Have you ever had a valve amp fail on you mid rehearsal or mid gig?

[Orvillain]

I have had valve amps act the foo' a handful of times over a 17 year period. I remember doing a rehearsal and my amp died, had to stop playing. Fortunately wasn't long before we were due to pack up anyway.

Did a show with my old VHT SigX and stupidly replaced a preamp valve before it. Except the replacement was microphonic, and I didn't discover that until we started playing. It didn't ruin the show, I just needed to be fairly nimble with the volume control!

Our original 2nd guitarist had a Marshall DSL100 that caught fire about a month after he bought it used. Oopsie. We were very glad to have a friend (one of my best friends to this day!) who was an amp tech. He's done all our amp work in all that time.

But really.... I can't remember many other times it happened. Certainly less than 10 instances in all that time.

 

[EOengineer]

My Mark III blew a tube and a grid resistor in the middle of rehearsal a couple years back. Totally deflating experience, in part because I love playing and the issue was a showstopper for the night, but also because I LOVE that amp.

I took that opportunity to get it in for a thorough service and cap job and it’s been rock solid since.

 

[unix-guy]

The one and only time I took a backup amp to a gig, my amp died right at the end of our first set.

Volume rapidly dimished and then silence...

Ran out to my car and had the backup up and running in 5 minutes.

This was an Ashdown Peacemaker 40.

Contacted Ashdown and got it into a local shop for repair.

Turns out that the goop they put onto the circuit board to prevent vibration noise had melted and run down into the tube sockets!

It took months to get it back... The tech said it was a nightmare to clean it up.

A few months later it happened again (at home).

I sold the backup (which was the same amp) and stepped up to a Budda SuperDrive II 40w... And I was able to fix the other one myself. It sits unused in a storage cabinet in my garage.

 

[sleewell]

My 6505 went up in smoke at rehearsal a few weeks back. Glad it wasn't at a show.

 

[TubeStack]

Only once, during a rehearsal, and it was a new-to-me used Mesa that I hadn’t had a tech look over yet. I forget the exact issue, but it wasn’t a tube and the tech said it was odd that it had occurred. I have the repair receipt somewhere, will post if I find it.

Has never happened at a gig.

Have had two amps go down with tube-related problems, but those weren’t at gigs or rehearsals. Again, also used Mesas that hadn’t been looked at by techs yet.

Once I’ve had any tube amp checked by a tech, I’ve actually never had a problem with them, which is pretty remarkable considering how many times and uses that is.

I do think the internet creates an overblown sense of fragility regarding tube amps and their reliability.

 

[DrewJD82]

Yeah, my Legacy started having drastic volume drops during band practice and needed new tubes.

Seems every guitarist I’ve ever played with has had some kind of issue in the duration I played with them. 2 buddies in particular who just have amps break once they touch them on a consistent basis, going on 20 years now. One of them text me a couple months ago, “5 years with the JJ and no problems!!!!” because it was so common with him previous to that amp.

 

[EOengineer]

Only once, during a rehearsal, and it was a new-to-me used Mesa that I hadn’t had a tech look over yet. I forget the exact issue, but it wasn’t a tube and the tech said it was odd that it had occurred. I have the repair receipt somewhere, will post if I find it.

Has never happened at a gig.

Have had two amps go down with tube-related problems, but those weren’t at gigs or rehearsals. Again, also used Mesas that hadn’t been looked at by techs yet.

Once I’ve had any tube amp checked by a tech, I’ve actually never had a problem with them, which is pretty remarkable considering how many times and uses that is.

I do think the internet creates an overblown sense of fragility regarding tube amps and their reliability.

Similar experiences here - I’ve never had an issue with a tube amp until I’ve pushed it beyond where I should have before maintenance.

I’ve had just as many failures from solid state gear - usually annoying crap like noise or faulty switches, etc…things that can also end up being show stoppers in a live situation.

I guess tube quality is a factor too. Hopefully we continue to makes strides there.

 

[Dave Lewis]

These two brilliant Bugera valve amp heads fell backwards off a 4 x 12” stack a few years ago and didn’t suffer any injuries

 

[RaceU4her]

not during a gig thank god, but just about every place else it has. i have permanent "tube amp anxiety" just waiting for that volume swell followed by the snap, crackle and pop with that slow decent into nothingness

 

[la szum]

I caress and sweet talk all my gear.

 

[Karl Houseknecht]

I have never had a tube amp fail during a performance. I did once have a Mark V blow a power tube at home right after taking it out of the box and turning it on. But I suspect that was shipping damage.

 

[spawnofthesith]

Never at a gig


Dsl401 blew up in less than the first hour of using it at a rehearsal. Guy I bought it from was fortunately cool enough to let me return it to him since I literally bought it that morning and it was dead before sunset

Had a brand new 68 DRRI die in practice almost immediately


That’s it tho

 

[laxu]

Never at a gig. Something blew on the Egnater Tourmaster head I had, cost me about 100 € to get fixed.

Otherwise it's been just a busted preamp tube here and there.

 

[adam]

My first ever tube amp was a used jcm800 that died every time I rehearsed with it. I returned it to PMT about a month after buying it and they traded me a jcm600 combo. This also kept dying. So they traded me that for an Ashdown fallen angel 60 watt combo, which also kept dying.

That got sent to Ashdown who repaired it, but it never sounded as good after the fix.

 

[metropolis_4]

Many, many times

When I used amps live I always either used two amps or I kept a spare close by

 

[FuzzyAce]

A few times that I can remember, although always had a backup solution ready like a Mesa V-twin pedal to run direct or another combo amp.

 

[László]

All that anyone could buy was a tube amp when I started gigging. Never had a tube go bad at a gig or an amp fail.

Of course, once the Pleistocene ended, they started making crappy tubes that fail. I had to root around in old caves to find NOS.

 

[Frodebro]

I've had many freaky things happen onstage, some of it gear related, some alcohol. One standout was my rig cutting in and out. I watered figured out that one of the shorting jacks for one of the five effects loops in my Rockmaster preamp was acting up. The fix for that night was to bypass the preamp and run straight into my effects processor, which was a Digitech GSP 21 Legend (it was maybe a year old and used only for gate, delay, and EQ).

I did have a couple of presets programmed for just such an emergency so I was able to finish the night, but let's just say that the amp simulatons in the GSP 21 (the term 'modeling' was a year or two away at the time, this was around '95) left a lot to be desired. Rolling back the guitar volume didn't do shit, so I needed to turn around and manually scroll presets to go from clean to dirty. But I finished the night.

 

[Desertdweller]

had a Marshall DSL100 that caught fire

You don't say. I was impressed when they started shipping fire extinguishers with their amps.

 

[iaresee]

Mid-gig, yes. A few times.

It was one of those early 90s JTM reissues Marshall did. Ate power tubes like Cookie Monster at the Oreo factory. I ended up installing a PC fan on the back of it which helped a bit.