Our experience with Kiesel - NEVER AGAIN!

[Dannyalcatraz]

Hnovi, there’s a point in the original post where “Jeff” is mentioned:

On 6/29/2023 at 5:51 PM, LoInAz said:

When this was conveyed to me (on speaker phone), my husband emailed Jeff at Kiesel and others. Jeff as well stated the same thing. They refused to ship out our guitar until they got theirs back. 

Jeff is the owner of Kiesel.

 

IOW, whether or not the initial screwup was at the shipping level of the company, the decision to withhold the OP’s purchase until the mistakenly substituted guitar was returned was either initiated or fully supported by the company’s highest authority.

 

That’s seriously poor customer service.

[Caevan O’Shite]

On 8/14/2023 at 2:21 AM, hnovi said:

There is a ton of text to follow fully, but it sounds like some hourly workers messed up, which is entirely possible.... If someone waits for so many weeks for the guitar, why dynamite the situation due to errors by hourly workers who are probably bored and can't wait to get home? The guy can't send the right guitar; why would we expect him to print the correct label? This is when you realize you must tame your expectations, lead the hourly worker through the process and get what you need. The escalation seems over the top causing unnecessary results. In the end, everyone is frustrated, and the husband is disappointed even more because he could have had the guitar for the long run, and now that is not possible... If I were waiting for Kiesel for so many weeks and could not get it because my wife is all over the forums, I'd be pretty upset... This is not a problem with the company IMHO. As far as the management is concerned, they have a right to fire the customer they want. This is the USA...

Don't be ridiculous. Did you actually read the OP, and her follow-up post, above? The customers here are at NO fault.

The head of the company himself was at the reins of the worst of the insultingly bad, pretty shysterly decisions on how to handle the blunder. Which employee(s) did or didn't do what initially and what their pay grade is are moot points, almost inconsequential. Kiesel as a company, as a brand, from the top down has grossly mistreated these people. Short of "Jeff" owning this and a framed written apology, a refund, and the guitar all being presented to them at their door by Carvin personnel whether salaried, hourly-waged, or compensated in produce and eggs, this is reprehensible and the company deserves to go down the tubes. Their reputation and trustworthiness sure has, and they earned that.

[hnovi]

I hear you, but what is the desired outcome? As a guitar player, I will do what it takes to get that guitar. Kiesel guitars are pretty darn good. Neither Jeff nor the customer service will help the playability... So what is an easier task to get my guitar - being patient, dealing with the broken process, dealing with difficult people, and getting the guitar, or embarking on the negative marketing campaign and ending up with no guitar? I am pragmatic, so the latter seems less desirable to me personally... yes it sucks, but so what if you get the guitar in the end and own it for 30 years. 

[Larryz]

 @hnovi,  Welcome to the Forum.  If a company screws up and ships me the wrong guitar, all they have to do is send me a return label, so I don't have to pay for their mistake to return it. I already paid for shipping and handling.  I do pay for insurance when I have had to return a guitar as it could get damaged or lost by the carriers.  I would have no problem with the company not crediting my credit card or shipping a replacement until they receive their guitar as it would only take a few days. I can stop payment on my credit card if it becomes necessary.  +1 patience is a virtue, but banning a customer is not a good business practice IMHO.  😎

[hnovi]

@Larryz thanks and I hear you...It sucks getting a wrong guitar.   I am a multi carvin/kiesel guitars/bass owner as well as owner of other guitars like daemoness and '83 san dimas jackson which are super rare .... Needless to say I was super careful, understanding and lenient with the owners before getting these guitars as they are one of a kind.... Not everything was always going per my expectations:). Anyway just want to say Kiesel guitars are worth the wait/pain and that many name-brand companies have sometimes management or workers with poor attitudes. But the world with Kiesel guitars is better than without.... So hope the husband gets his

[Dannyalcatraz]

I’mma leave this raht heuh:

 

 

[Winston Psmith]

Had not seen any of JK's video posts previously, but damn, he reminds me of the late Ed Roman, except Ed saved most of his venom for the industry.

 

I would think some of those videos, even without commentary, would serve as a warning to anyone thinking of buying a Kiesel Instrument.

[Sharkman]

There is poor customer service, there is bad customer service, and then there is this.  Jeff Kiesel seems to have a genuine hatred of his customers.  He appears to not understand that, while the customer is not always right, the customer is always the one who spends, or does not spend, the money.  Banning customers from ever buying your products just because they had a complaint?  That is not the way to stay in business.

[Scott Fraser]

This self-regarding, entitled prick has demolished the solid reputation that his father built from scratch over the course of many decades. There are a lot of dedicated guitar builders who are committed to making their customers happy, instead of justifying their own infantile, narcissistic, passive-aggressive behavior. Looks just like another Henry Juszkiewicz, who also led a once revered guitar company down the tubes. 

[surfergirl]

Jeff Kiesel+Mike Fuller=Really bad customer service.

Mike Fuller once told me he wouldn't sell me a pedal if he was starving. All I wanted to know was how much shipping was to Hawaii. 

[KuruPrionz]

8 hours ago, surfergirl said:

Jeff Kiesel+Mike Fuller=Really bad customer service.

Mike Fuller once told me he wouldn't sell me a pedal if he was starving. All I wanted to know was how much shipping was to Hawaii. 

That sucks, a good company is happy to interact with any and all customers. The manager at our local Guitar Center is a super-nice guy who understands customer service very well. 

Long ago, I lusted for Carvin guitars and then I played one. Nice instrument, well built but the neck was too slim for my huge hands. 

So I gave up on them decades ago and started building my own Strats and Teles with wide, thick Warmoth necks. I do have a couple of Gibsons with fat necks, a friend has an ES-335 that I just can't play because the neck is so slim. 

[Caevan O’Shite]

16 hours ago, Dannyalcatraz said:

I’mma leave this raht heuh:

 

 

I got a little more than half-way through, to where Jeff Kiesel was ranting about how roasted maple isn't necessarily going to look noticebly darker ("...we can't tell the tree, 'C'MON, TREE... GROW A DARKER PIECE OF WOOD, DAMN IT!!'... " 🙄) and that was plenty. Maple that is actually "Roasted" will be darker, and not just look like 'normal' maple as seen in the example...

[Dannyalcatraz]

That video was proof of many stories I’ve heard about Jeff since he took the helm of Carvin and the name changed to Kiesel.

 

At this point, I’m sure if I’ll ever own a Carvin/Kiesel, it will be bought on the used market or some kind of gift/inheritance.

[Winston Psmith]

5 hours ago, Dannyalcatraz said:

That video was proof of many stories I’ve heard about Jeff since he took the helm of Carvin and the name changed to Kiesel.

 

At this point, I’m sure if I’ll ever own a Carvin/Kiesel, it will be bought on the used market or some kind of gift/inheritance.

 

IDK - Given the way he treats customers who've ordered, and paid for, brand-new Guitars - $200 re-stocking fees, being banned from ever ordering another Kiesel Guitar - I can't imagine how he'd respond to anyone asking for help or repair work on a USED Guitar!

 

The video response might be interesting, however . . .

[KuruPrionz]

2 hours ago, Winston Psmith said:

 

IDK - Given the way he treats customers who've ordered, and paid for, brand-new Guitars - $200 re-stocking fees, being banned from ever ordering another Kiesel Guitar - I can't imagine how he'd respond to anyone asking for help or repair work on a USED Guitar!

 

The video response might be interesting, however . . .

I've repaired a few Carvins, I doubt the Kiesels are much different. There is nothing unusual about those guitars, they use wood, the electronics are very typical, same fretwork as everybody else, etc. Anything out of warranty can be repaired by any competent guitar tech. Dannyalcatraz is correct, a used guitar won't require a visit to Kiesel. 

[Winston Psmith]

@KuruPrionz-  No disagreement, there's nothing magical about the Guitars, nor their components. Still can't help imagining the rant that would follow any outreach from someone with a used Kiesel.

[KuruPrionz]

32 minutes ago, Winston Psmith said:

@KuruPrionz-  No disagreement, there's nothing magical about the Guitars, nor their components. Still can't help imagining the rant that would follow any outreach from someone with a used Kiesel.

When you factor in alll the costs including shipping, the only sensible thing to do is consult with your local guitar tech first and see what they can do for your guitar. 

[desertbluesman]

Never did biz with Carvin or Keisel for guitars or guitar amps. I did have one rack mounted stereo solid state power amp for a while. I did go over to their then office and warehouse which was north and east of San Diego for some reason or another. But that is it.

[Caevan O’Shite]

This amp is FANTASTIC- WHEN it's not broken down! It's served me very well over many years, it's excellent for that "play the amp" approach, like having four or more virtual channels as I ride my guitar's volume-knobs up and down and vary my "touch", without ever having to stomp on or flip a switch.

It really, really made a NIGHT and DAY difference of an improvement all around when I installed a quartet of Matched Output-Tubes and a Matched/Balanced Phase-Inverter/Driver, that Myles Rose had tested and hand-picked for me when he saw my6 name on the order form when he worked at Groove Tubes/GT Electronics as the Head of the Special Applications Group back before the Fender buy-out. There were also a number of excellent Preamp-Tubes that I ordered then, as well. The Output-Tubes and the MPI have been replaced since then with nearly identical tubes from a vendor/tester that Myles recommended to me, but that's to be expected- they actually lasted very long, considerably longer than normal!

Years ago, getting layout diagrams and schematics and footswitches and slip-covers and customer service and support for it was so easy and excellent, that it was too easy to take that for granted.

Unfortunately, that stopped being the case long ago- their information and parts dried up.

            

[Dannyalcatraz]

My understanding is that Carvin was split into Carvin Audio and Kiesel Guitars.  As such, their ownership and management are entirely separate.

 

IDK where you’d get replacement parts, though.  Have you tried contacting the (non-Jeff) Carvin CustServ?

 

I’m curious because I personally have a couple Cavin amps on my used gear wish list, and I’d hate to buy one and not be able to keep it operational.

[Caevan O’Shite]

5 hours ago, Dannyalcatraz said:

My understanding is that Carvin was split into Carvin Audio and Kiesel Guitars.  As such, their ownership and management are entirely separate.

 

IDK where you’d get replacement parts, though.  Have you tried contacting the (non-Jeff) Carvin CustServ?

 

I’m curious because I personally have a couple Cavin amps on my used gear wish list, and I’d hate to buy one and not be able to keep it operational.

It's been a L0O0O0ONG time; I think that the last time I checked, that I contacted "them", was well before the split. I think some downsizing and such had been taking place.

As for used Carvin amps, "caveat emptor". They can be more fragile than they seem, not always standing up to gigging and moving around, and ALWAYS, ALWAYS- ALWAYS!!- are a MAJOR pain in the @$$ to take apart and service. The official factory recommended method for adjusting the bias on my particular amp was incredibly labyrinthine and Byzantine! Like a cross between Rube Goldberg and the Protector's secret passages in Galaxy Quest!

[KuruPrionz]

3 hours ago, Caevan O’Shite said:

It's been a L0O0O0ONG time; I think that the last time I checked, that I contacted "them", was well before the split. I think some downsizing and such had been taking place.

As for used Carvin amps, "caveat emptor". They can be more fragile than they seem, not always standing up to gigging and moving around, and ALWAYS, ALWAYS- ALWAYS!!- are a MAJOR pain in the @$$ to take apart and service. The official factory recommended method for adjusting the bias on my particular amp was incredibly labyrinthine and Byzantine! Like a cross between Rube Goldberg and the Protector's secret passages in Galaxy Quest!

At this point in time, even reliable tube amps suffer from the variances in reliability caused by modern tubes. Over the years, I've kept searching for a solid state solution since a well designed solid state amplifier is typically very reliable. I was gigging 3 nights a week for decades and tube failures started to mean that I needed to bring more than one amp (ever try to change out V1 in a Mesa Simul-Class head with a reverb tank? Ugh!!!! I just used the other bands G-K amp which sounded terrible but it worked). I've owned 8 different Mesa amps, an Allen, a Redplate, some Fenders etc. The amps were reliable but the tubes were not and I often brought a Peavey LA 400 (210 watts solid state with a 12" Black Widow speaker) to gigs as a back up and a RAT pedal for leads. It wasn't the best sounding rig but it ALWAYS worked and I never had a problem with it. Eventually, I stopped bringing tube amps entirely. "Sounds great when they work" is total fail if you are working, I could no longer rely on tube amps. 

 

More recently, I started using Peavey TransTube amps, which are a carefully crafted analog solid state circuit designed to emulate all aspects of the sound of a tube guitar amp without reliability problems. The post at the link is worth a read:

https://peavey.com/PDFs/Chapter3.pdf

 

It took a while for me to fully understand how to tweak a TransTube amp but I've got it down. There is a certain "solidness" to the low frequencies that most tube amps do not reproduce but otherwise I'm getting the sound and the feel of the tube amps that I know and love. My current favorite gig amp is a Peavey Vypyr VIP TransTube amp. It's 20 watts and comes with a terrible 8" speaker - which is probably why most guitarists shun them. I cut a new baffle, installed a 10" Peavey Scorpion speaker and it's a different animal entirely. Great sounding amp, I have no complaints about the tone. I used to take the Peavey emblem off my amps and at least one guitarist asked me once "is that a Boogie?". So fun to tell him it was a solid state Peavey!!! Now I leave the Peavey emblem on, a different way to annoy my fellow guitarists.! 😇

 

So, the "trick" is that the Post Gain knob is mislabelled. It doesn't mean "after the gain", it means "analog simulated output tube amp distortion". The analog aspect is crucial, Line 6 stuff can be tweaked to sound like a tube amp but it doesn't FEEL like one when you are playing - however brief it is, the lag time can be felt even if it can't really be heard.

 

TransTube FEELS like playing a tube amp. Hartley really accomplished something and then he tainted his accomplishment with crappy speakers. Turn Post Gain WAY up, tweak Pre Gain to taste, dial in your EQ and there is magic. I've got a sound that it so close to a Blackface Fender Deluxe Reverb turned up just past the point of singing "cleanish" distortion but I can have that sound in a bedroom or a bar room, it doesn't have to be loud but it can be. 

 

Happy camper, no more tube amps, something fairly small and light that delivers on all fronts. Living the impossible dream! 🤪

[Caevan O’Shite]

6 hours ago, KuruPrionz said:

At this point in time, even reliable tube amps suffer from the variances in reliability caused by modern tubes. Over the years, I've kept searching for a solid state solution since a well designed solid state amplifier is typically very reliable. I was gigging 3 nights a week for decades and tube failures started to mean that I needed to bring more than one amp (ever try to change out V1 in a Mesa Simul-Class head with a reverb tank? Ugh!!!! I just used the other bands G-K amp which sounded terrible but it worked). I've owned 8 different Mesa amps, an Allen, a Redplate, some Fenders etc. The amps were reliable but the tubes were not and I often brought a Peavey LA 400 (210 watts solid state with a 12" Black Widow speaker) to gigs as a back up and a RAT pedal for leads. It wasn't the best sounding rig but it ALWAYS worked and I never had a problem with it. Eventually, I stopped bringing tube amps entirely. "Sounds great when they work" is total fail if you are working, I could no longer rely on tube amps. 

 

More recently, I started using Peavey TransTube amps, which are a carefully crafted analog solid state circuit designed to emulate all aspects of the sound of a tube guitar amp without reliability problems. The post at the link is worth a read:

https://peavey.com/PDFs/Chapter3.pdf

 

It took a while for me to fully understand how to tweak a TransTube amp but I've got it down. There is a certain "solidness" to the low frequencies that most tube amps do not reproduce but otherwise I'm getting the sound and the feel of the tube amps that I know and love. My current favorite gig amp is a Peavey Vypyr VIP TransTube amp. It's 20 watts and comes with a terrible 8" speaker - which is probably why most guitarists shun them. I cut a new baffle, installed a 10" Peavey Scorpion speaker and it's a different animal entirely. Great sounding amp, I have no complaints about the tone. I used to take the Peavey emblem off my amps and at least one guitarist asked me once "is that a Boogie?". So fun to tell him it was a solid state Peavey!!! Now I leave the Peavey emblem on, a different way to annoy my fellow guitarists.! 😇

 

So, the "trick" is that the Post Gain knob is mislabelled. It doesn't mean "after the gain", it means "analog simulated output tube amp distortion". The analog aspect is crucial, Line 6 stuff can be tweaked to sound like a tube amp but it doesn't FEEL like one when you are playing - however brief it is, the lag time can be felt even if it can't really be heard.

 

TransTube FEELS like playing a tube amp. Hartley really accomplished something and then he tainted his accomplishment with crappy speakers. Turn Post Gain WAY up, tweak Pre Gain to taste, dial in your EQ and there is magic. I've got a sound that it so close to a Blackface Fender Deluxe Reverb turned up just past the point of singing "cleanish" distortion but I can have that sound in a bedroom or a bar room, it doesn't have to be loud but it can be. 

 

Happy camper, no more tube amps, something fairly small and light that delivers on all fronts. Living the impossible dream! 🤪

I love and continue to want and use real live tube-amps; but, probably primarily at home. I also love my Strymon Iridium, and when I start gigging again more and more, I will very likely often use the Iridium instead of actual tube-amps. I am curious about other similar concepts like the UA Dream and Ruby, as well.

One tube-amp option that can be much more reliable than average is the line of "Producer" amps from 65 Amps. They feature a genuinely unique design topology whereby custom transformers and circuit details run tubes on low voltages and high current, resulting in much greater longevity and performance for "modern" tubes, and even for NOS tubes and ANOS "pulls". Word is that a particularly great clean tone is also a result.

It's rrreeeaallly GOOD to have a variety of rrreeeaallly GOOD options to choose from!

[Dave Bryce]

26 minutes ago, Caevan O’Shite said:

I love and continue to want and use real live tube-amps; but, probably primarily at home. I also love my Strymon Iridium, and when I start gigging again more and more, I will very likely often use the Iridium instead of actual tube-amps.

 

Same.  I’ve used the Iridium on a couple of gigs now with an H9 Max.  Such a compact rig, so much power.  Fun to be able to switch/mix and match amps and cabs as well. 😎

 

dB

[KuruPrionz]

34 minutes ago, Caevan O’Shite said:

I love and continue to want and use real live tube-amps; but, probably primarily at home. I also love my Strymon Iridium, and when I start gigging again more and more, I will very likely often use the Iridium instead of actual tube-amps. I am curious about other similar concepts like the UA Dream and Ruby, as well.

One tube-amp option that can be much more reliable than average is the line of "Producer" amps from 65 Amps. They feature a genuinely unique design topology whereby custom transformers and circuit details run tubes on low voltages and high current, resulting in much greater longevity and performance for "modern" tubes, and even for NOS tubes and ANOS "pulls". Word is that a particularly great clean tone is also a result.

It's rrreeeaallly GOOD to have a variety of rrreeeaallly GOOD options to choose from!

The Producer sounds interesting. Bellingham is a small city, I haven't tried or heard a Strymon Iridium but I'd like to. 

 

My "back-up amp" is a Tech 21 Para Driver DI, it's a relatively small/light pedal with a SansAmp, 3 band EQ with quasi-parametric midrange, drive AND blend controls (you can not only adjust the level of distortion, you can adjust the balance between distortion and clean) and an XLR output that will run the box off phantom power. 

I do have a battery in it, that lasts a long time as well and is a backup for those rare occaisions where a mixer may lack phantom power .

There is a footswitch so clean and dirty are available. Most PA mixers have some effects in them now so it's enough to get through a gig if things go south. 

 

This week I did a comparison "shoot out" with microphone preamps. I used the same mic and cables and set the gain so the meter in the DAW showed the same volume. I was comparing a Focusrite ISA One to a Blue Robbie mic pre. The Focusrite is solid state and has a transformer in the input circuit but no tube. The Robbie has a preamp tube in the input but no transformer anywhere in the circuit, which is all solid state other than the tube section. I found the Focusrite sounded far more "tubish" than the Blue. I suspect a big part of the sound of tube amps is the output transformer. I'm certainly not the only human to make that observation. An output transformer in a solid state amp will have a profoundly different ratio than one needed for tubes so it isn't going to deliver a similar sound. I don't know enough about electronics to make any sort of statement regarding input transformers vs input tubes. I guess there's more than one way to skin a cat and more than one cat that needs skinning. 😇 

[Dannyalcatraz]

17 hours ago, Caevan O’Shite said:

It's been a L0O0O0ONG time; I think that the last time I checked, that I contacted "them", was well before the split. I think some downsizing and such had been taking place.

As for used Carvin amps, "caveat emptor". They can be more fragile than they seem, not always standing up to gigging and moving around, and ALWAYS, ALWAYS- ALWAYS!!- are a MAJOR pain in the @$$ to take apart and service. The official factory recommended method for adjusting the bias on my particular amp was incredibly labyrinthine and Byzantine! Like a cross between Rube Goldberg and the Protector's secret passages in Galaxy Quest!

Sounds like their great sounds & versatility comes with a Faustian bargain with The Cenobites.

[Caevan O’Shite]

@KuruPrionz, @Dannyalcatraz, and everybody- One thing about that amp (my Carvin Vintage 33 1x12 tube-combo): once I put all of those great tubes in it, the gremlins were always, ALWAYS concerning solder-joint and PCB issues; I NEVER, EVER had any tube failures in that amp, unless you count the eventual wearing out of the Output and PI tubes, and even then it was just a very gradual, subtle decline in overall tonal quality, presence, punch, headroom and volume.

That amp always ran very hot, the whole thing would really heat right up; I suspect that the many layered PCB's didn't help there.
 

  

8 hours ago, Dannyalcatraz said:

Sounds like their great sounds & versatility comes with a Faustian bargain with The Cenobites.

😄 The Carvinites!

[KuruPrionz]

21 minutes ago, Caevan O’Shite said:

@KuruPrionz, @Dannyalcatraz, and everybody- One thing about that amp (my Carvin Vintage 33 1x12 tube-combo): once I put all of those great tubes in it, the gremlins were always, ALWAYS concerning solder-joint and PCB issues; I NEVER, EVER had any tube failures in that amp, unless you count the eventual wearing out of the Output and PI tubes, and even then it was just a very gradual, subtle decline in overall tonal quality, presence, punch, headroom and volume.

That amp always ran very hot, the whole thing would really heat right up; I suspect that the many layered PCB's didn't help there.
 

  

😄 The Carvinites!

I know lots of players who use tube amps and seem to have no problems. I'm not one of them.

I didn't have unreasonable expectations, and I've also experienced some amp failures that were not caused by tubes (vintage amps aren't always reliable until a tech goes through them, which isn't inexpensive).

 

I bought a Mesa Boogie Mk III Simul Class head with EQ and reverb brand new. It wasn't inexpensive. And it failed intermittently. I made an appointment at the Mesa factory and drove up there from Fresno. Mike Bennadelli spent a couple hours testing and investigating. Mesa was just about to give me another brand new head when Mike B. came out of the back, walked me back to his bench and showed me the cold solder joint on an output tube socket. Then he fixed it.

 

At that point, the dealer in Fresno had already replaced my tubes with new ITB Mesa tubes in a failed attempt to fix the amp. 

I used it for a while and one evening at a gig, the amp went silent literally seconds before we were supposed to start our set. 

There was no time to trouble shoot, I plugged into the next band's horrible sounding G-K guitar amp and played the show. 

The next day I started tube swapping, checking to see if it was a tube. That is quite a process with a compact head that has the reverb tank built in, tubes get HOT. 

 

V1 is the preamp tube closest to the input. It was one of Mesa's SPX7 tubes, a fully tested tube considered by Mesa to be superior. They put heat shrink tubing on those with gold stamped Mesa lettering. It failed, was not even a year old and it died. On stage. 

 

That was my first fun with tubes experience. 

 

I'll skip the events in the middle, there were a few of them and all of them were tube deaths involving relatively new tubes and quality guitar amplifiers. The amps were all fine, once the tube problem was sorted out. After a while it just gets discouraging. All I want to do is go out and play music.

 

My last tube amp that I attempted to gig with was a "like new" used RedPlate combo. I paid $1,600 plus for it used (new it was over $3k) and it worked and sounded great. One night at a gig it suddenly sounded feeble and weak. I had to turn it all the way up to get through the gig, it was almost loud enough but it didn't sound good. Still on the new tubes I'd put in just a few months earlier. It turned out one of the output tubes had shifted bias and the pair were anything but matched. I replaced them and sold the amp, after a while events like that make one squeamish. 

 

I still have a couple of home brew amps, I'm using them as part of testing a box full of quality tubes I pulled from organs, vintage stuff. I'm just going to test and sell everything. I'm getting a great sound with my solid state rig and I have a couple of spares since they are not expensive. 

 

I have no regrets removing annoyances and problems from my otherwise wonderful life. 😇

Everybody else can do whatever they like!

[surfergirl]

2 hours ago, Caevan O’Shite said:

 The Carvinites!

I'm a Voxite. I would like AC at somepoint, but I'm happy with my VT40+. It has 3 AC15s and 3 AC30s + treble booster. I may get a second one eventually. The new ones have even more options. 

[Caevan O’Shite]

3 hours ago, KuruPrionz said:

I know lots of players who use tube amps and seem to have no problems. I'm not one of them.

I didn't have unreasonable expectations, and I've also experienced some amp failures that were not caused by tubes (vintage amps aren't always reliable until a tech goes through them, which isn't inexpensive).

 

I bought a Mesa Boogie Mk III Simul Class head with EQ and reverb brand new. It wasn't inexpensive. And it failed intermittently. I made an appointment at the Mesa factory and drove up there from Fresno. Mike Bennadelli spent a couple hours testing and investigating. Mesa was just about to give me another brand new head when Mike B. came out of the back, walked me back to his bench and showed me the cold solder joint on an output tube socket. Then he fixed it.

 

At that point, the dealer in Fresno had already replaced my tubes with new ITB Mesa tubes in a failed attempt to fix the amp. 

I used it for a while and one evening at a gig, the amp went silent literally seconds before we were supposed to start our set. 

There was no time to trouble shoot, I plugged into the next band's horrible sounding G-K guitar amp and played the show. 

The next day I started tube swapping, checking to see if it was a tube. That is quite a process with a compact head that has the reverb tank built in, tubes get HOT. 

 

V1 is the preamp tube closest to the input. It was one of Mesa's SPX7 tubes, a fully tested tube considered by Mesa to be superior. They put heat shrink tubing on those with gold stamped Mesa lettering. It failed, was not even a year old and it died. On stage. 

 

That was my first fun with tubes experience. 

 

I'll skip the events in the middle, there were a few of them and all of them were tube deaths involving relatively new tubes and quality guitar amplifiers. The amps were all fine, once the tube problem was sorted out. After a while it just gets discouraging. All I want to do is go out and play music.

 

My last tube amp that I attempted to gig with was a "like new" used RedPlate combo. I paid $1,600 plus for it used (new it was over $3k) and it worked and sounded great. One night at a gig it suddenly sounded feeble and weak. I had to turn it all the way up to get through the gig, it was almost loud enough but it didn't sound good. Still on the new tubes I'd put in just a few months earlier. It turned out one of the output tubes had shifted bias and the pair were anything but matched. I replaced them and sold the amp, after a while events like that make one squeamish. 

 

I still have a couple of home brew amps, I'm using them as part of testing a box full of quality tubes I pulled from organs, vintage stuff. I'm just going to test and sell everything. I'm getting a great sound with my solid state rig and I have a couple of spares since they are not expensive. 

 

I have no regrets removing annoyances and problems from my otherwise wonderful life. 😇

Everybody else can do whatever they like!

You also gigged a lot more, and a lot more often, than I did!

I don't doubt that the tube gremlins had you on speed-dial.

I was just noting that this particular amp- my Carvin Vintage 33- had given me almost no grief at all regarding tubes, it was all construction an durability issues! While it never 'red plated', I suspect that it's under-biased and running pretty hot*,
 which may contribute to the tone and feel I like about the amp- but probably also contributes to its getting very hot!

*(The official factory method for biasing its Output-Tubes was abnormally complicated and many-stepped; plus a couple of required voltage readings showed voltages that were way off from what was predicted. I had to give up and leave well enough alone for a while... )

FWIW, the tube in the spring-reverb driver socket was weak; it was the only tube that wasn't among those purchased from GT when Myles was there, though it was an older GT tube that I'd had for a while in my stash. When I replaced it with a very strong, fresh tube, I immediately put the weak old one back in- for THAT amp, I much preferred the subtler, more understated and shorter reverb sound that it produced. I used that amp's reverb set rather low, and as more of a tone enhancing component than a reverb effect.