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Most reliable / maintainable amp rig

#22
The amps I've played for the longest period of time are ThunderFunks. Started with a 420 and now have a 550. Zero failure for seven+ years so far. I've never actually blown an amp or speaker, but I did have an iAmp 800 that came from the factory with some bad Chinese filter capacitors that sounded NASTY when they failed (not my fault!).
 
#23
Go by warranty. The most complete, transferable, and longer the warranty shows the manufacturer will believes in their gear. It equals out though, you may be paying more for an insurance policy the manufacturer takes out. You can buy a pretty good cheap amp, and just expect to junk it, not fix it, if it fails after the warranty expires.

Small micro heads are very reliable and if you have a problem it takes only a few bucks to ship it back to the factory instead of finding some local tech that may not have an idea on how to fix it. Some amps have field replaceable assemblies, but these add cost, and take up space. You can count on techs any being able to replace assemblies. The labor costs too much otherwise.

Different parts of amps will have different length or warranty. For example hybrids will only have a few months on tubes. Even Ampeg Heritage has a 180 day warranty on the tubes yet 5 years on everything else.

Same goes for speakers/drivers. Some manufacturers only have 90 days on them. Watch out.

Generally, amps today are much more reliable than decades ago. You don't have a lot to worry about.
 
#24
Hey, even your car needs to have the tires reinflated, the oil changed, etc. That's not an unreliable car, that just the nature of mechanical/electronic equipment.

The problems you've run into seem to be the norm, IME.

Since they are "unreliable" to you, it seems your expectations might be a bit unrealistic, especially the "scratchy" pots.

You do change your strings occasionally?

Or visit dentist for x-rays/cleaning twice a year? once a year? not too often?
How's it working for you?
 
#25
seamonkey said:
Go by warranty. The most complete, transferable, and longer the warranty shows the manufacturer will believes in their gear. It equals out though, you may be paying more for an insurance policy the manufacturer takes out. You can buy a pretty good cheap amp, and just expect to junk it, not fix it, if it fails after the warranty expires.
Click to expand...


Intersesting angle of this debate - AFAIK, Mesa is the only one in this biz that has a 5 year transferrable warranty...


- georgestrings
 
#26
96tbird said:
I will defer to the experts on this that state Chinese, yes I said Chinese tubes are now made with state of the art equipment and rival old USA tubes. Ad well JJ tubes are fantastic value and quality, made in Russia, now on brand new equipment.

Tubes are not fragile once in place, and the glass is about four times thicker than an incandescent light bulb, as thick as a cfl. They will break if dropped on concrete or metal. Just the facts.
Click to expand...

Hey, I use JJs in my guitar amp and they're aces. They are actually made in Czechoslovakia.

The reasoning behind my opinion that tubes have suffered a bit in quality is from reading about how tubes used to be manufactured in the US to very high quality standards for military applications. Of course no military equipment uses tubes any more and so there is no demand for that level QC.

About the only thing that tubes are used for these days is MI amplifiers (and a few very hi-fi home stereo amps). And so in modern tube manufacturing (not done in US due to environmental concerns), the quality standards reportedly aren't as high as when they were historically produced for military applications.

That's my understanding of the matter.

However, I'd certainly give full respect to any contrary opinions offered by Bob Pletka at Eurotubes. That guy has forgotten far more about tubes than my very limited understanding.
:)
 

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