Who has had problems with thier MTS and who hasn't?

[wildwood]

My RM100 has worked perfectly other than blowing a 6l6. But that can happen on any tube amp. It's more reliable than my Marshall 6100.

 

[lurid]

I have an SL+ module that works for 5 minutes, but 6 other modules work fine. The RM4 itself freezes from time to time (it still produces sound but has to be power-cycled to resume operation).

My RT2/50 made a light popping sound and went quiet after almost a month of daily use. The music room smells like there's a weed-smoking electrical engineer living there (but nobody here smokes, that I know of!). I called Randall support who says there's about a 30 day turnaround time, so I'm going to try a local authorized service center. I never could get it to sound as tight as I wanted, so perhaps it was a dud (never blown an amp before, and wasn't doing anything "risky"). Correctly biased by tube type, etc.

I'd consider the SL+ annoying, but the RT failure is a real bummer. Hopefully the local service center is competent and gets it turned around quickly.

 

[tung]

Never had issues with my RM50 combo, but my RM100 had a lot of problem when I first got it. blown fuse and bad power tube, all within the first month. The fuse was blown on me right in the middle of a gig.
After many trips to repair shop, it's working fine now, I've been using it for over a year now. The tone is great and it seems to be holding after the initial rough start.
T.

 

[bruce egnater]

The one thing that amp manufacturer have no control over is tube life. This is most unnerving part of building tube amps. No matter how much testing and burning in is done, you will still have an occasional tube failure in the field. When this happens, the owner typically doesn't just shrug it off as just a bad tube. More often it's my BrandX amp failed in the middle of a show and I was totally embarassed. I see that most of the troubles you guys have had were after you played the amps for a while (days, weeks, months?). It would be great if companies could burn in every amp for a week or two before shipping but unfortunately that is just not feasible. The one thing you as a player do have control over is carrying spares. You should always carry proper fuses, tubes, cables etc., etc. to a gig. Granted sometimes things other than tubes may fail, but stuff happens. Everyone tries to do their best. That's all we can hope for....right??

 

[okstrat]

I have a small 'repair kit' with extra tubes, fuses, multimeter, soldering iron and solder I take to gigs, and usually even have an RM50 sitting in my trunk just in case. Does it mean I think these amps are unreliable?

Not at all.

I just know if I have a spare tire I won't need it.

One other thing, if you ever change out your tubes - if the old ones still work, take them with you. Could be a cheap way of keeping the gig going if you blow tubes. Also, if you blow a tube on an RM100, pull the matching tube (inside or outside pair) and you can at least limp through the gig.

Pete

 

[Jaded Faith]

I have an RM4, RT2/50 and an RM50 that were all bought used. They were all in pretty good shape when they arrived and had no problems a little TLC couldn't fix.

One thing I can testify to is that Bruce and Jeff at Egnater and all the Randall guys here have and AMAZING commitment to their customers. Second to none. They have gone above and beyond my expectations with the few issues I have had and it was great to actually get someone on the phone. I can honestly say that they have made me a customer for life based on their customer service alone. And did I mention that I have the best tone I have ever had in 21 years of playing? :wink:

 

[new2randall]

Got an RM4 from Sweetwater about 4 hours into playing the output of the unit decreased to about half, so i would turn it off and restart it, it did that for a while then it started chirping and then a week later it went to putting out about half the output again then a week later it finally wouldn't put any sound out at all, fortunately it happened early on and I was able to send it in for warranty and the guys at Sweetwater sent me a new one hopefully i just got a lemon and the new one holds up better, if not i'll have to, regretfully give up on Randall.

 

[RD/Steve]

another issue is while the mts series is "easy" to bias...some inexperienced people can still make problems for themselves. i get alot of calls where people have their voltmeters set incorrectly, bias too high...seriously...you guys would be very surprised to hear what i hear on a daily basis. you should see some modules we get from people claiming it was brand new...yet half is missing. eBay has created some issues for us without question.

of course...it's NEVER user error....and the module or amp is always brand new. never purchased off eBay. :?

so...i have started keeping track. :lol:

seriously...we want to take are of our customers. honesty is always the best policy.

almost forgot...Bruce rules.

 

[lurid]

of course...it's NEVER user error....and the module or amp is always brand new. never purchased off eBay. :?

so...i have started keeping track. :lol:

For your "tracking" purposes, mine was brand new less than 2 weeks old and purchased from Musician's friend. It was not biased too hot the last time I checked the bias (within one day before it arced). I'm not an electronics guru, but I've used multi-meters for various things for better than half my life now.

I was pretty obsessive about checking the bias every day that I played it, but I remember not adjusting it after I got it dialed in to what the manual recommended, just confirming that it was still there.