My DV Mark rant.....

[DonEsteban]

In the past, I had made rather positive comments about DV Mark here in the forum, but that has now changed.

Unfortunately, I have to say that 2 of the 3 devices of this brand that I bought are now broken. After the first Micro Head 50 failed after three and a half years, the Little Jazz Combo is now also defective.

That's not a particularly good result after only 6 years. I can't remember ever breaking a transistor amplifier before. Of course, it could also be coincidence, but...

I have now rededicated it to be an 8" box and run it on the 2nd Micro Head 50 that I still have.

At least that's it for me as far as DV Mark goes. ....

One more note: With the Micro Head as amplifier this (now) 8"box sounds so much better than the Little Jazz ever sounded. It's only now that I realize how tight and mid-rangy the Little Jazz actually was ....


Edit: I even had opened a thread about how much better the head sounds compared with the combo here:

DV Mark Little Jazz vs. micro 50 II - a revelation shared

[chris32895]

I bought a DV Mark Jazz (the 12" version) about a year ago and out of the box it was broken. Turned me off from DV Mark stuff for a while.

[velja]

I didn't want to start new topic but since we are already here ... My DV40 Combo died, after few years. I tried to reach the company to ask them for schematics and they didn't want to send them. They instructed me to send the amp for repair to Italy
Eventually, I got schematics from an old DV distributor and the amp is repaired. If I recall good it was about few resistors. They are SMD but they are repairable provided that there is a schematic.

[Lionelsax]

My amp is 17 years old, it's a Line6 Spider II, no issues with this amp.
I sometimes play with someone who plays on DV Mark Jazz, the same you mentioned, it sounds good for me but he complains about the knobs, some buzzing, cracking, call them the way you want.

[jeremiahzellers]

Honestly, For what I paid for this amp, I don’t really expect it to last 6 years like yours has.

I could buy another one when it breaks they are so inexpensive and pay very little money for a great sound.

[nyc chaz]

Unfortunately most electronic items built today are not made to last and it's cheaper to dispose of it and buy a new one than pay the service charge to have it repaired.One of the reasons for our overflowing landfills.

[Gitterbug]

I've had a 1st gen Little Jazz, two 50W heads and 200W head. No issues, but I've used the heads for cab testing, not gigs for years. The LJ has a glued-in speaker, which tells you something about repairability.

[rpjazzguitar]

I've had the LJ in near daily use for several years. Fair amount of moving around to various venues. Mostly gently, but one or two drops. No issues with the amp at all. Works like new.

But, recently I started getting unhappy with the tone, and I was thinking about a Bud/Blu or Tonemaster Deluxe. I always liked the LJ because it didn't reproduce high end fizz and had a dark quality I liked (and still like for soloing), but chords started to strike me as just a bit harsh sounding. I don't think the amp changed -- just my reaction to it.

Then I discovered that I could EQ it to quite an extreme degree with my regular pedalboard and I liked the result.

I made a video to demonstrate it. Sound 1 is heavily processed (Boss ME80). Tweed amp model, two stages of EQ, solo setting (whatever that does - some kind of boost) and reverb. Sound 2 is with a little reverb and otherwise unprocessed. LJ settings don't change. Bass rolled all the way off, mids at noon, treble at 11, reverb at 9, volume around 1. Neck pickup on Comins GCS-1, volume full up on the guitar, tone rolled down, but not all the way. The tone setting is hard to reproduce because most of the variation occurs in a very small part of the rotation of the pot.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

We’ve had a Jazz 12 in the backline at the club for over 5 years. It’s used most often by blues harmonica players (who tend to be too loud, in my opinion) and guitar players, almost all of whom had to be talked into trying it but loved it from their first few notes. It has not been treated kindly and is dragged back and forth from the “green room” to the stage several times a week.

I used a LJ as my main amp for gigs outside of my regular club dates for about 2 years, selling it when I finally got my Blu and my SBUS. The EG250 head I bought new a few years ago is my only high power amp and has been flawless. So none of the 3 DVMs I’ve used regularly have ever shown even a hint of a problem.

Every brand and model has a finite failure rate, and the more they sell the more likely we are to hear about the ones that broke. My impression is that DV Mark stuff is pretty reliable.

[entresz]

Honestly the LJ was so cheap I wasn't expecting miracles in terms of build quality. Mine has held up to 5-6 years of gigging quite well but I have started to notice what sounds like a bit of voice coil rub coming from the speaker, so it might be time to drop in a new speaker soon.

The aux in on mine is a bit dodgy - but I very rarely use it so I haven't been all that bothered by it.

I also have DV Micro 60 Jazz head, and that's a superb sounding amp through my JBL D130 equipped cab.

[Wrogsprit]

I also had issues with my DV Mark Little Jazz not turning on a few years after I bought it. It seems to have magically fixed itself, but the blue LED goes out sometimes unless I push it in.