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My Fender Vibro Champ XD cut out on me today after around 30 minutes of playing it. My Vox DA-5 does that too. I even had the same thing happen on my Fender Deluxe Reverb but it turned out to be the cables. And three out of four of my Monster Guitar Cables are suspect. I can bend them at certain points and they will cut out. <br>
I hardly use these amplifiers so what gives? I did buy them and the cables over six years ago but they have stayed in my home and have not been pushed hard at high volumes. I truly do not use them very often. I might have used the Vibro champ 3 times this year, and for no more than 30 minutes at a time.<br>
What is it with gear? Use it or lose it?Last edited by Dirk; 12-30-2019 at 02:41 PM.
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10-10-2015 10:01 AM
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My very non technically specific answer; those fender amps have two wires (that's all I know to tell you) that are sometimes very close to one another, play 30 minutes, thermal expansion, one wire makes contact with the other and shorts out. If you power off for 30 minutes and try again, does the amp work again given time to cool down? I have a friend who bought a vibrolux for $250, moved one wire and has no problem.
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that's a lot of bad luck!
I think the Vibrochamp XD is a cool little amp.
I enjoyed a few years of trouble free use with a Superchamp XD.
Come to think of it, none of my amps have given me trouble. . .
Sorry for your frustrations
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Maybe it is just me (again). But to answer whisky, yes, after I turn them off, and let them cool down, they start working again.
Longaways, I have a Fender Superchamp that is probably my favorite right now. I am going to get my last good cable and play on it for an extended time and see how it works out.
That amp can get loud enough to compete with a loud drummer in my opinion (I did just that a couple of years ago).
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The problem with them is modern constuction methods used to produce them so cheaply. They are essentially throw away items you should expect a few years out of.
Nothing wrong with SS in general, Howe when it's put together as cheaply as possible, with zero thought put into serviceability, you get a pile of amps that don't work.
p.s. It's one of the reasons the classic polytones are pretty damn reliable amps (consider many have been running for going on 40 years without ever seeing a tech), there is so little in there, and it's put together well. We'll see in 30 years if the modern SS amps stand the test of time.
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That happened with my Fender JMUL and when my tech put the wires in their proper place it never happened again!
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Just to clarify, the amps are not digital. They are class D.
And unreliability is not a characteristic of the class D amps themselves. It's about the amplifier design. Many inexpensive class D amps use off-the-shelf circuitry that is poorly designed, sensitive to power fluctuation, overheating, etc.
But well designed class D amps such as those made by demeter and fuchs are more reliable than tube amps by far.
Terminology[edit]
The term "class D" is sometimes misunderstood as meaning a "digital" amplifier. While some class-D amps may indeed be controlled by digital circuits or include digital signal processing devices, the power stage deals with voltage and current as a function of non-quantized time. The smallest amount of noise, timing uncertainty, voltage ripple or any other non-ideality immediately results in an irreversible change of the output signal. The same errors in a digital system will only lead to incorrect results when they become so large that a signal representing a digit is distorted beyond recognition. Up to that point, non-idealities have no impact on the transmitted signal. Generally, digital signals are quantized in both amplitude and wavelength, while analog signals are quantized in one (e.g. PWM) or (usually) neither quantity.
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That vibrochamp isn't class D though is it?
Cheap modeling, Cube's the way to go. Still not foolproof (input jack soldered directly to the board) but i've got one running on ten years, it's survived a school atmosphere, some bar gigs, and is on about 40 hours a week as i leave it where i teach and other teachers use it too.
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I think I watched a high turnover music retailers video on youtube recently, and one of the sales guys said they'd never had a Roland Cube amplifier returned as faulty.
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Use Your gear!
Amps (guitars, cars, boats etc etc) are meant to be used. If You use them too little, they gather dust, corrosion and dirt and the capacitors dry out. More complicated the design is the more there is possibilities to go wrong.
I am not sure about the "modern amps are made cheaply" explanation. I bet that Leo Fender or other heros of the past did just same, except maybe their cheap was better than today's cheap!
You Alsoran have had extra portion of bad luck though, sorry to hear.
"Fenders with two wires too near each other"... Never heard about those tragical cords. There is so many wires so near each other in every tube amp that I wonder how they have worked if the heat would cause shortcuts so easily.
I have a vintage Fender (is '79 vintage? Propably not enough) and Super Champ XD and they have worked flawlessly when ever I turn them on. (Better knock on wood...)
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Agreed. The Roland Cubes are built like tanks. They work!
Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
As an added plus, they sound pretty good. I am very satisfied with the "JC CLEAN" channel on my Cube 40XL. I can't swear that the "TWIN" and "TWEED" models sound like the actual Fender amps, but they're both very usable tones which are at least reminiscent of the original amps.
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I am really disappointed with Fender Amps, my blues junior stopped working this week. I had it 3 months!
Its gone back to Fender to see if its a fix or replacement, I wanted my money back!!
I would never buy a fender amp again.
The Mambo is working fine, I suppose you get what you pay for.
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Now I cannot claim to have had a bad experience with digital or tranny amps but all my woes have been with valves.
A Wem dominator amp started me off. But it screamed after 20 minutes or so. Being young and inexperienced I thought it was unfixable so I sold for a H/H combo.
I had me a Fender Bassman head that would chirp and screech. I changed valves and had it serviced but I lost faith in valves so I sold it for profit and went for H/H tranny amps again, more reliable.
A Fender Champ 12 was shagged out. Tried to love it but sold it to a harp player.
So I bought a cube 60. No problems and I always use this if I want reliability.
The valve bug bit me again and I got an Ampeg GVT15. It sounded good at lower settings and is clean all the way up to its full 15 watts but there was buzzes and weird overtones. I put this down to poor circuit boards and that old farty valve experiences of yore. But I found a valve amp tech (GEE Electronics) working as a repairer for all the major valve amp manufacturers in the NW England. I took it in for a fix and fettle. It came back sounding better than ever! Stunning! I asked if the circuit board was dodgy but he said it was a good design and very robust. The problem was a bad valve and poorly routed wires.
So if you have an amp issue get your warranty working for you or check it out with a reputable tech.
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going to buy one of those mustangs...well its got a 5 year warranty..I have an old old polytone...and your right they seem to go on forever.....
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jazzbow- wow, now that's a brand you don't hear about too often...h/h amps..you and wilko! saints preserve him
cheers
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Valves (tubes here) do have a limited lifetime. I think rough handling is probably the main culprit...the filaments and grids are rather fragile. I got a wake up call when my son's Peavey tube amp started sounding bad...replacement tube prices were quite a bit higher than I recall. I was an amateur radio operator in my younger years when tube transmitters were the norm.
My son decided he would go tubeless. He really wanted to go Fender...I referred him to a good sales rep friend who pushed him toward a Roland Cube. When I mentioned the Cube he disregarded me...when the sales rep put a demo on for him comparing the Cube to some Fender amps he suddenly decided I may have known something! He and I have been very happy with our Cubes for the past three or four years.Last edited by Eddie Charles; 10-11-2015 at 08:10 PM. Reason: Add detail
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A Californian that's heard of H/H! Wow. You must have some experience of them. Originally Posted by neatomic
jazzbow- wow, now that's a brand you don't hear about too often...h/h amps..you and wilko! saints preserve him
cheers
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I also own an Ampeg GVT15-112.
I agree that the 7.5 watt Triode setting sounds very good. I haven't experienced any problems in two years.
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The reverb is a bit too cavernous but it's a great amp for pedals. Originally Posted by jazz.fred
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I don't use any pedals. I "ride bareback". Just a clean tone for chord melody. Originally Posted by jazzbow
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I go Compressor~EHX Pitchfork~O/Drive~RotaryFX~Tape delay~Looper~Ampeg Originally Posted by jazz.fred
This gives me a faux organ sound for rootless chords and a double bass for the root note into a looper for endless jams. Lots 'o' fun.
But clean is good.
Have you noticed the subtle difference in the way the tone stack works at 15 watts? It could be the dynamics of sound pressure or some such, I do hear a change tho'.
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Haven't played it @ 15 watts. I use the 7.5 watt triode setting exclusively. I bought it for a low power tube amp. I like it a lot.
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JF, you must try the 15 watts but turn down the volume on your guitar. Also the reverb can add a bit of gain at that volume.
P,S, sorry to hijack the thread...
Back to subject....
Any poor performance in amps should always by checked under warranty or a reputable tech...
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JB,
The manual describes the tone of the 15 watt tetrode setting as "agressive" while the tone of the 7.5 watt triode setting is described as "gentler with more headroom". This is the tone I was looking for when I bought the amp. As stated above, I wanted a low power tube amp. Kind of like a reasonably priced Fuchs Lucky 7 or other similarly powered boutique amps at a "working man's" price. The GVT15 fit the bill perfectly. I'm very happy with it.
Truth be told, I really didn't need another amp. My Roland Cube 40XL was all the amp I needed. But, I felt the need to own a tube amp again, having sold my Peavey Classic 30 a few years ago.Last edited by jazz.fred; 10-13-2015 at 08:36 AM.
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It is very nice, whatever setting. I love the boost and cut that the bass and treble can offer. Originally Posted by jazz.fred
If you want that ballsy stones sound circa 1970's it does that too, if you want. You might not, but if you did it's in there.
But damn! It does the clean thing really well. Nice.
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