New upgraded Fender Amps

ThePrettyDamned

p90fool said:

jpfamps said:

Hopefully they've also cured the self oscillation in the Blues Junior. Only requires a component value change.

I'm sure we'll find out soon!

I don't care what they've done with it. Although the sound it makes is obviously subjective, it's a cheaply-made, thrown together practice amp with very limited features, whose development has been paid for a million times over.

That's absolutely fine, we all have space in our lives for something similar, but it's SIX HUNDRED AND NINE QUID! That's only a few packs of strings away in price from this;

https://www.andertons.co.uk/guitar-dept/electric-guitar-amps/prs-sonzera-20w-1x12-combo-sonzera20c

...which is in a totally different league in terms of sound, features, quality and even brand name. 

Holy crap that sounds like a nice amp. 

Clashman

Have they turned the volume up on the bass circuit..

Grocer_Jack

Fenderman53 said:

Made to a price point and not up to a quality perhaps(?)
These popular (with the masses) amps could be better but are Fender 'bean counters' really bothered.
Questionably weak PCBs with solder tracks that lift under the heat of operation, tube sockets not mounted on a solid chassis, the issues are often well reported. To put them right? How much? Does Fender want its amps to be long lived and reliable in every day gigging use? 

Yes I had a HRD II which burned out a resistor twice in the 18 months I had it. It also used to change channels from clean to drive all on it's own. Got that fixed once and it started doing it again, so I sold it. Good sounding amp, but no good for gigging with these problems. 

ICBM

Grocer_Jack said:

Yes I had a HRD II which burned out a resistor twice in the 18 months I had it. It also used to change channels from clean to drive all on it's own. Got that fixed once and it started doing it again, so I sold it. Good sounding amp, but no good for gigging with these problems. 

The random channel changing is the result of the resistors overheating and undoing their solder joints. If the same fault came back it's because it wasn't repaired properly. That's a well-known problem - although now rare, after the original spec was upgraded - and should have been fixed permanently the first time.

It's also likely that one of the causes was not resetting the amp to 240V - they come supplied for 230V, because that's what the EU rules require even though UK mains voltage is still 240V really - this put more stress on the resistors than necessary.

Grocer_Jack

ICBM said:

Grocer_Jack said:

Yes I had a HRD II which burned out a resistor twice in the 18 months I had it. It also used to change channels from clean to drive all on it's own. Got that fixed once and it started doing it again, so I sold it. Good sounding amp, but no good for gigging with these problems. 

The random channel changing is the result of the resistors overheating and undoing their solder joints. If the same fault came back it's because it wasn't repaired properly. That's a well-known problem - although now rare, after the original spec was upgraded - and should have been fixed permanently the first time.

It's also likely that one of the causes was not resetting the amp to 240V - they come supplied for 230V, because that's what the EU rules require even though UK mains voltage is still 240V really - this put more stress on the resistors than necessary.

Yes I heard about this and it probably wasn't fixed first time. But there was something else odd going on. If you didn't plug the footswitch in it would ALWAYS channel hop. If you plugged  it in (both not use it, just sit it on top of the amp) it would RARELY do it. Good sound but I didn't want the hassle, so it's long gone. Actually I'm now using a Blues Deluxe as a backup amp and I prefer the sound. Never had any reliability problems either. I'd gig that happily any day, although it usually stays in the car.