp from damage by shutting down the power supply.

With customer expectation for reliability being as high as it is these days, and the expactation for longer warranties than offered in past times (remember the good 'ol days of the 90 day or 1 year warranty that was non-transferrable?), the customer has pretty clearly voted that having the amp not fail or blow up or let it's magic smoke out is preferable to one that might work in some adverse power situations but then fails.

We spend lot of effort towards long term reliability, as many of our products are used for professional and international touring applications. In these applications, power is generally pretty good (typically fewer issues than the backwoods club circuit) but long term reliability, especially after hundres of thousands of traveling miles, is of prime importance. The last thing one of these users wants is to have an amp fail due to bad power, so the protection is focused towards long term reliability on the road.
 
#263
I always keep my Shuttle 9.0 in the pocket of my gig bag regardless of whether I think I need it or not.

Last week on Thursday I used the effects send to feed the power section of an SWR Redhead house rig that I suspected had a bad tube.

Friday the load-in area of the club I was playing was congested with the cars of another band that was playing earlier. I ended up having to park two blocks away but easily carried my bass on my back, my Schroeder 1210R in my right hand, and my Pedaltrain MINI and instrument stand in my left hand down the street and into the club.

Saturday afternoon I had a quick session for a friend. I woke up in the morning, plugged my iPod Touch into the Shuttle, ran the headphone out, and quickly ran through the MP3 of the scratch track she had sent me. When it came time to do the actual recording, we ended up using the XLR send of my Shuttle to feed my signal.

Saturday night we were back at the same club. The sound guy, also a bassist but very burned out on the music scene and usually not willing to talk about gear, was raving at the end of the night. "That rig sounds so good and is so small, I'm so jealous..." A couple of other local bassist I know also came up to the front of the stage during the night to see what I was playing through and gave the thumbs up.

I think I've already started to take my Shuttle 9 for granted. Fortunately I have other people to remind me what a cool little Swiss army knife of an amp it is... :)
 
#264
agedhorse said:
Bad power presents an amp company with two choices... allow the amp to operate but put it at risk of damage and failure or protect the amp from damage by shutting down the power supply.

With customer expectation for reliability being as high as it is these days, and the expactation for longer warranties than offered in past times (remember the good 'ol days of the 90 day or 1 year warranty that was non-transferrable?), the customer has pretty clearly voted that having the amp not fail or blow up or let it's magic smoke out is preferable to one that might work in some adverse power situations but then fails.

We spend lot of effort towards long term reliability, as many of our products are used for professional and international touring applications. In these applications, power is generally pretty good (typically fewer issues than the backwoods club circuit) but long term reliability, especially after hundres of thousands of traveling miles, is of prime importance. The last thing one of these users wants is to have an amp fail due to bad power, so the protection is focused towards long term reliability on the road.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, that doesn't do much to help the performer on the gig if the power isn't up the the expectations of the Shuttle and it persists in protecting itself.

The show must go on, so to that end I carry a traditionally powered amp that's not so sensitive the the vagaries of AC line power as a backup for venues my Shuttle 9 decides it doesn't like.
 
#265
mongo2 said:
Unfortunately, that doesn't do much to help the performer on the gig if the power isn't up the the expectations of the Shuttle and it persists in protecting itself.

The show must go on, so to that end I carry a traditionally powered amp that's not so sensitive the the vagaries of AC line power as a backup for venues my Shuttle 9 decides it doesn't like.
Click to expand...

Just beware that issues that an amp like the Shuttle (and some others) protect itself from faults that could damage other amps subject to such faults. It's a trade-off.
 
#267
I had played the club many times before with no problems (other than the sound of the room). I'll take the trade off, no biggie, I'll just use something else for that club. I don't play it much anyway. However, I don't really want to have to carry extra gear around until I find out where it works and where it doesn't. It kind of defeats the purpose of a small light amp if you have to carry backup gear..

Do the "power conditioners" actually work for something like this??
 
#268
agedhorse said:
We spend lot of effort towards long term reliability, as many of our products are used for professional and international touring applications. In these applications, power is generally pretty good (typically fewer issues than the backwoods club circuit) but long term reliability, especially after hundres of thousands of traveling miles, is of prime importance. The last thing one of these users wants is to have an amp fail due to bad power, so the protection is focused towards long term reliability on the road.
Click to expand...

Well I bet more of your customers are probably playing"backwoods clubs" than out touring...I don't think they want to have an amp failure due to power anymore than someone on the road.....:eyebrow: not a very fair statement there...
 
#270
agedhorse said:
Just beware that issues that an amp like the Shuttle (and some others) protect itself from faults that could damage other amps subject to such faults. It's a trade-off.
Click to expand...

Understood. I've played the same venues for a couple of decades with the backup amp (AMP BH-420) and absolutely no difficulties or damage.

Frankly, though it's only a handful of times, the Shuttle sensitivity to AC line fluctuations can be a PITA. Each time I take it to a new (to the Shuttle) room I have to hope it makes it through the first set and not have to switch to the backup. And that's not even a guarantee it won't cut out later. It's becoming a bit of a trust issue.
 
#271
To clarify (thanks for the PM BTW), the protection will shut the amp down around 95 volts. That's not just "bad" power, that's really horrible power. I would expect this to be seen on a "very rarely" basis and I wouldn't plug anything of value into power like that.
 
#272
Bad power is bad power. Try running your car on 50 percent water. Then blame the car. :eyebrow:

The Shuttle series of Amps are doing what I would almost consider impossible just a few years ago.:eek:


I check voltage, polarity, and ground every gig I plug my equipment in. Why? Because I love my gear and I love me.:)

I got the ever living daylights knocked out of me a few years ago when I stuck my mouth to a Mic while holding my Bass. This was in a dive that clearly had issues with it's grounding.:spit:

Run a good amp on a poor amount of voltage long enough and damage will be done. Sometimes the damage is not immediately noticed.:hmm:
 
#273
I never had a shut down. The volume was cycling from full down to barely audible, then it would go back to normal and so on...

anyone have experience with "power conditioners"? I've heard they don't really do much. I've never used one.

I'll be bringing a meter from now on..
 
#274
I suspect that the really tough part of this is that you will mainly see the issue when your full system is under max load - which means during the set, when the power amps are drawing things down on your circuits. It may actually be hard to tell before you crank everything up.

I believe some of the Furman's show actual line voltage; although by the time you add one of those, you are getting towars a rack system rather than a Shuttle.
 
#275
bucephylus said:
I suspect that the really tough part of this is that you will mainly see the issue when your full system is under max load - which means during the set, when the power amps are drawing things down on your circuits. It may actually be hard to tell before you crank everything up.

I believe some of the Furman's show actual line voltage; although by the time you add one of those, you are getting towars a rack system rather than a Shuttle.
Click to expand...

So whats the alternative if you don't want to depart from a shuttle rig?

You all have me scared for my gear now, my band gets almost exclusively bar gigs, I'd hate for my beloved gear to get fried because of insufficient power or for my GB to ever need to go into protect. I worked to hard for my rig.
 
#278
agedhorse said:
To clarify (thanks for the PM BTW), the protection will shut the amp down around 95 volts. That's not just "bad" power, that's really horrible power. I would expect this to be seen on a "very rarely" basis and I wouldn't plug anything of value into power like that.
Click to expand...

Saying to an owner/manager, "Your power is bad, we're not going to play." isn't really a viable option in this biz, so I carry the backup head and a backup DI if that head fails. However, having the bass cut out in the middle of a song as an indicator of an AC power fluctuation problem kinda sux.
 

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