$1000 off a new SVT Classic Head

[Hemisaurus]

[VOLVO)))]

Sold. I'd promptly open it up and resolder shit, remove any plastic jacks/pots, secure the board, and make sure it was biased solid. This is a HELL of a deal. I kind of love Behringer.

[Hemisaurus]

I'm wondering if Behringer have streamlined the design a bit from Ampeg, the current SVT is a bit of a clusterfuck to work on.

Yeah it's a nice deal, the Weber MOAB comes in for $750, which is $50 more than this, and is currently unavailable. If you do get one, take plenty of gut shots, I want to see what it's like in there.

[VOLVO)))]

I'm going to wait and see if it's a giant firebox out of the gate, I know Bugera's have a tendency to not be "guitar/bass amps," but "barbecue grills."

So, if nobody catches their practice space on fire in the first couple months, I'll most likely foot for one, and use it as a guitar amp. I honestly doubt they streamlined anything. They may have made things more efficient, by not having multiple tiers of boards and clusterfuckery. I'm expecting a bunch of molex plugs and plastic jacks... I hope they do better. 300 tubed watts for 700 bucks is rad. I know you've worked on several Bugeras, what's the skinny on the part quality?

[Hemisaurus]

The main problem was the plastic connector on the power transformer, I've also seen problems with some solder joins off the MOV's on the little PSU filter board.

Supposedly they have changed the design of the PSU connectors, and this is no longer an issue, a large number of their faults was when this connector melted, and something shorted and blew, or something else overvoltaged, etc. etc.

Even if they've gone from single sided tang to quad side or double side tang on those little molexes, they should be OK. Personally I like those big spade connectors that some other manufacturers use, but then the problem is there's no way to ensure the right wire goes to the right place, but thats overkill, except maybe for heater supply.

If I were to get one to 'fix before it breaks' I'd look at how the power transformer is connected to the board, especially the heater supply, and if it looked suspect, maybe pull the two heater wires out, and cut the connector so that all the plate voltages were still on it, and maybe hardwire the heater connects, or if there was board space, put on circuit mount spades. Then just check the rest of the board for any solder breaks, but honestly now I think about it, the problem with the MOV's could have been caused by the PSU connector as well, maybe I didn't notice it at the time.

Like I said before, I think to Justin, be careful replacing plastic jacks, don't replace them with metal jacks, especially for speaker outs, in case they were insulated from the chassis for a reason.

If Behringer have a suggestion dept. I'm going to suggest they do the Orange OR-200, they can market it as a Vintage sounding Bass/Guitar amp, It does Both !!!!!

Actually I'd die laughing if they copied an Electric, I'd love to see Joel's face, though mind you it's all kinda public domain seeing as he got his ideas from Matamp I suppose.

[VOLVO)))]

Joel's face

[justinhedrick]

The main problem was the plastic connector on the power transformer, I've also seen problems with some solder joins off the MOV's on the little PSU filter board.

Supposedly they have changed the design of the PSU connectors, and this is no longer an issue, a large number of their faults was when this connector melted, and something shorted and blew, or something else overvoltaged, etc. etc.

Even if they've gone from single sided tang to quad side or double side tang on those little molexes, they should be OK. Personally I like those big spade connectors that some other manufacturers use, but then the problem is there's no way to ensure the right wire goes to the right place, but thats overkill, except maybe for heater supply.

If I were to get one to 'fix before it breaks' I'd look at how the power transformer is connected to the board, especially the heater supply, and if it looked suspect, maybe pull the two heater wires out, and cut the connector so that all the plate voltages were still on it, and maybe hardwire the heater connects, or if there was board space, put on circuit mount spades. Then just check the rest of the board for any solder breaks, but honestly now I think about it, the problem with the MOV's could have been caused by the PSU connector as well, maybe I didn't notice it at the time.

Like I said before, I think to Justin, be careful replacing plastic jacks, don't replace them with metal jacks, especially for speaker outs, in case they were insulated from the chassis for a reason.

If Behringer have a suggestion dept. I'm going to suggest they do the Orange OR-200, they can market it as a Vintage sounding Bass/Guitar amp, It does Both !!!!!

Actually I'd die laughing if they copied an Electric, I'd love to see Joel's face, though mind you it's all kinda public domain seeing as he got his ideas from Matamp I suppose.

i buy one to try it. i wonder just how cheap you could make an orange/matamp? interesting.

[Hemisaurus]

Cheaper than you can make an SVT. The big costs are tubes, trannys, chassis, cabinet.

If they can do a 300W power and output tranny, with 6 power tubes, 5 preamp tubes, and split chassis (control panel on top, output chassis on bottom) how much to do 200W power and output tranny 4 power tubes, 3 preamp tubes in a single chassis.

The quad tube guitar Bugera's like the 1960 go for $350-450, the BVV3000 is $700, so maybe $550-600 as it has bigger transfomers, than the 1960, they may just use the same transformers as the BVV.

[justinhedrick]

that sounds pretty good.

i would want an electric with the fuzz circuit. man, that guy would shit himself, wouldn't he?

[Hemisaurus]

Is it a fuzz circuit? I thought it was just a way of distinguishing Volume (Gain) from Volume (Volume) on the master volume units?

[zachoff]

I would never gig with Behringer anything.

[justinhedrick]

Is it a fuzz circuit? I thought it was just a way of distinguishing Volume (Gain) from Volume (Volume) on the master volume units?

i think you're right. but i want to say the ones w/ the "fuzz" knob have an extra pre amp tube. i might be wrong.

ah well, a boy can dream.

[Hemisaurus]

I would never gig with Behringer anything.

Oddly I have regularly gigged Behringer, but would never rely on my Ampeg, it's only good for quiet practice.

[db3jed]

Hell Ampeg and Behringer are both made in China now so it'd be interesting to know what differences there are in the two designs (just from a purely academic standpoint).
I'm in no danger of buying either one though.

I own a Behringer T1952 compressor and while it does what it's designed to do (more or less) it rarely gets used these days.

The little Behringer mixer we use in the practice hall is steadily losing channels and I just can't bring myself to open it up and see if I can fix it.

I'm just pretty ambivalent about Behringer products in general.

[eyeprod]

that's cheap, but by the time you go over it and replace subpar components... might as well buy something old with more cool factor that will hold it's value. I see people gig behringer stuff all the time, usually young metal dudes. Never seen anything of theirs break on stage, and have heard good players make good (as can be expected) use of their amps and cabs. They're a company known to cut costs, so you have to figure that means they're using cheesier parts, wire, etc. That shit affects tone.

[Hemisaurus]

They're also a company, that now own the #1 manufacturer of live consoles (Midas), amongst other businesses.

Pretty surprised when I heard that.

[db3jed]

Midas.
No shit?
What is the world coming to?
Color me floored.

[Hemisaurus]

http://music-group.com/