RM100 - Issues please HELP

[ibenhad]

So I powered on my RM100 last night only to have no sound??? Power off check all cables and power on again, still nothing. Power cycle again and now it works. All good right? Nope. It starts slowly losing volume till there is nothing. Look at the power tubes and they don't appear to be glowing. Doesn't help that I have a green LED fan in there glowing but whatever. Shut down for the night. This am I power it up and test the bias and nothing on any test point. OK so now we are getting somewhere. Open the unit up and check all fuses and they test fine. The holder on one seemed loose so I retensioned and put the midi board back in. I also replaced the 2 EL34's I had put in with 6l6's is all sockets. The amp now powers up and the bias points show readings?

Any ideas? Is something not so good about to happen PT/OT going? Could that one fuse have been the culprit? I don't trust this amp for gig's now. I have several RM's so no biggie but this sux. TIA and Happy New Year.

 

[HughJasol]

I also replaced the 2 EL34's I had put in with 6l6's is all sockets. The amp now powers up and the bias points show readings?

So it all works now? Then try putting the EL34's back in, and see if it fails again. If it does, you've found your problem . . .

 

[ibenhad]

I don't think that was the problem. I have also tested the EL34's with my tube tester and they read good. Plus it was mixed 2 EL34's and 2 6l6's and nothing lit up. I only pulled the 2 outer EL34's and put 6l6's in all 4 places. I will mess with it some more and post later. Thanks.

 

[ibenhad]

Played through it for about an hour last night and seemed fine. No volume loss no weirdness. Hate the JJ 6L6's... Will try to mix some EL34's in there tonight. Have the JJ's biased to 33mv... Will run the EL34's about 37mv or so. Anyone running a full set of KT88's in theirs and what brand and what bias setting.

 

[Disciple]

Had a similar issue with my old rm100, opened up chasis and replaced a bad fuse and started up and blew again. Replaced el34 tubes with new ones, replaced fuse again and fixed problem.

Never showed any bad tube lights on back, just blew fuses with those tubes when they went bad. And wasn't going to take to a tech to fix for $75-100 when it was a $1 fuse

 

[RADE01]

My 1st one did this. Randall kinda repaired it, or someone did, under warranty. Then the 1st gig I used it for, worked fine for practice, but fired it up for the show and no sound. Randall's people in Melbourne Aus had it for quite a while not knowing what was wrong with it, and cos I'm friends with the owners of the shop I bought it from, they eventually sent me a new one.
The new one had a bad fuse early on, but worked fine for a year or two. Then decided to make noises, and although it's been repaired atleast 5 times privately, it still does it, and it's like the noises, if still used, lead to all out failure fairly soon after they start. I can't even play it, even though I have lots of cool modules.
It's unusable, and the only repair that worked for me was to buy a JVM. Very happy with this remedy.

 

[BigBrewtus]

My 1st one did this. Randall kinda repaired it, or someone did, under warranty. Then the 1st gig I used it for, worked fine for practice, but fired it up for the show and no sound. Randall's people in Melbourne Aus had it for quite a while not knowing what was wrong with it, and cos I'm friends with the owners of the shop I bought it from, they eventually sent me a new one.
The new one had a bad fuse early on, but worked fine for a year or two. Then decided to make noises, and although it's been repaired atleast 5 times privately, it still does it, and it's like the noises, if still used, lead to all out failure fairly soon after they start. I can't even play it, even though I have lots of cool modules.
It's unusable, and the only repair that worked for me was to buy a JVM. Very happy with this remedy.

Sure wish it would come back to life for you. I miss your vids, mods and reviews. :wink:

 

[drewiv]

My RM100 died on Monday. Volume fading in and out and finally gave out. Went home yesterday from work fully intending on doing a complete retube and rebias (even though I did not have a tube failure light come on). Turned it on when I got home, chatted with the wife for a few, plugged in a guitar to check the symptoms once again... MAGIC! It worked fine. I hate intermittent problems.

 

[ibenhad]

Drewiv - How long did you play it for? Mine still sounds fine after the opening up and tightening of the one fuse clip and removing the EL34's. I dunno man if this happens again I may dissolve all my Randall stuff and stick with boutique iron. I hope not because it will take forever to off the collection of heads, racks and modules I have amassed in a very short time. I will be usin mine at rehearsal for several hours on Sat and will report back.

 

[drewiv]

The problem I had started right on power up that practice session. Turned it on, left it on standby for several minutes, plugged in, popped it off standby and volume was dropping in and out. I messed with the knobs for a bit and then thought it was pedal board cable issue. I messed around on the pedal board for a few minutes (all the while noodling), still the same issue - volume rising and falling. While this was going on I turned on one of my boutique amps lol. Had no luck with the Randall, so I switched over to the other amp. Voil?! Volume-a-plenty. So, I spent the evening on that, as I wanted to get in some practice, not amp tech.

The next day (yesterday) I had the intention of doing a full retube. Before I got started I wanted to analyze the problem a bit more, for future reference. Went through the normal warm up, plugged in. Voil?! Volume-a-plenty. Grrrrr. I mean it's great it worked, but not being able to replicate a problem really makes me angry.

Anyway, it's about that time that I send it to Trace at Voodoo to get the full nine yards on the amp. It's expensive, yes, but then I have several boutique amps in one RELIABLE headshell. I'm not ready to kiss MTS good bye. I have my problems with the product line, this issue being by far the BIGGEST, but it's too good and too versatile to ditch.

If you don't want to spend the cash on the Randall modification, might I suggest going Egnater before ditching the line completely?

Drewiv - How long did you play it for? Mine still sounds fine after the opening up and tightening of the one fuse clip and removing the EL34's. I dunno man if this happens again I may dissolve all my Randall stuff and stick with boutique iron. I hope not because it will take forever to off the collection of heads, racks and modules I have amassed in a very short time. I will be usin mine at rehearsal for several hours on Sat and will report back.

 

[HughJasol]

The only time I ever had an issue like this was during my last gig . . . the symptoms were similar to what's been described here in this thread, only the volume never went to all the way down to "zero". The problem turned out to be a bad input buffer tube on my M4. It was intermittent, but I changed both 12AX7 tubes between sets and that fixed it. The next day I was able to identify which tube it was by plugging the suspect tubes into a module one at a time. It took about 45 minutes, but the bad tube finally reared its ugly head.

Just something to check if you haven't already; because as someone already stated, intermittent problems are a *****!

 

[Daryl]

Also make sure to check those jacks!!! I had an issue with another amp, but the concept is the same. If you are not using the effects loop you can get corrosion on the jack contacts and it can cause your volume to drop, cut out, etc..INTERMITTENTLY!!! I did a lot of things to get that amp going until I finally took that advice and cleaned up all of my jacks...BOOM...Cleaned the loop jacks and it began working fine again. My point: Don't dismiss the simple before you get too crazy with changing parts and stuff. Go for the low-lying fruit first. IMO. It does sound like a tube issue, but you never know until you experiment. Hope it works out for ya', bro.

 

[ibenhad]

The problem I had started right on power up that practice session. Turned it on, left it on standby for several minutes, plugged in, popped it off standby and volume was dropping in and out. I messed with the knobs for a bit and then thought it was pedal board cable issue. I messed around on the pedal board for a few minutes (all the while noodling), still the same issue - volume rising and falling. While this was going on I turned on one of my boutique amps lol. Had no luck with the Randall, so I switched over to the other amp. Voil?! Volume-a-plenty. So, I spent the evening on that, as I wanted to get in some practice, not amp tech.

The next day (yesterday) I had the intention of doing a full retube. Before I got started I wanted to analyze the problem a bit more, for future reference. Went through the normal warm up, plugged in. Voil?! Volume-a-plenty. Grrrrr. I mean it's great it worked, but not being able to replicate a problem really makes me angry.

Anyway, it's about that time that I send it to Trace at Voodoo to get the full nine yards on the amp. It's expensive, yes, but then I have several boutique amps in one RELIABLE headshell. I'm not ready to kiss MTS good bye. I have my problems with the product line, this issue being by far the BIGGEST, but it's too good and too versatile to ditch.

If you don't want to spend the cash on the Randall modification, might I suggest going Egnater before ditching the line completely?


What is this Randall modification of which you speak? I just have 3 heads and an RM4 so plenty of backup Randall gear but if it becomes unreliable I don't need it. Nice to leave the boutiques home and break out the boutique wanna be gear but if I have to worry about intermittent buggy s**t ir ruins the whole game. Been jamming a 5150 for 10 or more years easy and never an issue. Is Randall not up to the build quality of a Peavey?

 

[drewiv]

What is this Randall modification of which you speak? I just have 3 heads and an RM4 so plenty of backup Randall gear but if it becomes unreliable I don't need it. Nice to leave the boutiques home and break out the boutique wanna be gear but if I have to worry about intermittent buggy s**t ir ruins the whole game. Been jamming a 5150 for 10 or more years easy and never an issue. Is Randall not up to the build quality of a Peavey?

Here is the link to his general upgrades:
http://www.voodooamps.com/home/Upgrades/RandallUpgrades/RM100SeriesUpgrades/tabid/586/Default.aspx

The amp is reliable enough, honestly. I've been playing them for 3 years now and this is the first "real" issue. As previous posts have pointed out, it may just be a general maintenance issue. I'm going to play amp tech this weekend and change the tubes, clean the inputs, pots, etc. Give a good once over. I'm pretty sure this will solve the problem. At this point I think it's the preamp tube in V1, but I haven't had time to track it down yet. I'll give you an update Monday.

 

[RADE01]

I've had a 5150ll as my gigging amp since 2003 with no probs too. Yeah I kinda expected some kind of reliability from the Randy since it costs a fair bit more, but Randy has proven me wrong many a time since 2007 when I bought it.... "Sad but true-ahh".

I had some great tones goin though.

 

[ibenhad]

drewiv Voodoo is the best and Trace is just awesome. I'm not going to dump money into the Randall to have him mod it as I just don't think the amp is worth it. No offense to anyone who thinks differently. I would rather spend money on a quality hand built new amp from Trace and crew than waste more on something that may never be reliable. As you know I have a V-reck and a V-plex and they are the S**T sweet tone for days... As I have stated before I love what the Randall does when it does it but not much good to me if it is inconsistent. Shame as I think these amps have soooo much potential to provide some great tones and I love to tweak, so the modibility of them is awesome. Maybe the RM4 with a VHT or other high end power amp is the best way to go. Only time will tell.

RADE01 what is the deal with yours? I have read some posts but what gives? No one can get it right and now your on a second one with similar issues? Shot in the dark here but have you ever had an electrician test the wiring/power in and out of your place of residence? I run a simple meter on my rack input that is in the power strip conditioner (furman) and I see my houses power change all the time? Maybe the Randall is more fussy than other amps to power fluctuation. Hell maybe that's the problem with mine. I am going to use it all weekend with my power conditioner and see.

 

[HughJasol]

From what I saw in that link these are simply transformer upgrades. Not to take anything away from Trace (I know he is very knowledgable and does great work), but anyone with any sort of electro-mechanical aptitude can order the correct Mercury Magnetics transformer(s) and install it themselves. It's not really a "Voodoo mod" in the usual sense, it's a transformer upgrade.

I can see the reluctance to spend $250 for an upgraded output transformer, and $350 for an upgraded power transformer (and those are the prices for just the parts - that doesn't count the $150 for Trace to install them), when you can buy an RM100 head for $350 used. For that much money in upgrades, I'd rather take that money, add a little more, and buy an Egnater MOD100, which already has "upgraded" transformers.

 

[ibenhad]

Well the RM100 does nothing again. This pisses me off. These things don't seem reliable enough. What a shame I dumped so much cash and hope into a possibly flawed product.

 

[ibenhad]

So after posting all my gear in the classifieds section I replied to a person inquiring about the gear. Here is my rant back. You don't have to agree but it's how I feel.

Person asked if I would part out and wished me luck getting it all to move in one parcel.

Won't be a problem it's not that I have to sell it I just am tired of issues with it. I have much better and reliable gear that I can use it was just that this stuff is a tweakers dream and very flexible as you must know. But if it is prone to failure its junk. 10 years ago I wouldn't have bought a Randall product if you paid me double back to get it. Now I'm thinking the same way again. Just Chinese crap that is saturating the US market. Look in the Randall/Egnater part of the forum and read how many have had issues with these amps. There are lots of them. Now go to a forum for a well known amp manufacture in the good ole USA like Trace at Voodoo for example? I would say his stuff and Randall have about the same market saturation at this point. Do you see tons of issues with his amps? NOPE.... That says something. Sorry to rant. Just kinda pissed that I let my self get sucked into this MTS dreamworld that may be just that. If you don't mind I'm going to post this rant in my post about the issue with the amp.

 

[ibenhad]

Well after taking the amp completely apart again I have it working. For how long who knows. I did a complete and total bath in contact cleaner, pulled every fuse and tightened up each fuse holder/socket. I re-tensioned each power tube socket and cleaned them and also cleaned the preamp sockets. I made sure every spade connector plug was on tight. Amp is like new. I even dropped 4 new power tubes in it.

The only thing I found out of order were the heater fuses were 6.3amp 250V vs. the 10amp 250V recommended. One also seemed funky. The amp now fires up again and seems to be working. Will play with it for a bit and report back. Lets hope it's solid now.