I see this as a last resort as shipping it will be a risk and a bit of a PITA. I also haven't seen it since I spoke to Sweetwater in July as it's been at the local shop since.
Further, I shouldn't need clout to have a warranty repair resolved.
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Broken Bassman 100t, are my expectations too high?
- Thread starter Polka1
- Start date
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- bassman 100t
I see this as a last resort as shipping it will be a risk and a bit of a PITA. I also haven't seen it since I spoke to Sweetwater in July as it's been at the local shop since.
Further, I shouldn't need clout to have a warranty repair resolved.
You shouldn't need it but...
Sweetwater prides themselves on their customer service, after all their prices are no different than other online dealers. They make a lot of money for so when they have an unhappy customer, Fender willl listen.
Tech cant fix it.
Underlying issues that cant be resolved.
I think the amp being a PITA and Covid being a PITA
all added up.
I wouldn't ship it till a salesman said there is a new unit on the way.
Eventually that is what needs to happen.
lost cause, replace the Unit.
Not going to guess what a turd those boards are.
Early tube replacement no surprise.
All my fenders had tube replacement early on.
When the 100T came out. I looked at one in the store.
All the power tube bottles were different sizes.
and one tube had the glass tube warped to the side.
garbage tubes
Or sweetwater can apply credit to a V4B
Not to be negative but i've owned various newer Fender tube amps.
When I heard of all the amazing " features" of the 100T
No thanks, sounded like broken to me.
Not a bad decision on your part 4x 6L6
swinging away is a beautiful thing.
The aesthetics of the amp are classic
I found it attractive.
Dealing with newer tube amps...nope
Underlying issues that cant be resolved.
I think the amp being a PITA and Covid being a PITA
all added up.
I wouldn't ship it till a salesman said there is a new unit on the way.
Eventually that is what needs to happen.
lost cause, replace the Unit.
Not going to guess what a turd those boards are.
Early tube replacement no surprise.
All my fenders had tube replacement early on.
When the 100T came out. I looked at one in the store.
All the power tube bottles were different sizes.
and one tube had the glass tube warped to the side.
garbage tubes
Or sweetwater can apply credit to a V4B
Not to be negative but i've owned various newer Fender tube amps.
When I heard of all the amazing " features" of the 100T
No thanks, sounded like broken to me.
Not a bad decision on your part 4x 6L6
swinging away is a beautiful thing.
The aesthetics of the amp are classic
I found it attractive.
Dealing with newer tube amps...nope
Oh, it has nice tubes in it now, sadly. I bought it mostly because of the flexibility of the 25w setting and the fully sweepable mids on the modern channel. Saw a history of bias issues but also saw that most of that had seemingly been ironed out - and also figured that Fender out of anyone should be able to back a product.
In hindsight, I would swap it in a second for a V4B. The SLM amps I mentioned being swapped without question above were Ampeg premier edition SVT-2 pros. They were far from awesomely built and look to be a nightmare to work on. The huge difference is that SLM at the time backed them fiercely and swapped them out at any problem. I was also purchased local with an in house tech, which might have been a factor. I still have one of those, but it needs tubes and a solid look over. 300w is way too much for what I am doing now, hence the sizing down and 25w mode.
In hindsight, I would swap it in a second for a V4B. The SLM amps I mentioned being swapped without question above were Ampeg premier edition SVT-2 pros. They were far from awesomely built and look to be a nightmare to work on. The huge difference is that SLM at the time backed them fiercely and swapped them out at any problem. I was also purchased local with an in house tech, which might have been a factor. I still have one of those, but it needs tubes and a solid look over. 300w is way too much for what I am doing now, hence the sizing down and 25w mode.
No worries. I get it.
Historically I haven't used much Fender equipment - but have been buying a few bucket list items since I can actually afford some of what I want these days. Between this amp and the random quality control issues with instruments it's making me feel like I had the right idea to start with.
Seems like they left out a lot of the broken problems when they released the new V4B
Kept the design simple and straight forward.
If there was issue im sure it would come up, by now on here
I haven't seen much.
Actually havent seen much about the 100T either.
but i stopped paying attention to the 100T threads
after i've seen one in person.
Not like they are bad.
Ive had Blues Deluxe Reissue, Hot Rod deluxe
Model T Reissue and 300T from fender.
After going through typical tube changes and various
touch ups on all those amps. looking at the 100T.
just reminded me that i dont want to deal with newer Fender Amps.
most likely not even a new V4B
The model T reissue was a guitar head, also switchable power.
Only one I sorta miss, worked fine for bass.
I dont wanna play guessing game with your amp. but its fun lol
could be transformer damage even unseen burn through on the thin boards
every single one of my fenders had garbage sockets, garbage ribbon wires for
high voltage. Overheating bare minimum rated resistors in the power supplies.
difficult to re assembly etc etc. I seriously dont doubt the repair tech.
gave up and made excuses lol. Ive been inside countless fenders and ampegs
nope...
I still used the amps though for years, Blues Deluxe last one to go.
after resistors changes and tube changes and socket touch up
input jack, ribbon cable change.
the deluxe worked fine for me for years after that lol
and it sounded dam good from day one
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The boards were lacking 15 years ago, I cant imagine QC went up in that time.
One of the salesman
I think there was at least one Hot Rod/variant coming into the shop a week, every week I worked there. For 3 years. They weren't bad after they were fixed.
Kinda goes towards anything commercial these days.
Then again i got to stop when i can lol.
Im not trying to get into a bashing off topic thing.
I haven't heard much bad things on the 100T
Basically as mentioned, some companies don't fart around and replace the whole unit.
I think eventually a new unit will get shipped getting the right person on the phone.
not the ping pong brickwall tactics you can run into.
or basically to many, managers, managing, managers lol
unfortunately covid hit mid process.
but also having been a part of the corporate world myself.
around the time covid hit, its the same time when managers get shuffled/fired
and new idiots come in, or you get a shuffle. passing things off
hoping someone will fix the problem.
while the big boys drain vacation time lol.
anyways blah blah...id say get the right guy on the phone, be polite explain the story.
get a new unit and enjoy it.
there is always that one mysterious bad apple. this is that unit
I didnt finish my thought on the salesman at the store, but it was somewhat irrelevant by the time I started writing it. Cant edit, so forget that sentence is there.
Lol well i use to be that sales guy.
Problem with Fenders is they are Gorgeous amps and tend to sound good.
Plus you cant say dont buy it, cause of this, this and this.
Because every amp has that.
Not every guy wants to rebuild a Silverface Bassman.
Some guys just want a warranty and something that works.
I don't know Fender's policy. I bought an Ashdown 427 off Ebay that was blowing output tubes. There are no authorized service centers in the area and I did not want to risk or deal with shipping a heavy tube monster. I talked to a local music store and they called Ashdown and became an authorized service center. Later I found out that the music store was paid a flat rate fee of $40 plus parts
. Pretty sure the tech worked on the amp for several hours as I had to take it back a couple of times, so the store really got screwed. Turns out the problem was the plate supply was setup for the wrong transformer taps and was sending the output tubes way too much voltage. Ashdown was only willing to replace the tubes that had already failed, so I wound up buying a matched octet of KT88s.
I am an experience tech and I can tell you that intermittent problems can be almost impossible to fix. IMHO, Fender should replace the amp as a show of good faith, but unfortunately that's not my call.
I completely understand that. It's the main reason why I don't think the tech should be to blame here and if it's playing out the way I've been told - which seems likely - then he is in a bad spot. The tech in question ONLY does repairs, so it's not like he is doing favors to continue being dealer for a specific brand and making up losses through sales.
Since the beginning of audio amplification there have been various 'issues' that arise. So modern production amplification is simply continuing on with what can now be referred to as 'tradition'. Personally, I've considered amplification as a 'consumable' from my electrified beginnings with amplification that dates back to the mid sixties, this view has remained consistent and reinforced by experience through the years. Sure there are still amps going strong that are 50+ yrs old, but I'll wager that along the way, there have been 'issues' that arose and needed to be fixed and repaired/replaced. Components age and degrade, there is just no workaround for that naturally occurring electrical wear & tear. There are procedures that can be used to help mitigate and prolong the life of amps but in the end, most of them will eventually become too costly to keep on life support and the plug will be pulled one final time.
Sure there have been improvements over the years, but the fact remains that even with freshly minted amps using modern technologies and all- that 'issues' can and still do occur. This is just the nature of the beast.
Think about it- lethal levels of electricity are coursing and surging through the circuitry every time you engage that 'on' switch. With traditional tube amps there is also the byproduct of high temperatures of heat generated, which also contribute to the flogging and punishment that the circuitry has to endure for sometimes hours on end. I realize that all of this amounts to 'singing to the choir' and reading about the OP's issues with getting this amp repaired sure does sound like that is what is happening with the extended long distance runaround that has been documented here.
Note to Fender: The Internet Never Forgets.
Sure it can sometimes forgive, but all these little bits and bytes will linger for eternity- or at least as long as the juice keeps flowing.
Right now would be a good opportunity for some conscientious Fender employee to step up to the plate and contact the OP via PM to make things right and FIX THIS ISSUE! ideally with an immediate swap for a new unit since the OP has been denied service with the malfunctioning unit for an extended period of time.
And while we're waiting on that to transpire, here is a clip that alludes to what I opened with here. All of this stuff goes waaay back. And I'll also leave this quote here as well:
Quote from "Fender, The Sound Heard 'Round the World" - Dick Dale says: " He (Leo Fender) was constantly tweaking the designs, oh God, back and forth, back and forth. Boy, he'd call me up and say, 'Dick, come on down, I got something . . . try this . . . let's see how this works.' So, he always fine-tuned. He never settled. After tinkering in the lab, Leo would take his new idea to a worker wiring chassis in the plant. Without telling anyone else, he would have her change the value of a component, sometimes in the middle of a production run. Forrest White recalled his confusion one day when a befuddled final inspector noticed units not meeting an important specification. White soon discovered the mystery resulted from Leo's creative tampering upstream. Fed up with such mischief and disruptions, White posted a sign mandating that no one make changes in circuits without his written permission."
Sure there have been improvements over the years, but the fact remains that even with freshly minted amps using modern technologies and all- that 'issues' can and still do occur. This is just the nature of the beast.
Think about it- lethal levels of electricity are coursing and surging through the circuitry every time you engage that 'on' switch. With traditional tube amps there is also the byproduct of high temperatures of heat generated, which also contribute to the flogging and punishment that the circuitry has to endure for sometimes hours on end. I realize that all of this amounts to 'singing to the choir' and reading about the OP's issues with getting this amp repaired sure does sound like that is what is happening with the extended long distance runaround that has been documented here.
Note to Fender: The Internet Never Forgets.
Sure it can sometimes forgive, but all these little bits and bytes will linger for eternity- or at least as long as the juice keeps flowing.
Right now would be a good opportunity for some conscientious Fender employee to step up to the plate and contact the OP via PM to make things right and FIX THIS ISSUE! ideally with an immediate swap for a new unit since the OP has been denied service with the malfunctioning unit for an extended period of time.
And while we're waiting on that to transpire, here is a clip that alludes to what I opened with here. All of this stuff goes waaay back. And I'll also leave this quote here as well:
Quote from "Fender, The Sound Heard 'Round the World" - Dick Dale says: " He (Leo Fender) was constantly tweaking the designs, oh God, back and forth, back and forth. Boy, he'd call me up and say, 'Dick, come on down, I got something . . . try this . . . let's see how this works.' So, he always fine-tuned. He never settled. After tinkering in the lab, Leo would take his new idea to a worker wiring chassis in the plant. Without telling anyone else, he would have her change the value of a component, sometimes in the middle of a production run. Forrest White recalled his confusion one day when a befuddled final inspector noticed units not meeting an important specification. White soon discovered the mystery resulted from Leo's creative tampering upstream. Fed up with such mischief and disruptions, White posted a sign mandating that no one make changes in circuits without his written permission."
Interestingly, I noticed a while ago that 100t stocks were low - at least on line. Now they are nearly impossible to find new, at least through normal internet channels. And are missing from the Fender site.
Makes me wonder if there are major production issues or it's being phased out. Maybe they just don't have parts or units to swap. Not that it would make the situation any better, especially the lack of solutions from them.
Makes me wonder if there are major production issues or it's being phased out. Maybe they just don't have parts or units to swap. Not that it would make the situation any better, especially the lack of solutions from them.
It seems that the inability to recreate the problem was the biggest issue to date.
Is it possible that the tech used a tone generator and that the problem only comes into play with the dynamics of a bass guitar signal?
So many hours on the test bench without being able to recreate the problem, along with the owner easily making it quit while playing sounds fishy to me.
Is it possible that the tech used a tone generator and that the problem only comes into play with the dynamics of a bass guitar signal?
So many hours on the test bench without being able to recreate the problem, along with the owner easily making it quit while playing sounds fishy to me.
I suspect that it had something to do with the dynamics of cranking it up and playing bass through it on top of a large cabinet, but don't know. And not clear exactly how he tested it long term, though he did play guitar through it when I picked it up. The tech was aware of how I was using it, as I made sure to describe that in detail after hearing he was having trouble replicating it. This is also when the question of the cab potentially being responsible was brought up by me, to which I was assured that it shouldn't be a concern. In fairness it didn't blow instantly for me after replacing the tubes, though the last time I had it in my hands it didn't make it past setting tone. I was excited to get it back, warmed it up and was resetting it to my preference and poof.
Clearly intermittent, potentially getting worse.
Apparently he finally did get it to blow a fuse, however this was only a few weeks ago...after a LOT of claimed testing. Seriously, it's been there for many many weeks for each of the last two visits (on third visit now).
Seems to me the biggest issue is that he can't find anything wrong with it even after combing over it and redoing questionable connections. And according to him Fender has been slow to decide what parts to send, even when he pushed for solutions during previous stays at the shop. He has been pushing for a complete board replacement as far as I know. As of this past week they (apparently) still hadn't made a decision.
I am about sick of it. If a new board fixes it, that would be cool - but it sounds like a shot in the dark. A big shot...and also sounds like classic throwing of parts at a problem. If only there were lemon laws for amps...
