I just picked up a Renegade 4x10 combo....badass!

[just42dave]

That 4x10 is a killer setup! I just have the 4x10 combo..and it sounds amazing!! Would have loved to play a Renegade through it...but my Mod50 is a "great substitute for sure"

Did play a Renegade at GC Monday afternoon. Killer amp. But..not enough for me to buy one next to my Mod50 / Mod100 / M4! If I didn't have the Mod50/100 / M4 already...I'd get one for sure!

Slut The Renegae is a very nice sounding amp!!I just have no more room

 

[just42dave]

Well, phase one of the Renegade 410 restoration is complete!

I first turned-on the amp without output tubes (or schematics) and the amp didn't turn on! Let me re-phrase that... there were no pilot lights illuminated on the front panel. The PT was humming a little bit and I saw the filaments lighting up in the preamp tubes so I knew SOMETHING was getting power! I pulled out my Fluke 73 meter & trusty wooden chopstick probe and start poking around and found 2 problems.

First, a quick disconnect connector was stressed to the point that it broke inside the clear tubing so it held together but the pressure placed on it from the wire bundle being too tight (with no service loop) had pulled the wire free from the connector and no continuity was the result. I removed the broken Fast-On connector, replaced it & pulled a little more length through the wire bundle to prevent an encore.

Next, I found that one of the plastic fuse holders on the far left (viewing from the front panel) had a broken pin and only one side was actually soldered into the circuit board. Since the pin broke, I removed the fuse holder from the board, soldered some wire leads to the contacts, insulated it with heatshrink tubing, soldered the wires to the PCB pads and affixed the holder to the chassis with a piece of VHB double-backed foam tape.

The amp now turned on, the footswitch worked and all the tube voltages looked good. I installed a pair of NOS Tesla EL34LS output tubes (on the EL34 side) and a new pair of Electro-Harmonix 6CA7EH (on the 6L6 side), biased them up according to the recommendations in the manual (but the 6CA7s were biased a bit colder than the EL34s for little higher headroom). I then confirmed output power and smooth noise-free operation of all controls and functions (all the while with the amp connected to a bench load and the output monitored on an analog oscilloscope).

While I was "under the hood", I elected to install an NOS JAN Philips 12AX7WA (long plate) in V1 (Clean channel), a selected (low microphonics) JJ ECC83S in V3 (Gain Channel) and a selected (balanced halves) JJ ECC83S in V6 (Phase Inverter). These tubes had no apparent noise problems (i.e. shot noise or sizzling) or microphonics and were very quiet. The JJs were pre-tested and selected by Bob Pletka at Eurotubes.

I reassembled the amp and did a static burn-in for 3-hours while occasionally checking for microphonics, control noise and anything else I could learn about the amp without actually playing through it. It was late and I didn't want to wake the wife! The only potential problem I noted was when Channel 2 had its Gain & Volume controls turned up past about 2 o'clock the amp squeals (with no input). The squeal can be "adjusted" with the Treble control, bright switch and Presence control as I expected. I need to look into this with a guitar connected but I expect that there may be a tad too much gain (or a problem with wire-dress) in this channel as it is currently tubed-up.

I really like the serviceability and layout of the amp. Despite some overly-tight wire harnessing and lack of attention to the minor details (like heatsinks and regulator tabs too close to electrolytic caps and caps/resistors sometimes bent dangerously close to adjacent pads and components), the amp seems to be well built and layed-out. I LOVE the chassis mounting method with 4 large "hidden" bolts. I wish everyone would mount their chassis in a similar fashion!

Tomorrow I plug in a guitar and see what it SOUNDS like! That will be the big payoff for my day of amp rebuilding and repair (I also dug into a non-functioning Marshall Haze 40 but will have to get some parts before I can finish it up, even though it does now work).


Steve
http://www.eb100s.com
http://www.musicmanamps.com

awesome post
Ditch the JJs man they suk in that amp..
And get rid of the sovtek in v2 etc horrible amp till I went nos,,Beautiful now...
Are you warranted to work on these cuz if you are Ill send mine to you if it screws up

 

[pacair]

Those preamp tubes are just what I happened to have around as leftovers from previous projects. I figured they would be an improvement over the stock tubes plus I need to replenish my stock with some tubes worthy of installation in this amp! I only got to experiment with the amp for about an hour today... 45 minutes with the Strat and 15 minutes with the Les Paul. I hear a lot of potential in this amp and did enjoy my first introduction!

It will take me some time to explore the amp's tonal capabilities in a live setting but I am planning to use it at my regular rock jam this week and a gig on Saturday which is in a large enough room to let the amp "breath". Of course, these speakers aren't yet broken-in either! The biggest thing I will need to learn about is that the Channel 2 gain is a lot higher than I'm used to (as well as all the unique options it has on the front panel). I can get nice low-level controlled feedback that is impossible with most of my other amplifiers (without external help). The clean channel sounds marvelous on the Strat's stock neck pickup! I really like all of the features that make this amp especially suited to live performance... right where I want to use it most!

I am not a factory-authorized repair station and probably couldn't get authorized anyway (I do this sort of thing as a sideline out of my garage and don't have a shop or storefront). Shoot, I'm still trying to get Egnater's attention to request a set of schematics! Several e-mail inquiries and a phone message have yet to be acknowledged and I already have the amp restored to operational condition. I always work on my own stuff (I trust me and I don't have to ship my stuff out) and haven't taken a factory warranty seriously (past the infant-mortality phase) in about 25 years! Becoming self-sufficient on tube amp repair is what initially drove me to the electronics industry in the first place (in high school)!


Steve

 

[pacair]

Well, I have had the Renegade 410 out at a local jam and a private party gig in a large room (local Elk's Club) and the amp sounded great! It has a really "big" sound or presence and a great tone, even with the current tube selection.

I still don't feel I have had a chance to really dial it in to extract its full potential but overall I am very impressed with both channels and all the "live music" features!

Steve

 

[pacair]

While I haven't had a lot of time to play the Renegade 410 in the last month I did get out with it last night and got a few things dialed in. Playing my main Strat, I set up the clean channel at 65 watts for a sparkling high-headroom ballsy clean on the neck pickup. Beautiful!

The gain channel was set-up in the 18 watt position, gain about 2 o'clock and tailored to taste for a creamy smooth lead tone (with attitude) on the bridge pickup. Most inspiring!

I can't wait for more gigs at venues large enough to allow me to take this puppy out and run it! The band I play with is large and so stage space is usually at a premium and the 410 form factor doesn't always fit well. I am working toward a solution to this problem...

I bought a damaged Rebel 30 combo and the matching cabinet that will become my small club stack once I get enough time to finish the repair. Initial indications suggest bad solder joints or connections... multiple features don't work right and they individually start working when pressure is applied to various parts of the PC board. I am hoping to find a "family" tone connection between these two amps! I know that won't sound the same but if the "character" is similar I'll have all my bases covered by an Egnater product!

Steve

 

[Finnster]

I bought a damaged Rebel 30 combo and the matching cabinet that will become my small club stack once I get enough time to finish the repair. Initial indications suggest bad solder joints or connections... multiple features don't work right and they individually start working when pressure is applied to various parts of the PC board. I am hoping to find a "family" tone connection between these two amps! I know that won't sound the same but if the "character" is similar I'll have all my bases covered by an Egnater product!

Steve

I like the Renegade but I LOVE the Rebel 30... different strokes for different folks! Unfortunately my Rebel 30 Combo is broken

It has to go to a "repair center" according to Egnater......which I am not thrilled about because it isn't convenient at all! I would love to try a Rebel 30 with a 4X10 cab, Im sure it would be great.

I love the Rebel 30 combo sitting on top of a Egnater 1X12...mini stack that rocks.

Glad to hear the Renegade 4X10 combos are getting great reviews. If I can find one in a GC I would love to try one out.

 

[Dig]

Has anyone compared the Renegade head through the Egnater 4x10 cab vs the TM412? Interested in the 410, but I won't be able to get my hands on one unless I special order it. I'd sure like to try it out before commiting to make the purchase.

 

[ramblin390]

the 4x10 sounds awesome, but you need to crank it to get a good bottom imho
not good when someone is home, but if not it cranks, especially at bar volume

 

[pacair]

I certainly wouldn't recommend a Renegade 410 as a home practice amp but to each his own. I have NOT played a Rebel 30 yet and my first time will be once I repair the broken one I bought. Unfortunately, the problems with mine do not seem to be from bad solder joints as I had suspected earlier. This little amp isn't all that easy to work on, either! I think they "poured" it into the cabinet! The Rebel 30 112 combo is as hard to work on as the Renegade 410 is easy to get around in.

I spent the better part of a Friday night and Saturday afternoon removing both boards and touching up every solder joint on each one. Upon careful inspection and reassembly, the same 3 problems (that I know of) are still present. The amp will not channel switch (no ground connection is present in the switching circuitry for some reason) even though I can get it to do so with a ground wire added. The EL84 side of the power amp works fine but only the positive half of the 6V6 side is working (swapping tubes had no effect). Also, applying light pressure in many places causes the amp to increase in volume or gain 10 fold and it ignores the setting of the volume control when this happens!

I was a bit bummed about all the work I did without improvement but at least I can focus on the problems without wondering if a solder joint is at fault!

The Renegade 410 is going out for another public "burn-in" period this Thursday. I am looking forward to refining my tone and simply enjoying the amp without messing with it too much. It had just hit its stride when the gig was over last week, now I get a head start for this week.

Steve

 

[pacair]

One thing I forgot to mention. The Rebel and Renegade combos all come with the cool padded covers. The 410 extension cabinet comes with the same cover (according to the website info), however the 112, 212 & 412 cabs do not come with any covers at all? What's up with that?

For my Rebel 112X cab I ordered a nice non-padded cover from BS Covers (I use them for most of my amp cover needs) online. The cover with Priority Mail shipping comes to about $36.00. Since I live in the Pacific NW, a cover is important to me to not only protect against scuffs and wear but also rain & snow! These covers are waterproof and do a great job of protection. FWIW, I have always been happy with the quality of these covers, even if they aren't as "heavy-duty" or padded as the Egnater covers.


Steve