Are solid state amps a risky buy, considering repair ability after warranty expiration

[TC 57]

I have no idea how solid state amps fare vs. tube amps when it comes to repairability after the warranty expires.

What do you knowledgeable amp tech folks think about that? Do you consider solid state amps like Fenders Tone Master series or the Laney Foundry series to be risky purchases, with regard to potential failures when they are out of warranty?

Not something to worry about and I believe with Tonemasters you can replace some parts and even sections of circuit board. If you are unlucky and an amp goes really bad after one or two years, which is rare, then just buy something else. It wont have been too costly in the first place and if it cant be repaired, then just buy a new one. Many tube amps are built around PCB's and parts not always available, if you can find a good repairer...

 

[Uncle Daddy]

Where I live only 2 places in the entire county can repair tube amps, and those guys are not getting any younger. Luckily I can build and repair my own, but I can forsee myself going fidgetal eventually. Onboard functions like power scaling and DI outs make these new fangled amps look pretty useful.

 

[msalama]

fidgetal

Thanks, vocabulary updated.

 

[AliceAngelTele]

Technically, a properly designed and sized heatsink is the bees knees, simply because fans fail.

Pretty much a standard configuration from the very early computers on:

1. Heat sink on top of the processor to draw off heat
2. A fan on top of the heat sink like a little hat

Here is a heat sink with the fan mounted on top.

 

[Blrfl]

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.

Techincally, hand-wiring is less-durable because adding solder to stranded wire creates a stress point where the strands run into the solder. Excess heat when soldering will weaken the wire and repeated motion will eventually cause a break at that point. Now, is this a problem practically? Not with big-enough wire and strain relief that keeps the stress away from that joint. Nearly every guitar cable I've ever had fail without outside help has been along the center conductor right where the solder starts because the strain relief didn't do its job. Solder-joint stress is among the reasons why the pins at the end of a wiring harness are crimped on rather than soldered.

The traces on a quality printed circuit board can withstand a lot of abuse. People will point out that boards in some tube amps experience failures in the traces around the tube sockets, which is usually thanks to inadequate heat management. It can be made worse if the layers of the board were exposed to humidity during manufacturing because repeated heat cycles will make that moisture expand and contract and, eventually, cause delamination. The extra money spent buying from sources with better quality control goes a long way.

I'd also point out that pretty much every mass-produced car, airplane, train, ship, tank and a long list of other things subjected to rough service produced in the last 35 years has at least one PC board in it. The shift to surface-mount parts happened with those just like it did with everything else. The ECM in my car is subjected to lots of physical abuse and gets extra thermal abuse as a bonus because it's mounted in the engine compartment.

Surface-mount components are generally solid packages with a flat surface attached to the board with a light adhesive during assembly so they stay in place during soldering. The solder joints hold them securely to the board. Those parts are tiny but they sure ain't dainty. Nor are they new; this technology has been around since the 1960s and was used extensively in the systems that got us to the moon.

 

[jazzlettuce]

I have tube and solid states. The solid states have actually given me less problem, are much lighter and easier to pack in/pack out, and give incredible clean tones that modulation and time based effects sound great with.

My tubes are for me to really feel the music and to get a bit lost in the harmonic frequencies that tubes do produce, my solid states are my workhorses.

Might find myself with a reissued Sunn Beta Lead solid state that recently came out.

 

[11 Gauge]

I'd also point out that pretty much every mass-produced car, airplane, train, ship, tank and a long list of other things subjected to rough service produced in the last 35 years has at least one PC board in it. The shift to surface-mount parts happened with those just like it did with everything else. The ECM in my car is subjected to lots of physical abuse and gets extra thermal abuse as a bonus because it's mounted in the engine compartment.

And that's the thing - all of this SS tech has been in place for 35 years now, and is used in environments where physical abuse, thermal extremes, and exposure to dust/moisture/etc. is the daily norm. And - the tech is in use day in and day out without fail, with many more hours on it than 99% of all guitar amps will ever see.

I also want to repeat yet again that when we do tend to see failures of SS tech, it tends to be due to either design or construction flaws, and really isn't the SS tech itself. And that's why the vast majority of it should have the user's confidence that it will function properly for a good long time, most likely well after the warranty period has passed.

 

[11 Gauge]

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.

Yet more proof IMO that SS/DSP is durable and reliable.

Again - there's nothing unique or different about SS/digital guitar amps. They use the same construction techniques, and similar (if not the same) preamp and processor implementations as keyboards do.

And yet again, if anything, the complexity of your typical modeling guitar combo amp is probably a fraction of what you have with a synth/keyboard, so there's probably less PCBs, less processors, less digital switching/routing, and less mechanical stuff (buttons/knobs/keys) to fail. I'd also imagine that a lot of the mechanical stuff with a keyboard sees a lot more frequent usage than it does with the average guitar modeling device, unless you're someone like Robert Fripp! If keyboard players have not been complaining about this stuff failing, why in the world would it be an issue for guitarists?

 

[Tony65x55]

I have (pretty much) the entire collection of the old 1980's orange Roland Cube amps, from the Cube 20 to the Cube 100. I started collecting them with the Cube 60, an amp that played a zillion gigs and recording sessions, and just kept adding these inexpensive bargains to the collection.

I have never had one need service.

 

[Musekatcher]

Where I live only 2 places in the entire county can repair tube amps, and those guys are not getting any younger. Luckily I can build and repair my own, but I can forsee myself going fidgetal eventually. Onboard functions like power scaling and DI outs make these new fangled amps look pretty useful.

There is now only one amp repair shop in my 10 county area, and hundreds of bands, between 50 and 100 venues hiring bands in the region. Very active. Many are scratching heads.

 

[Genadeloos]

Going back to the question of the OP.... are ss amps a risky buy?

The answer simply is..... NO... If you like them, buy them... by all means

But with todays SMD boards...? repair is almost not done... You can change the boards when availible...
and that's the bottleneck... Manufacturers choose to end production of spare parts a few years after introducing them.

.... call me a dinosaur.... but I, for myself, like the sound that my 50 + year tube amps give ...

I like the harmonics, overtones and undertones.... yeah, and other colorings of the input sounds, I like the flaws...

And when you don't gig your expensive old Tube amps, only stationary studio and rehersal use, they last forever....

Same goes for SMD and very digital computer stuff, using it stationary @ home it will last a long time....
But using it full throttle on stage..... it will croak much earlier....

That's it and that's all folks

 

[robt57]

If my CR12 Pops, I doubt I'd explore fixing it. But would definitely look for another used one. Got this one +2 yrs ago for 200 space bucks ..

 

[wulfenganck]

I used a mixture of tube and solidstate over the years.
Buy from a well-established company and you'll get something solid. Buy the cheapest stuff, and it'll bite you.....

Hughes & Kettner, Edition Tube 20th and 25th Anniversary - which are still my main gigging amps since 2013. Hughes & Kettner kind of lost their track for the past years and have been bought by Thomann in May 2025. We'll have to see where that's going. I never had any issues with my amps except the usual tube-service from time to time.
DV Mark Little Jazz 12, solidstate amp I bought for jam-sessions back in 2021. Great pedal-platform and wonderfully lightweight.
Ashdown mi-Amp solidstate-top for my bass, never any issue since I bought it around 2018 (or 2019?), except one of the EQ-faders fell off (which those little critteres have done on any graphic EQ I've ever used.....).
Laney Linebacker solidstate-combo, my second amp ever back in 1984. Horrible overdrive channel, but workable cleansound and working without issues for 35 years until I handed it to a friends kid who tried out guitar.
Laney A-Fresco solidstate for acoustic and busking, working without issues since I bought it 2019.
Laney TT20 tube-top; bought secondhand and now kind of sleeping somewhere in the rehearsal room, but worked as long as I used it for a couple of years (with tubes changed by service)......
Laney Cub 10 tube combo. Bought it as a living-room amp, but gifted it to a friend, who plays a great blues harp and was looking for something for "nasty overdrive". Still uses it AFAIK.
Kitty Hawk tube-poweramp. Used it from around 1996 to 2011 for my rack. Sold it to some guy in Finnland, never any issue, hellishly loud and heavy as a tank, will probably survive Armageddon.

All my no-name/low-budget cheapos had issues except one Behringer Ultratone solidstate keyboard-amp I use for acoustic-guitar and bass. That one works nicely.
But I had Harley Benton, Artec and Behringer solidstate amps that just...died. Bad soldering, hissing noises, poorly screwed casing etc.
Also an IMG Stageline tube-combo that had to be repaired 3 times within 6 months.

 

[SylvesterFrost]

Anything analogue will be serviceable. The digital stuff is mostly not.