VHT Sig:X or Deliverance - reliability

[ironcity]

Thanks for all the input on my amp search for a Marshall-esque metal head. I had it narrowed down to a short list with VHT at the top. But then, I probably stayed on the internet too long, cause I read of several problems people were having with the Sig:X. Something I should be wary of? Maybe packing too much into a relatively inexpensive amp? Could the Deliverance be a better way to go?

 

[Juggernaut]

My Sig:X is fine, the only issues I know about have been tubes.... and it coming with the BIAS off either hot or cold.

Other than those (no big deal), I dont know of any major issues.

I LOVE mine, the thing is CRAZY versitile......

Haven't played the Deliverance, you might hit up Sgt. Thump I believe he had both at one time...

 

[Loudness250]

Let me just clarify since Im the one who had the burnt resistor. The Resistor burned because my severely used mullard preamp tube in v3 "which both rythn and lead channels use", shorted. My tube shorted and took out the resistor and that is why I had no sound on those 2 channels. After a quick repair the amp has been fine ever since. Other than that, the bias was high but that is because I have on of the first sig's made and the bias was set too high and I lowered it and it's been fine ever since. This is a stellar amp but I would recommend changing the power tubes to something like JJ or Shuguang because I believe that although the sovteks are tough, they do not keep composure at high volume with alot of bass for palm muting and high gain.

 

[Juggernaut]

And by the way, I'm not trying to slam this amp or anything. Nothing like that! I'm just stating what I've read.

Really a shame you had to sell your VHTs. I would've LOVED to pick up one of your cabs, BUT.......

What did you end up getting?

 

[Juggernaut]

Shows how much I pay attention huh?

 

[bartmcartman]

I've had mine for just three weeks with no problems at all. Haven't done any gigs with yet but no issues so far. PM me if you're thinking of picking one up as mine may be up for sale shortly. Thinking of doing the combo thing.

 

[ampjunkie]

Juggernaut, your Avatar is such a slut, I love it.

Is this a VHT thread??? Ok, I like the Deliverance better than the Sig, too .... +1 to Thump's post.

 

[philb]

Let me just clarify since Im the one who had the burnt resistor. The Resistor burned because my severely used mullard preamp tube in v3 "which both rythn and lead channels use", shorted. My tube shorted and took out the resistor and that is why I had no sound on those 2 channels. After a quick repair the amp has been fine ever since. Other than that, the bias was high but that is because I have on of the first sig's made and the bias was set too high and I lowered it and it's been fine ever since. This is a stellar amp but I would recommend changing the power tubes to something like JJ or Shuguang because I believe that although the sovteks are tough, they do not keep composure at high volume with alot of bass for palm muting and high gain.

I think "philb" also had a burnt resistor??? I could be mistaking, but if so, that's two reports of that issue too.

Yup, that was me. It caused by a faulty tube that shorted and took the resistor with it. It still had the stock tubes in it.
It's been working fine ever since. I had an output tube go bad in my deliverance and again, it's been working fine ever since.

To the original poster,I wouldn't worry too much about it, they are well worth it IMHO.

 

[degenaro]

To be honest with you, I am a little concerned with the reliability of the new Sig:X amps. They've only been out a few months and there are already four people on Rig-Talk and TGP that have reported issues. Yeah, I know that a tube going bad can take out a resistor on any amp (or that's what I've read.) But to have two people on the message boards report these problems in this short amount of time concerns me.

Also, the price on these amps is much lower than people expected. VHT says they have new ways of putting the amps together that reduce the labor involved in building them. Well, I can't help but wonder if there are other places where costs were cut??? Do they have another company building the Sig:X for VHT? Are the boards built overseas or something, then assembled into final amps here in the US? This amp has just as many features as their top of the line Ultra-Lead, but costs waaaaaaaaay less to purchase and I still don't get that...

I think something's up with the Sig:X amps, but I'm not sure what it is. Something just tells me that we're going to hear more horror stories about their reliability in the future. Of course, don't quote me on any of this... Just some thoughts.

Chris

FWIW, neither my D60 nor my Sig have given me any issue. I've been gigging the hell out of the Sig since I got it 3 month ago.
Screen resistor going is no biggie. It's annoying when shit breaks but I've had a screen resistor go on my T-Verb on stage. It happens...
How many sigs are out there? 200+? so we're talking a below 2 % failure rate...that's perfectly acceptable.

 

[ejecta]

To be honest with you, I am a little concerned with the reliability of the new Sig:X amps. They've only been out a few months and there are already four people on Rig-Talk and TGP that have reported issues. Yeah, I know that a tube going bad can take out a resistor on any amp (or that's what I've read.) But to have two people on the message boards report these problems in this short amount of time concerns me.

Also, the price on these amps is much lower than people expected. VHT says they have new ways of putting the amps together that reduce the labor involved in building them. Well, I can't help but wonder if there are other places where costs were cut??? Do they have another company building the Sig:X for VHT? Are the boards built overseas or something, then assembled into final amps here in the US? This amp has just as many features as their top of the line Ultra-Lead, but costs waaaaaaaaay less to purchase and I still don't get that...

I think something's up with the Sig:X amps, but I'm not sure what it is. Something just tells me that we're going to hear more horror stories about their reliability in the future. Of course, don't quote me on any of this... Just some thoughts.

Chris

To be honest I feel the same. Mine worked fine and all but I sold it and that had a small part in it. The who got mine is very happy and hasnt had an issue and mine was number 8.

 

[degenaro]

FWIW, neither my D60 nor my Sig have given me any issue. I've been gigging the hell out of the Sig since I got it 3 month ago.
Screen resistor going is no biggie. It's annoying when shit breaks but I've had a screen resistor go on my T-Verb on stage. It happens...
How many sigs are out there? 200+? so we're talking a below 2 % failure rate...that's perfectly acceptable.

I'm guessing that only a small percentage of owners with problems post about it on Rig-Talk and/or TGP. So I'm guessing there are more than these 4 people.

But again, I'm not saying I know anything. I'm speculating and want to make that clear.

And that's just it...we don't know. Clearly you made your decision and sold the amp. But 4 guys having minute problems postingis far from a reason to worry about a piece of gear IMO of course. Nor indicative of more guys with issues that aren't on-line. Actually to me it seems that things get blown way more out of probortion these days on the web. Since everybody and their brother now has the soap box guitar rags used to have.

 

[degenaro]

And that's just it...we don't know. Clearly you made your decision and sold the amp. But 4 guys having minute problems postingis far from a reason to worry about a piece of gear IMO of course. Nor indicative of more guys with issues that aren't on-line. Actually to me it seems that things get blown way more out of probortion these days on the web. Since everybody and their brother now has the soap box guitar rags used to have.

I personally don't consider the preamp going into thermal shutdown from being overheated at a gig or long jam times at home a minor problem.

I see what could very well be a trend of problems. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. But I definitely have a gut feeling about it.

Hey...you can have any opinion you like. And yes if that had happened to me I wouldn't have been stoked. That said I do remember you biasing the head too high when you first had it. Like I said nothing I've seen on-line regarding the guys that had issues would boher me all that much.
Also one of my old Marshalls has a thermal fuse i the power section and routinely shut down when driven to hard when I ran the bias high.
Heck, I've had to replace output transformers numerous times in the past. Shit breaks...that IS what warranty is for, and does not mean there are inherent flaws.

 

[stratotone]

I've seen a lot of complaints about modern Marshalls too, but Thump had great luck with his.

It's really hard IMHO to find any amps that you can't find problems with on the 'net - people tend to post if they have a problem.

I see a LOT of guys post problems on the Randall MTS board, and I haven't had problems with mine - and I own an RM20 head, an RM20 combo, an RM50 head, RM100 head and the RT 2/50 and RM4 rack setup. No issues at all for me, never even popped a fuse.

I did have a boogie .50 EL84 head burn a hole the size of a dime in the PCB though.

Pete

 

[Juggernaut]

Considering it's a NEW amp, circuit an all, I'm sure there will be problems like with anything. It's just working out the bugs..... I've only seen the one resistor issue, and it was user error, the Bias printing on the PCB was a misprint and was addressed on the VHT forum. easy enough.

Plus VHT has been MORE than helpful with tubes and biasing and such, I talked with Steve the other day for a while about this amp, He's a cool guy and very helpful.

FWIW, I havent had any issues other than a preamp tube go bad, no biggie. GREAT sounding amp, one of if not the best amp I've played to date. Now I'm wanting to try out a UL.

 

[Capulin Overdrive]

yep, Juggernaut had a preamp tube go bad without any damage.

guess i'm not scared of them. once the bias is right, they're really good sounding amps.

 

[AmpliFIRE]

My UL kept blowing fuses on the main circuit board. I sent it back to VHT to get it fixed, and SteveVHT bought it from me as soon as I got it back from them (I didn't even open the box when they sent it back to me). Steve had the same exact issues that I had with it, even though VHT claimed it was fixed. He knew that it was at VHT being repaired, and we both assumed that they took care of the issue. I'm not sure if he ever got the problem rectified...

The whole ordeal left a bad taste in my mouth about VHT's...

 

[Greazygeo]

Playing in club environments, anything can happen. I had a three day gig I just got back from. For some reason my Modern Classic didn't like the electric, but my Metal worked fine. The next day the MC worked fine....no biggie.

 

[Greazygeo]

If I think back thru my amp use....my first amp big enough to gig with was a Yamaha G100 210 combo...it would shut down after 15 minutes....in the shop repeatedly.....cracked PCB

72 50 watt Marshall.....blew up every time before a big gig. Ended up borrowing something everytime and it was always something different going wrong with it.

77 Marshall 2203...caught fire in the studio. Then later an OT went at a gig....bummer. Both were tube failure related.

Wizard Metal....the channel switching wouldnt work at a gig.....club's stage electric was tied into the coolers. The voltage would drop enough to not let the relay kick over.

I'm sure there are more.....lots of gigs over the years and stuff happens.

 

[Digital Jams]

Gibson headstocks can explode at any time but people still have them

Kidding........................easy boys

The JVMs as a whole imo were all over the place, some here tried one and hated it while others in a different area loved them. I do consider myself lucky that I got one of the good ones. I even have all the knobs still

IF the guts looked sub-par for VHT yeah I would be concerned but they look the same as any UL as far as I have seen.

 

[Loudness250]

Considering it's a NEW amp, circuit an all, I'm sure there will be problems like with anything. It's just working out the bugs..... I've only seen the one resistor issue, and it was user error, the Bias printing on the PCB was a misprint and was addressed on the VHT forum. easy enough.

Plus VHT has been MORE than helpful with tubes and biasing and such, I talked with Steve the other day for a while about this amp, He's a cool guy and very helpful.

FWIW, I havent had any issues other than a preamp tube go bad, no biggie. GREAT sounding amp, one of if not the best amp I've played to date. Now I'm wanting to try out a UL.

I hope you were'nt refering to my resistor that fried? I had a great preamp tube in there and it shorted, but I replaced the tubes with better ones then the chinese, it was an upgrade. That's the first time Ive ever had a preamp tube actually damage an amp. I guess I never had one actually short before.