Egnater Rebel 30 - NOISE on Play!

robins652

New member
Joined the forum to post this:

I have a Rebel 30, bought new in March 2019. Out of the box, power on and switch to "Play" -- it immediately smoked a tube.

Email Egnater Support. Blad said this sometimes happens when they sit in warehouses for a long time. Hmm.

Sent it in for warranty repair. Three weeks later I get back another amp (new serial #). This one was okay, fabulous tones, thinking I am finally going to get that Egnater goodness I paid almost $1K for. Started taking it to rehearsals and gigging with it 5-6 times a month. Life was good.

That came to an end after about 3 months when the amp started making popping and hissing noises on "Play" regardless of whether anything was plugged in. Did not change with Channel or by changing volume or other settings. It is a fixed, hissing, scratching, popping noise. Very annoying.

Emailed Blad again. He did not read and comprehend my description of the issue, that is was occurring when the amp was on "PLAY". Suggested something about the caps discharging when the amp was on "STANDBY". Okay, like that helps. He also commented that "this is a high gain amp and of course it will get loud and make noise". Not in my world friend.

Tried to pretend problem did not exist. Until about a month later the noise got so bad I couldn't even use the amp at home. So I email Blad, tell him I am sending it in, no discussion, PAID for the shipping to California thinking perhaps I might get on his good side and have the amp bumped up to a VIP level. Based on what I researched on Rig Talk and elsewhere, suggested that it *might* be a bad reverb board, maybe try disconnecting that and see if the noise goes away.

Wait. Wait some more. After 5 weeks, Blad gets back and said they ran a set of "diagnostic tests" on my amp, found no problem and are shipping it back to me. So I expect I will have same issue when I receive amp -- a nice looking amp making big noises and drawing attention to itself in front of 300 people. Embarrassing I tell you.

I see a trend developing. I have run into this sort of thing before and don't have the time or energy to deal with it. At this point I am ready to unload the Rebel 30 and go back to my old and uber-reliable ENGL 5050 / Rocktron pre-amp / 12" Celestion Vintage 30 monster that weighs 72 lbs and was killing my nearly 60 y/o back.

I know this is a rant -- and I feel better.

If anybody has any commentary, would love to hear it. Especially from Egnater.

Chris R
 
Really sorry to hear you're having issues. I think the Egnaters had a reputation for spotty QC when they first came out but those issues had largely been ironed out- or so I thought. It clearly sounds like you were unlucky enough to get two bad amps in a row.

I still have my original version Rebel 30 and thankfully haven't had any issues with it (yet). I hope by some miracle you get the amp back and it magically works the way it's supposed to. But ff not, maybe it would be worth taking it to a local tech to take a look at it. You could also try swapping out some tubes to see if that changes the symptoms you're seeing.

Best of luck!
 
I got the amp back today. Plugged in, switched to PLAY - dead quiet. Played through it for about 30 mins on clean channel, no issues. Sounds great - despite my issues with the amp I can say that it has some truly epic tone, a testament to Bruce Egnater’s design work. Tomorrow when I have more time I will try the drive channel and put some wattage to it. It is interesting that the problem for which I sent in the amp no longer exists with nothing more than a series of diagnostic tests being performed. Regardless, at this point, problem resolved or not, my confidence is compromised and I will probably sell the amp and invest in a quality amp kit that I can support myself - if I have issues, nobody to blame but me ?
 
Update -- the amp is better after being returned (with just "diagnostic tests" being performed) EXCEPT -- it is making an extremely loud popping sound within a few seconds of when I switch it to "PLAY" from "STANDBY". Like a gunshot, sometimes 2 or 3 of them in short succession. Then it quiets down and other than some background hum, more or less behaves itself. I guess this must be the "caps discharging" that Blad alluded to in one of his emails.

I have heard this before in other amps, nowhere near this level though. This is definitely not "normal".

I may record this in a short video and post a link to it here so people can see what I am dealing with. Get a consensus opinion.
 
Below is a short video showing the amp being switched from Standby to Play then within a few seconds, generating several extremely loud pops. This also occurs intermittently during play (very annoying and disconcerting). I don’t think this is “normal”. Keep in mind this amp was just returned to me by Egnater (Blad) as having no issues and having passed a “diagnostic check”.

https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?code ... 78xyXseUf7

I am going to open the amp and take a look at the tubes and seating. Assuming I don’t see anything obvious I am going to close it up and make a decision about what to do with it.
 
loubeck":3qdq29kd said:
Really sorry to hear you're having issues. I think the Egnaters had a reputation for spotty QC when they first came out but those issues had largely been ironed out- or so I thought. It clearly sounds like you were unlucky enough to get two bad amps in a row.

I still have my original version Rebel 30 and thankfully haven't had any issues with it (yet). I hope by some miracle you get the amp back and it magically works the way it's supposed to. But ff not, maybe it would be worth taking it to a local tech to take a look at it. You could also try swapping out some tubes to see if that changes the symptoms you're seeing.

Best of luck!

loubeck - appreciate your comments (only I have received so far). The thing is - swapping tubes and/or taking it to a local tech means spending money on something in warranty. And in the latter case, would in invalidate remaining warranty. Which has not amounted to much in the way of a fix anyway, so debatable as a valid course of action. If the amp just pops several times going from standby to play I may consider keeping it. It does sound pretty good tone-wise, I can say that.

Really surprised and disappointed that Egnater is avoiding comment on this. I am done talking to myself and will leave it and consider it a learning experience that I can convey to others in person and online.
 
Today, it went south. It is popping switching to Play and now randomly during play. Never really settles down.
 
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