5150 III - What's the real scoop on reliability?

[Jordon]

I've been seriously impressed by this amp for a while now. More impressed than I've been with a lot of amps in the past few years. The only problem is the reliability issues I've heard about since they were introduced.

What's the real scoop? I'd like to pull the trigger on one of these in the next few months, but all I can find is conflicting information about it....If I find any at all.

 

[Bishop5150]

I got 2 5150III halfstacks a black one and an ivory one. I mainly use the ivory one. I've had the ivory one a little over a year. Bought it used and I just bought the black one used about 3 weeks ago. The black one stays at home unless I'm running both in stereo. I've gigged just about every weekend and practice once or twice a week with the ivory one. I had to replace a preamp tube in it but other than that I've not had any problems. I think the main issue when they first cam out was that it was blowing preamp tubes pretty regularly and something with the footswitch and channel switching issues.

 

[tonmazz]

I bought mine new and it failed during band rehersal shortly after. The dealer got me another and same thing happened, just stopped working in the middle of playing at band volume. The third one was great, never had an issue but there were some issues with the first two.

 

[Mr. Willy]

I bought mine new and it failed during band rehersal shortly after. The dealer got me another and same thing happened, just stopped working in the middle of playing at band volume. The third one was great, never had an issue but there were some issues with the first two.

You're more patient than I would've been. I'd have dumped after the second failure.

 

[MYLILSS]

the first batch or so of these amps to hit the market seemed to be the most problem prone. the newer ones seem to have all of the bugs worked out. about all you hear of anymore out of these amps is that they will blow a preamp tube, and the footswitch cable is absolute junk. i would get a better cable shortly after buying one of these amps. i owned an ivory one for a while and loved it. still dont know why i sold it

 

[Superunknown]

I went through four of these...all during the first year of production. First one had only three power tubes running, second one had a huge hum issue, third had the same hum issue and the input was faulty. I will say though that the Fender guys took care of the problem asap and were wonderful to me....great customer service!

 

[nevusofota]

I have owned mine since 2007, one of the first 500 released. It has been my number 1 since. I gigged/practiced the amp twice per week between 2007 and 2009 and about once per week over the past year. I had my first preamp tube blow during an outdoor gig just this past June. I think it had something to do with bad power. It blew minutes after all power feeding the stage died so I don't blame the amp. I took the Furman Rack Rider power conditioner out of my rack and added a Furman power regulator (AR-15). Hopefully this will derail bad power from screwing things up again. So far, so good. I do believe from reading many posts and talking with owners over the years that the preamp tubes ARE exceptionally "touchy" and are more susceptable to blowing than other amps. The theory about earlier models being more prone to problems is hearsay and totally unsubstantiated. The only difference is that very early models were equipped with Electroharmonix and Sovtek power/preamp tubes and later models had all JJ. I have played both and prefer the early tube combination.