"Hold on thar, Baba Louie!"
Give me an old used vintage amp any day! ALL amps can break down and I'm not inpressed at all with the quality of modern amps. They mostly are designed to be assembled as cheaply as possible by automatic machines. This means that they become a PITA to service, which means a bigger repair bill to the customer.
Parts are parts and I will agree that a capacitor or resistor from a blackface Deluxe Reverb is no more or less likely to fail than a cap in a modern 'Boogie. The difference is that one can find and replace that cap in the old amp in less than half of the time needed with the modern one.
If you have a warranty or if you're Metallica and get your 'Boogies for free under an endorsement deal then you don't have to think about such things. Once that warranty is over then you're on your own.
Vintage handwired amps are a breeze to modify. With modern amps you are severely limited. There are no wires but rather traces on the circuit board. You can't change them - they're "cast in stone".
Tubes heat up and cool down. It's their nature. With circuit boards this means all those little board connections are heating and cooling, expanding and contracting. If the board isn't thick enough what happens is that a few years after warranty those connections start to screw up and become intermittent. I had one Blues Deluxe in my shop that I swear when my cat walked in front of it on the rug you'd hear crackling and scratchy noises out of the amp!
This is just my humble opinion of course but since I make my living building and repairing amps I have a different perspective than if I like an amp 'cuz it sounds all "Yngwie" and has big chrome knobs. I have no problem if someone disagrees with me - it means more money to me in the long run! :food-smiley-015:
Chaque a son gout! And note my msg signature below:
Wow, as a techie I must respectfully and totally disagree!sesroh said:
Give me an old used vintage amp any day! ALL amps can break down and I'm not inpressed at all with the quality of modern amps. They mostly are designed to be assembled as cheaply as possible by automatic machines. This means that they become a PITA to service, which means a bigger repair bill to the customer.
Parts are parts and I will agree that a capacitor or resistor from a blackface Deluxe Reverb is no more or less likely to fail than a cap in a modern 'Boogie. The difference is that one can find and replace that cap in the old amp in less than half of the time needed with the modern one.
If you have a warranty or if you're Metallica and get your 'Boogies for free under an endorsement deal then you don't have to think about such things. Once that warranty is over then you're on your own.
Vintage handwired amps are a breeze to modify. With modern amps you are severely limited. There are no wires but rather traces on the circuit board. You can't change them - they're "cast in stone".
Tubes heat up and cool down. It's their nature. With circuit boards this means all those little board connections are heating and cooling, expanding and contracting. If the board isn't thick enough what happens is that a few years after warranty those connections start to screw up and become intermittent. I had one Blues Deluxe in my shop that I swear when my cat walked in front of it on the rug you'd hear crackling and scratchy noises out of the amp!
This is just my humble opinion of course but since I make my living building and repairing amps I have a different perspective than if I like an amp 'cuz it sounds all "Yngwie" and has big chrome knobs. I have no problem if someone disagrees with me - it means more money to me in the long run! :food-smiley-015:
Chaque a son gout! And note my msg signature below:
