Odd issues with Rockerverb MKiii 100watt

[pontislebowski]

Hello,
I am new to this site so please be nice. I am definitely a noob.

I purchased a brand new Rockerverb MKiii 100 watt about 13 months ago. It worked great and sounded great. Within 1 week I purchased a heavy duty flight case for the head. It is well protected and insulated.

I practice twice a week for 2 hours and play shows about 2-5 times a month. For practices and shows I have the volume at 5 or 5.5 and the gain at 5. Just a little info on the use of the head.

About 2 months ago my tubes died. I was told that it was common for a head that gets a lot of use. Should I only expect my tubes to last 10 or 11 months with that kind of use?

After having the tubes replaced, cleaned, and biased by a professional, (OC amp repair. Good reviews on yelp) the fuse started to blow. After the new tubes it took about 1 month before the first fuse blew. I replaced it with the exact same fuse and it worked fine for about a week. After that week the fuse would blow within minutes of putting a new one in.

I took it back to the same Amp repair guy to see if he could solve the problem. I had read that fuses could blow frequently if the tubes are not biased correctly. Is this true?

I spoke with him today and he said their was issues with my ceramic heating pack getting too hot. Apparently he replaced them but now has crackling issues with some knobs. I think he will fix that.

So my major questions is... after a buying brand new over $2,000 Orange head, should I be experiencing these kinds of problems? Should I try to talk to Orange about defects in manufacturing? Does anyone think the fuse issues could have been a result of bad repair work?

[Rlw59]

You say the tubes "died" 2 months ago after 10-11 months use. Can you be a little more specific about the failure?

Power tubes that wear out from use get a little darker sounding, a little muddier, a little more distorted, put out a little less power. Many people replace power tubes annually as preventive maintenance but they'll usually work longer than that.

Preamp tubes last years, even a decade or more.

It is possible for a tube to "die" -- stop working entirely. That can happen suddenly, at any time, even a brand new tube. But it's fairly rare, and it would be very rare to have multiple tubes die at the same time. Preamp tubes rarely damage other amp components when they die, but it's possible for a power tube to take out resistors, capacitors, or even transformers.

Also, can you get more details on "I spoke with him today and he said their was issues with my ceramic heating pack getting too hot." Each tube has an internal heater filament, a circuit that connects the filaments, the tube sockets are ceramic, and there may be high-power ceramic resistors. But no "ceramic heating pack".

[PBA]

It is very difficult to know what the problem is. However - You should reasonably expect a valve amp to run with moderate use for longer than 11 months before significant work is needed.

As already advised, some people replace power valves every year. They do this as a precautionary measure. It is rare for any valve to "die" completely. My experience has been that pre-amp valves are more likely to develop faults and power amp valves just fade away and loose performance.

So, if your valves did indeed "die", it might have been as a result of some other component fault.

I would suggest checking your warranty to see if you are covered and I would advise caution when dealing with your current amp tech. He may be very good but if you are looking to go down the warranty route you need to make sure he doesn't inadvertently invalidate it. He may also be a poor tech with a good line in bulls**t...

[Jondog]

I’m no amp tech by trade, but know my way through one well enough. What the heck is a ceramic heat pack? That sounds like a bullshit line to me and needs more clarification.
Theres no real guarantee how long tubes will last, but generally should last quite a while, especially at your rate of use. Is it the HT fuse that is blowing, or the mains fuse (found in the power socket).

[Rlw59]

Over the years on a variety of fora, I've discovered that when I try to be helpful I can come across as harsh and condescending.

My request for more detailed info wasn't meant to be demeaning. I gather you're a normal musician - you buy an amp and play through it. There's no reason for you to know how it works or what all those little things inside it are called or what they do. Advice for the future -- a tech should give you a written work order that explains what problems were found and what work was performed.

You take very good care of your equipment and have every reason to expect a high-end expensive amp to work flawlessly for a long time. These problems are frustrating and upsetting.

It's cold comfort to be told that even quality amps sometimes break down when they're new-ish and well taken care of. But that's why they have a warranty -- bad luck happens.

The next couple of paragraphs are meant to be helpful and realistic but may well sound cold and harsh. Apologies in advance.

If any device malfunctions in any way while it's still under warranty, for your protection only an authorized warranty service provider should work on it. Even if it's something like tube failure that's not covered under the warranty. Because the tube failure may have been caused by a warrantied component in the amp, or the tube failure may have damaged components that are covered under the warranty.

In itself, an unauthorized tech replacing tubes and rebiasing wouldn't void the warranty. That's like getting an oil change on a new car -- you don't have to take the car to the dealer for that. But if he did something wrong, or missed some underlying problem that subsequently caused other problems, Orange may not be required to fix it. If Jiffy Lube doesn't tighten the drain plug after changing your oil, the manufacturer doesn't have to fix your engine. Jiffy Lube would be responsible for the repairs.