The most unreliable amplifier ever….

ICBM

ScreamingDave said:

Funny, I’ve had three Marshall DSLs and a TSL over the last 18 years or so and never had any problems. Just the usual valve replacements when it’s gigged and rehearsed hard. Just goes to show, you never can tell ….

You’ve probably been reasonably lucky, but that’s what I meant about proportionate failure rates. If 25% of a particular model fail that would be terrible, but it still means that three-quarters of owners don’t think there’s a problem. To have four of them and not one failure is less likely, but certainly not impossible.

(I’m just guessing about the failure rate, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s in that ballpark.)

ICBM

Another candidate - the Hiwatt 'High Gain 50'. Modern Chinese-made. They bear no relation to classic Hiwatts at all other than the styling, although they do actually sound good... when they work. Which is intermittently at best.

stickyfiddle

Surprised no mention of the old JTM30 and JTM60 - I recall finding all sorts of horror stories on these when I was briefly considering buying one! 

ICBM

stickyfiddle said:

Surprised no mention of the old JTM30 and JTM60 - I recall finding all sorts of horror stories on these when I was briefly considering buying one! 

That’s because they were the first really crap Marshalls, they hadn’t perfected the art of making truly unreliable amps yet…



They do have problems - largely caused by the poor layout, which puts the heat from the power valves straight into the chassis - but compared to the DSL/TSLs they aren’t actually that bad.

The MG100DFX and the AVT100 are worse too.

I’ll say it again, but the Mode Four beats any of them.

DartmoorHedgehog

Danny1969 said:

Ashdown amps, particularly their bass amps are notoriously unreliable.. 

I have heard various people say that. This one certainly lives up to the reputation
(but as I said, most of the time it sounds really good - just never know when it's going to sulk)

impmann

Sassafras said:

Bird Golden Eagle.
I threw a fortune at that bastard, 
Never could get it to work properly.

I'm not sure they ever "worked properly" when they were new. 

I had a similar experience - when eventually it was "working as designed" it sounded fucking awful so I sold it on. I don't miss it.

UnclePsychosis

impmann said:

Marshall DSL. 
End of. 

Does this extend to the modern ones? 

I thought the DSL40/DSL40CR were quite well regarded... 

ICBM

UnclePsychosis said:

Does this extend to the modern ones? 

I thought the DSL40/DSL40CR were quite well regarded... 

The Vietnam-made DSLs are fine as far as I’ve seen.

drwiddly

I had a Trace Elliot Trident which was a bit of a roller coaster ride. It blew up 5 or 6 times in the 7 or 8 years I owned it. It sounded pretty good, although the middle channel was a bit polite (easily fixed with a drive pedal) but very unreliable. A tech who repaired and serviced it for me thought it was a prototype as the internal wiring was so scrappy.

hollywoodrox

Ashdown mini bass stack 

ICBM

drwiddly said:

I had a Trace Elliot Trident which was a bit of a roller coaster ride. It blew up 5 or 6 times in the 7 or 8 years I owned it. It sounded pretty good, although the middle channel was a bit polite (easily fixed with a drive pedal) but very unreliable. A tech who repaired and serviced it for me thought it was a prototype as the internal wiring was so scrappy.

No, they’re all like that. Also, the Bonneville suffered from circuit board fires, and the Velocette from blown transformers, melted plastic valve sockets and the “chassis” (AKA a single bent sheet of thin metal) collapsing. They do sound quite good when they work though.

Gibson bought the company and relaunched the Velocette as the Goldtone, with a better chassis, better transformers, ceramic valve sockets and double the price…

Modulus_Amps

I have an 2004 DSL, except for the HT to heater short that burned up the board it still works fine after a quick repair with a Dremel tool. I have thought about selling it but have instead kept it with a view to one day gutting it and build a proper Dual Super Lead in it.

jeztone2

I can agree on the Marshall TSL, a infuriating & frustrating player experience. I almost went down the JVM route. Then decided my future lay in a single channel combo being driven by pedals. 

Modulus_Amps

I don't repair a lot of amps, but when I do they more often than not have 2 x EL84 power with voltages way to high and biased way to hot

bugileman

Never owned one, but the vox valvetronix amps seem to always turn up in my local music shop with problems of some kind.....I don't think I'd bother on that basis!

Gassage

Yamaha RA100.

Not only do you have reams of wiring, impossible to get a schematic, but the mechanical bits fail and then you have the wonderous weight of the thing- which is about as easy to move as the Eiffel Tower.

Steve Grosvenor swore he'd never touch one again after he rebuild mine.

Open_G

My first method of hearing an electric guitar was a dc powered little thing called a lunch box. It was awful by even the cheap standard to which it purportedly met. I followed this up with a small battery powered amp from Tandy. It had 2 inputs and very little volume but surprisingly I hold it in great affection. Think I blew it up pushing the signal with some kind of boost. 

Google has spoken: this is the Tandy one. Can’t find the lunch box. 

https://youtu.be/yk6G9ClRos8?si=MNaukSK3lx6DdH0J

Woodandwires

ICBM said:

stickyfiddle said:

Surprised no mention of the old JTM30 and JTM60 - I recall finding all sorts of horror stories on these when I was briefly considering buying one! 

They do have problems - largely caused by the poor layout, which puts the heat from the power valves straight into the chassis - but compared to the DSL/TSLs they aren’t actually that bad.

I am considering getting a JTM 30, @ICBM is there anything that can shield the chassis from the power valves?             

ICBM

Woodandwires said:

I am considering getting a JTM 30, @ICBM is there anything that can shield the chassis from the power valves?

No, but fitting a fan to get the heat away helps.

NickB

VHT D50. I’ve had it 4months. It arrived with a faulty pre amp valve, it then started squealing uncontrollably at a gig caused by poor soldering. Switched it on this morning and it had another faulty pre amp valve which manifested itself with the Pre Amo Boost as always on in the Rock setting. Argh.