Laney Cub 12R fault - intermittent.

Voxman

ICBM said:

The classic intermittent fault is very shy, and likes to hide - especially from rough technical types who poke around inside equipment and drive it deeper into its hiding place where it stays very quiet until it's quite sure the coast is clear.

Then when it is confident enough - ideally about five minutes into a paying gig, or an important recording session that's paid for by the hour - it reappears. It's also a solitary creature, so tends to stay hidden if it thinks a backup amp that might contain another of its kind is around...

LOL   But sadly, so true.  A long time ago in a galaxy far far away when I used to have a Vox AC30 TB 6 Input, it was a great amp (weighed a ton though) until it had a problem then sometimes it might have to be with techs for days before they traced the fault - it was a right pain as in those days I couldn't afford a second gigging amp.  Part of the reason I sold it was reliability.   

Voxman

Well, been playing for an hour today, at volume, clean & with max gain, no hissing/farting (before there was some background splutter/crackling even when the volume stayed)  and no volume drops with horrible distortion. Just good ol' valve tone - Jeez, I'd forgotten how loud 15w can be (esp with a Vintage 30)!     Banged the amp top several times, steady as a rock. So (fingers crossed) I really do think the problem was a duff power valve.  Hopefully I won't eat my words later but, for right now at least, I'm a happy bunny! 

impmann

I may be a bit late to the party... and I may be barking up a tree that hasn’t got any leaves. But I used to own a Laney LC30 that did an intermittent dying swan impersonation. 

I got it cheap (free) because of the fault and after much head scratching found the issue to be the send/return loop. Plugging a jumper cable in between the two sockets solved the issue permanently and it’s still (seven years later) working exactly the same in the hands of the mate I have it to.
I don’t know if the above is relevant to your Laney, but when I mentioned this elsewhere there was a lot of nodding and consensus that it was a bit of a known fault.

Hope that helps.

Voxman

impmann said:

I may be a bit late to the party... and I may be barking up a tree that hasn’t got any leaves. But I used to own a Laney LC30 that did an intermittent dying swan impersonation. 

I got it cheap (free) because of the fault and after much head scratching found the issue to be the send/return loop. Plugging a jumper cable in between the two sockets solved the issue permanently and it’s still (seven years later) working exactly the same in the hands of the mate I have it to.
I don’t know if the above is relevant to your Laney, but when I mentioned this elsewhere there was a lot of nodding and consensus that it was a bit of a known fault.

Hope that helps.

Interesting thought but I cleaned the jacks at outset as a matter of course and it made no difference. The tube change seems to have done the trick.  

Voxman

Bugger...I really thought the tube changed fixed it. Worked perfectly for 2 days and went again today, albeit 'corrected' with a tap on the amp top again. At least I know it's not the tubes and it needs a service by an amp tech in the new year. Must be a dry solder or connection issue somewhere.  

Voxman

Brilliant - Just found out from Pete at Laney that Laney provide a fixed low cost after warranty repair service. For £49.95 Inc of VAT and pick up/ return by UPS from/ to my home, they'll sort out my Cub for me!  (Parts extra if needed). No hourly charge, it'll take as long as it takes to find and fix the fault.  

Voxman

Laney arranging for pickup tomorrow by UPS, fortunately I kept all the original packaging, and they'll bring all the labels with them apparently.  

impmann

Voxman said:

Brilliant - Just found out from Pete at Laney that Laney provide a fixed low cost after warranty repair service. For £49.95 Inc of VAT and pick up/ return by UPS from/ to my home, they'll sort out my Cub for me!  (Parts extra if needed). No hourly charge, it'll take as long as it takes to find and fix the fault.  

That’s really good CS.

Well done, Laney. 

Voxman

impmann said:

Voxman said:

Brilliant - Just found out from Pete at Laney that Laney provide a fixed low cost after warranty repair service. For £49.95 Inc of VAT and pick up/ return by UPS from/ to my home, they'll sort out my Cub for me!  (Parts extra if needed). No hourly charge, it'll take as long as it takes to find and fix the fault.  

That’s really good CS.

Well done, Laney. 

I have two Laney amps, my Cub 12R and a VC30-210 plus matching 1x12 GS112VE extn cab. Not that too much has ever gone wrong with these amps but I've always had great customer service from Laney.  And they always respond to e-mails (plus you can call them as they are based in the UK) and are always very helpful.

zedhex

I had a similar problem on a Laney TT20 head. The fuse holder is soldered directly to the board, but the soldered connections had cracked. Most of the time it worked fine, just occasionally it would lose volume. The solution was just to re-solder fuse holder. It was pretty simple to do, and I didn't need to go to a tech. 

Voxman

My Cub is back - serviced, new tube in V1 (which Laney kindly didn't charge me for), Volume & Tone pots replaced.  No solder or connection issues found, and been tested/run.  I won't have a chance to try it out for a few days - whilst of course I'm hoping it will be fine, and the intermittent volume drop and distorting has been resolved, I'll reserve judgement until I've had a chance to play it for a few days.   

77ric

Best of luck, sounds like good customer service though from laney. You know presuming all works as it should. 

Voxman

So far so good, Cub seems to be working perfectly so fingers crossed.