Why are all the fender amps I look at broken?

[goonie]

It'a amazing how a Twin does big, beautiful, spacious clean even at low volume. Good luck with the hunt!

Funny how folks justify 'needing repair' as 'needing a service'. If the reverb doesn't work, the amp needs fixing not servicing.

 

[Chiogtr4x]

I don’t remember. These have been discontinued for quite a while. I used to play through one that was backline at a very popular jam. I just plugged into it and played. I don’t know that I ever looked at the knobs. I never fuss with house settings at a jam night. But it definitely sounded like an exceptional Twin Reverb.

With a good amp, that 'stuff' doesn't matter, maybe. It's always gonna give you a great sound

 

[Wally]

Here is my latest acquisition. I bought it back from a customer who purchased it from me a number of years ago. This is a ‘Black knob Twin’…..the last incarnation of a Red knob twin which officially known as ‘The Twin’. Very good sounding amp if you take the time to manipulate h the controls. Fantastic cleans. The Gain cchannel can yield a variety of good overdrive. And….you can run the two channels in parallel…very interesting.
External bias adjustment. Yeah…..most of us don’t want to move it; but it is worth the moving. Believe me, whoever appreciates this amp gets a bargain.
Imagine a 74 year old buying these two amps within the last month.????
It is a wild, wild world in my world.

 

[Ljislink24]

Ya know, your gonna get one, prob pay a bit more than you want, get it serviced, and than see 2 or 3 come up for sale that need nothing for less than you paid At least that's usually my genius of buying high & selling low ! Keep looking & find that Fender sound your not getting anywhere else !
Good Luck !

 

[David PNW]

Yeah, I agree about the MM amps. I've had a few.
Living on my own for nearly 60 years, the only problem I have had with a refrigerator was a NEW Maytag about 5 years ago. Repaired twice in ~two years, the second time requiring I pay for the repair.

Yes old equipment, parts go away, same as some amps, the parts are replaced with newer versions or changed. In the 50's and 60's fix what you had, then came the toss it and buy a new upgraded "efficient" unit. In the case of amps, the new efficient is modeling.

 

[rschiller]

I’ve been thinking on and off about adding a big fender reverb amp. Just for the hell of it. They can be found for great prices on the used market. Might be fun to have something between 30 and a 80 watts with reverb and trem. And all that CLEAN headroom.

Looked a Vibrolux reverb. Reverb didn’t work. Looked at a twin. Reverb and trem didn’t work. Looked at a pro reverb. Reverb didn’t work. Just went and looked at a 4x10 concert, reverb and trem no worky.

“It probably wouldn’t be much to fix”.

That’s what every store and seller says. Probably not, but you’re charging working amp prices, you won’t budge, and you don’t even know what’s wrong with it. Why is this seemingly epidemic?

Rant off. I’ll keep looking.

Fender designed the 12AT7 reverb send Tube to have 420 to 480 volts on the plate. RCA design maximum is 350.

 

[telemnemonics]

There are still actual music stores?

I suspect all those amps are broken because there are like two amp techs for every 1000 broken tube amps and they are backed up into next year.

I have an appointment to drop off a couple of amps in mid July.
I made the appointment in mid May.

 

[Jakedog]

There are still actual music stores?

I suspect all those amps are broken because there are like two amp techs for every 1000 broken tube amps and they are backed up into next year.

I have an appointment to drop off a couple of amps in mid July.
I made the appointment in mid May.

Luckily we’ve got several good techs around these parts. And they aren’t 100 years old. There’s usually a wait time, but it’s nothing like it was twenty years ago. At that time there were only two shops in town. That did everything. All electronics repair. PA stuff and backline for the big production companies took priority over everything else. You might wait a year for an amp to be fixed. Or longer. These days it’s usually only a few days.

 

[Supertwang]

It'a amazing how a Twin does big, beautiful, spacious clean even at low volume. Good luck with the hunt!

Funny how folks justify 'needing repair' as 'needing a service'. If the reverb doesn't work, the amp needs fixing not servicing.

Yes but IDK how many times I’ve seen Fender AB763-ish amps that the reverb and or tremolo “needs fixed” but after a “usual suspects servicing” everything works including reverb and tremolo. So sometimes an amp goes in for a “servicing” and gets a free “fixing”.

 

[Genadeloos]

I’ve been thinking on and off about adding a big fender reverb amp. Just for the hell of it. They can be found for great prices on the used market. Might be fun to have something between 30 and a 80 watts with reverb and trem. And all that CLEAN headroom.

Looked a Vibrolux reverb. Reverb didn’t work. Looked at a twin. Reverb and trem didn’t work. Looked at a pro reverb. Reverb didn’t work. Just went and looked at a 4x10 concert, reverb and trem no worky.

“It probably wouldn’t be much to fix”.

That’s what every store and seller says. Probably not, but you’re charging working amp prices, you won’t budge, and you don’t even know what’s wrong with it. Why is this seemingly epidemic?

Rant off. I’ll keep looking.

Yeah.... Well..... the problem here is that "they" sell it anyway, there is always somebody who thinks he has got a bargain... and then the costs add up

 

[Esquier]

Fender designed the 12AT7 reverb send Tube to have 420 to 480 volts on the plate. RCA design maximum is 350.

Fender ran the 6V6s way "overmax" as well. But they live. The 12AT7 reverb tube on mine failed cos the filament failed. the 6201 is the military HD version of the 12AT7

 

[msalama]

without making a fuss about it

Don't think making a fuss would've helped much, TBH. And most would've probably kept mum anyway, since old and repairable tech is more expensive.

It is what it is.

 

[msalama]

But they live

Chinese tubes necessarily won't, though.

 

[msalama]

Why are all the fender amps I look at broken?​

​

Um... because they're so bad they break if you so much as look at 'em?

 

[Wally]

Here is my latest acquisition. I bought it back from a customer who purchased it from me a number of years ago. This is a ‘Black knob Twin’…..the last incarnation of a Red knob twin which officially known as ‘The Twin’. Very good sounding amp if you take the time to manipulate h the controls. Fantastic cleans. The Gain cchannel can yield a variety of good overdrive. And….you can run the two channels in parallel…very interesting.
External bias adjustment. Yeah…..most of us don’t want to move it; but it is worth the moving. Believe me, whoever appreciates this amp gets a bargain.
Imagine a 74 year old buying these two amps within the last month.????
It is a wild, wild world in my world.

I forgot the picture for this amp…

 

[Jakedog]

I forgot the picture for this amp…
View attachment 1395531

I had the red knob version back in the very early 90’s. Heavy, but glorious sounding amp. I think these things are extremely underrated. I shudder when I think about moving it around these days, but when they crop up the price is usually worth it. The last two I saw for sale locally went for around $300.

 

[Wally]

Jake, I find the parallel operation is The Twin very interesting and useful. The difference between the two ‘versions’ was cosmetic, only.
If people would call these amps by their model name, it would ease the confusion between it and the big Fender reverb amp that followed. That amp was the Twin Amp…..commonly called the ‘evil Twin’. Confusion abounds.

 

[Jakedog]

Jake, I find the parallel operation is The Twin very interesting and useful. The difference between the two ‘versions’ was cosmetic, only.
If people would call these amps by their model name, it would ease the confusion between it and the big Fender reverb amp that followed. That amp was the Twin Amp…..commonly called the ‘evil Twin’. Confusion abounds.

I had a Twin Amp as well. Another beast. That one broke my hand. Stress fracture carrying it by the top handle.

Wasn’t the Twin Amp part of the “Pro Tube” series? I think there was a Twin, a Pro Reverb, and a 4x10 Concert in that series. Channel switching, 1/4 power switches, they were very cool. There’s a 4x10 concert from that series right down the street for $750. It’s in beautiful physical condition. Looks brand new. But the reverb and trem are both non functional. Not having any idea what’s wrong with it or what it will cost to fix I offered them $300. I didn’t think they’d do it, but it never hurts to ask. They said no way.

 

[W.L.Weller]

How about widening your search to include Music Man amps?

Fender designed the 12AT7 reverb send Tube to have 420 to 480 volts on the plate. RCA design maximum is 350.

The "caveat emptor" on the Music Man amps is another version of Fender's pushing the design values on things like the reverb driver or the 6V6s in Deluxe Reverbs. The power tubes in the MM amps have ~600V on the plates, which was fine when excellent-quality current production 6L6GCs were readily available.

Also the MMs ground the cathodes of the power tubes through transistors, which isn't a direct copy of a circuit from the 1939 RCA Receiving Tube Manual, so "techs" may balk at working on them. (Nothing against the actual skilled technicians of the world, quite the opposite. But I think many of us have had experiences with folks who claim the mantle without the knowledge & skills to back it up.)

 

[clydethecat]

The "caveat emptor" on the Music Man amps is another version of Fender's pushing the design values on things like the reverb driver or the 6V6s in Deluxe Reverbs. The power tubes in the MM amps have ~600V on the plates, which was fine when excellent-quality current production 6L6GCs were readily available.

Also the MMs ground the cathodes of the power tubes through transistors, which isn't a direct copy of a circuit from the 1939 RCA Receiving Tube Manual, so "techs" may balk at working on them. (Nothing against the actual skilled technicians of the world, quite the opposite. But I think many of us have had experiences with folks who claim the mantle without the knowledge & skills to back it up.)

Many Music Man amps have over 700V B+!

And they drive the output tubes through the cathodes - the grids have a fixed DC supply. The bipolar junction transistor driving the cathode of the output tube is a sort of hybrid cascode. Seems to work pretty well. You might need to lay in a supply of NOS Sylvania 6CA7s or 6L6GCs if you have one of these amps. But while the voltage is high, the current is quite modest, they're almost Class B. It's a sort of circuit that is more common in RF transmitters than for audio.