I've got a couple of expensive tube amps that if they ever take a serious dump probably will cost me serious bucks to repair. On the other hand I've got a very nice hybrid that if it ever takes a serious dump probably won't be worth repairing if it can even be done. On the other hand if my hybrid ever drops dead I can most likely buy another for reasonable money. Given that it seems to me that all of this stuff seems to be six to one and a half dozen to the other.
Are solid state amps a risky buy, considering repair ability after warranty expiration
- Thread starter DHart
- Start date
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Henry Mars
Tele-Afflicted
Actually I did own a Valvetronix for a while ... I hated the way it sounded and got rid of it. My buddy has owned a Crate for years.... no issues even though I am not particularly fond of it.
Musekatcher
Poster Extraordinaire
And so have I. Ive had one of three crates fail, one of four Valvetronix' fail. Still own two of each, and use them.
Henry Mars
Tele-Afflicted
The valvetronix has a 12ax7 preamp if I remember correctly. Still not my cup of tea.
Musekatcher
Poster Extraordinaire
Actually, it has a ss preamp and power section. It uses the 12ax7 to emulate power distortion, and feeds that low level back into the power section. That was the proprietary nugget that makes it a "Valvetronix". Novel and we'll done. Except for the crappy runs of bad solder.
Holy smokes
Friend of Leo's
I hate that for me it’s the 500 $ pedals. Can’t even get the cover off to fiddle around with em.
Right! But I was referring to katanas and mustangs
AliceAngelTele
Tele-Afflicted
Then there's this. Never heard of a processor crapping the bed? I assure you they do sometimes. Do those things even have an internal fan, or is it all heat sink?
haggardfan1
Poster Extraordinaire
I've had much better results from solid state amps, especially Peavey. I put an ancient and run hard XR600F powered PA head in the shop once, but never one time a guitar amp.
I loved my Pro Junior and my Hot Rod Deluxe, but they required a lot of downtime.
I loved my Pro Junior and my Hot Rod Deluxe, but they required a lot of downtime.
Fair enough, like I said in an earlier post it's too soon to really know.
I started in the world of synths (mid 80s) where digital based instruments have been a staple for 40 years. A lot of the fears I see on guitar threads about digital amps have never been a serious problem in the keyboard/synth world. Maybe there's a real world technical reason why a chip in a guitar amp is more at risk than a chip in a keyboard, but I'm not seeing it. You just don't get these kinds of concerns from folks, including me, who've been using this technology for decades with keyboard instruments. I'm sure it happens sometimes, but it's just not a real world problem as far as I can tell.
stratisfied
Friend of Leo's
I love my Valvetronix AD50VT. I also have a Fender Deluxe Reverb but for home use the Vox gets all the play time. It all depends on what, where and how you play.
Are you suggesting THEM GOODS TODAY! Are disposable???
Happy Enchilada
Poster Extraordinaire
+1 for Roland - in my case Blues Cube Stage (successor of BC60).
Roland builds all their gear for the real world. I bought mine used and it's functioned flawlessly.
I'm just askin questions here!
JPWFaith58
TDPRI Member
Hey, M. Enchilada!
We keep crossing paths over this.
I’ve been playing my Blues Cube Stage nearly every day now for 2-1/2 years without a hiccup.
Best amp I ever owned.
DHart
Poster Extraordinaire
Great thread. Thanks for so many good posts.
It would seem that the vast majority of solid state amps, especially from very reputable companies, are likely to be trouble free for the long haul. Unlike tube amps, where some maintenance is needed as there are tube issues that need tending to.
The rigors of being regularly/continuously gigged quite likely increase the likelihood of needing service or repairs. Perhaps this wear may well impact tubes pretty readily. Point to point wiring or hand wiring (larger solder connections?) may withstand heavy jarring better than fine/tiny traces on thin circuit boards? I have no idea about this.
The point someone made about the majority of bass amps being solid state, for many decades, and so reliable, is a good one. I think that says that there is probably little to worry about with regard to reliability, with solid state amps from good companies.
My solid state Yamaha THR10 has been stellar and flawless for well over a decade and I use it pretty much every day. Of course, it is not subjected to the rigors of being knocked around, handling, shipping, moving, gigging, etc. And it's so small and light weight. Knowing Yamaha, it will probably perform flawlessly for a great many years to come. The on/off switch may fail before anything else.
I do still have appreciation for tube amps and it's good that for the most part, they can be serviced/repaired if a component goes down. I haven't used a tube amp for quite a while, until acquiring this used Morgan MVP23 recently. It has really impressed me. I'm happy to be back in the tube world again, but won't be moving this amp around.
Both technologies are great, I think. I can certainly enjoy them both. But I can see that with some solid state amps, especially modelers, if a failure does occur well after warranty expiration, they may not be repairable or worth attempting a repair. And given their relatively low initial cost, that's not much worth worrying about.
It would seem that the vast majority of solid state amps, especially from very reputable companies, are likely to be trouble free for the long haul. Unlike tube amps, where some maintenance is needed as there are tube issues that need tending to.
The rigors of being regularly/continuously gigged quite likely increase the likelihood of needing service or repairs. Perhaps this wear may well impact tubes pretty readily. Point to point wiring or hand wiring (larger solder connections?) may withstand heavy jarring better than fine/tiny traces on thin circuit boards? I have no idea about this.
The point someone made about the majority of bass amps being solid state, for many decades, and so reliable, is a good one. I think that says that there is probably little to worry about with regard to reliability, with solid state amps from good companies.
My solid state Yamaha THR10 has been stellar and flawless for well over a decade and I use it pretty much every day. Of course, it is not subjected to the rigors of being knocked around, handling, shipping, moving, gigging, etc. And it's so small and light weight. Knowing Yamaha, it will probably perform flawlessly for a great many years to come. The on/off switch may fail before anything else.
I do still have appreciation for tube amps and it's good that for the most part, they can be serviced/repaired if a component goes down. I haven't used a tube amp for quite a while, until acquiring this used Morgan MVP23 recently. It has really impressed me. I'm happy to be back in the tube world again, but won't be moving this amp around.
Both technologies are great, I think. I can certainly enjoy them both. But I can see that with some solid state amps, especially modelers, if a failure does occur well after warranty expiration, they may not be repairable or worth attempting a repair. And given their relatively low initial cost, that's not much worth worrying about.
Have to say it was only recently I could afford a valve amp, so used SS all my playing career, both bass and six string, never had one fail and my fender stage 160 is now some thirty years old and still going strong
Nogoodnamesleft
Friend of Leo's
Technically, a properly designed and sized heatsink is the bees knees, simply because fans fail.
As far as solid state guitar amps, I prefer something analog made with discrete components. Sussing out discrete components to replace non-functional ones is generally easy.
Trying to find replacement microprocessors, DSPs, specially designed parts using things like field programmable gate arrays for a specific circuit - ehhhh… I wouldn’t count on it.
The construction type doesn’t matter as much as people make it out to be as far as being serviceable. Even surface mount components can be replaced. And like anything, there are varying degrees of quality in all camps.
I like digital circuit construction using wire wrap, but you have to be pretty long in the tooth or working on satellites to have seen much of that.
The techniques to work on these things is different, perhaps in cases like surface mount more delicate than pulling out the same solder gun used to make stained glass windows, but we all highly depend on devices every day that are full of this type of construction. I am as I type this and you are when you read it - in thousands of tiny solder joints in the process.
msalama
Poster Extraordinaire
If they stop updating the firmware but your amp is operative and sounds to your liking, you're good. But if they stop producing HW spares and your amp goes on the fritz? You've got a problem.
Conversely, if your unmodded old tube amp blows a GZ34, you're good since those are still available - at least for now. But if it blows an OT and you care about originality, you've got a problem again because NOS trannies are hard to come by and expensive.
OK, not the aptest of juxtapositions maybe... But hey, at least you get to pick your poison these days
sadfield
Tele-Afflicted
I was watching a Youtube repair video a while back where the guy removed, rebeaded and replaced a laptop microprocessor. It didn't look to be more than ten minutes work. The most specialist piece of equipment was a template used to apply a solder compound. Even then the repair was due to human error, as the owner damaged the circuit board trying to open the laptop for a memory upgrade. The sticking point may be the access to firmware to update eproms.
