NEW Rebel 30 head - Stopped working after a week

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j4q0

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Hi all,

I'm new here.
I recently bought a Rebel 30 head and I couldn't have been happier with the sound, tough it had a low but loud hum as soon as you turned the amp on. Having it for only a couple of days, I took it back to the store and requested a new one.
A week after, a new one came in a sealed box, I took it home and played for a couple of hours. It surprised me how much hiss the clean channel had compared to the overdrive channel, and it also surprised me very much how the overdrive channel would still let sound through when the volume knob was all the way down (needless to say this didn't happened with the previous head I had a week earlier, or any other amp that I have ever had before).

I sent an email to Egnater support and received an email from Nate saying that the hiss of the clean channel was expected but he asked more about the problem with the overdrive channel. I replied explaining and commenting on the problem and stated that the amp was not "unusable". I haven't heard back from him yet.

A couple days later (yesterday) I connect my guitar to the amp, I turned the amp on and surprise: NO SOUND. Checked the speaker cab and it was fine, I couldn't figure out what it was. The only sound that the amp is making are like "farts" but only when I turn the volume knob all the way up to the max.
I've never had "tube farting" problems before so I'm not familiar with how that would sound, but I can't figure out any other explanation.

In any case, as for now I'm the owner of an "unusable" NEW (from sealed box) Egnater Rebel 30 head.
I would greatly appreciate any input from anyone as to what is the problem, how to fix it and how to make sure it never happens again.
It would be better yet that being my Rebel 30 under warranty (obviously, it's only 1 week old!) Egnater themselves would address my case and actually offer a solution.

I really like the amp but I've had nothing but bad experiences with 2 of them in a row.

Thanks to anyone that can share any info about this problem.

Jaqo
 
I tried the Rebel 30 a few times but had to drop it because of the issues you mention. Channel 1 is just noisy- I am not an engineer but I assume it is connected to the fact that channel 1 has only the volume knob and not gain and volume, and is also loud right at the git go, like a lot of Fenders.

Mine never stopped working, but I got a lot of that farting crackling sound also.

I ended up just dropping the amp for the Renegade which I am very happy with.
 
Hi Len thank you for your input.

To be honest I am happy with the sound of the amp but given the fact that the 2 amps that I brought home presented issues from the get go, I'm not happy with the reliability of the amp, and sadly all I'm reading about these amps are complains about fuses blowing and tubes going bad, only a few good experiences, and I have to point out how you had issues with the Rebel and then switched to another Egnater product.

I understand the "fragility" of power tubes but as I've been researching and reading a lot about Rebels problems, I'm guessing my problem is tube related, and it makes me raise the question:
Why in god's name an amp that has less than 5 hours of use and one week out of it's sealed box presents these problems, when I've own several other tube amps that have been thrown into suitcases through the airport, touring vans, airplane cargo and even dropped to the floor stage from the top of a 4x12 never gave me any problems?

The loud hiss on the clean channel I can live with as it doesn't make the amp "unusable" but I have to point out that it is something I've never heard before. The tubes going bad like that after playing my amp in the basement, I believe that is not right (if this is indeed a tube problem).
Even if this is the case, as I understand there is a warranty on tubes from Egnater, and I've also read that they want the costumer to troubleshoot before Egnater decides to send a new set of tubes.
That is understandable too, but I have to respectfully say to Mr. Bruce Egnater that I don't want to spend time (and potentially more money) on troubleshooting a 1 WEEK OLD NEW amp from a reputable company.

I appreciate a lot the interaction that Mr. Egnater himself and Mr. Nate Williams have with costumers in this forum, and I did get a reply from Mr. Nate a day after I sent my inquiry to support through Egnater's website, though he gave me no answer or solution even though I sent him 2 more emails and another email through Egnater's support website.

I'm not angry but I am disappointed, as before buying the amp I heard and read very good things about Egnater's costumer service and the Rebel's sound, I indeed like the sound of the amp.
I really hope I can get an answer from them before I'm forced to dismiss this product and potentially have nothing good to say about these brand when I'm asked an opinion on them.
Also, I believe that ALL costumers intend to enjoy and play quite a bit (perhaps years?) a NOT inexpensive amp before they have to spend days (and potentially money) on getting their NEW amp looked at or "fixed".

Again Len, thank you for your words.
 
I wanted to like the Rebel 30, but I tried 3 or 4- combos and head/cab- and it was too problematic and not enough amp.

I had a Tourmaster for years- Loved it no problems.

Love my Renegade Head Tourmaster 2 x 12- but probably my last Egnater for a while. Kind of on a Fender thing these days.
 
Hi. I'm new here. I realize that this is almost six months after the fact, but I thought I'd throw in my two cents anyway. I bought a Rebel 30 used about 9 months ago. My Rebel 30 ran fine and then one day recently I started having the loud hiss and some of the "fartiness" that you described. This unpleasant artifact was present on both channels. I went through my booger box and found a couple of Fender branded unused 12 AX7As. I pulled the chasis out of the cabinet (I figured I'd check and adjust the the power tube bias while I was at it-the design of the amp makes this über easy) and started checking tubes V1 through V4 by pulling one at a time and replacing each with one of the new Fender tubes. I discovered that V1 was the problem child (I checked it first because the schematic I have indicates that it would have significant impact on both channels). When I replaced that tube, I had a very quiet amp that sounded rich and "chimey" on channel one (especially with the EL84 pair dimed out and no 6V6) and an overdrive on channel two that was thick and harmonic laden with ample sustain. I can't say that I had the same issues as you did, excepting that I had the same initial symptoms. I hope that Egnater has decent QC not only on the manufacturing side, but also on the testing of incoming components. It would be a shame if these kinds of problems are a result of crappy QC, or even worse, crappy QA in terms of internal procedures being followed in order to keep defective components from being used or defective finished product from being shipped.
 
Welcome, you have a schemo? Is it verified? Could you post?
Thanx in advance..
 
j4q0":2r49zozl said:
Hi all,

I'm new here.
I recently bought a Rebel 30 head and I couldn't have been happier with the sound, tough it had a low but loud hum as soon as you turned the amp on. Having it for only a couple of days, I took it back to the store and requested a new one.
A week after, a new one came in a sealed box, I took it home and played for a couple of hours. It surprised me how much hiss the clean channel had compared to the overdrive channel, and it also surprised me very much how the overdrive channel would still let sound through when the volume knob was all the way down (needless to say this didn't happened with the previous head I had a week earlier, or any other amp that I have ever had before).

I sent an email to Egnater support and received an email from Nate saying that the hiss of the clean channel was expected but he asked more about the problem with the overdrive channel. I replied explaining and commenting on the problem and stated that the amp was not "unusable". I haven't heard back from him yet.

A couple days later (yesterday) I connect my guitar to the amp, I turned the amp on and surprise: NO SOUND. Checked the speaker cab and it was fine, I couldn't figure out what it was. The only sound that the amp is making are like "farts" but only when I turn the volume knob all the way up to the max.
I've never had "tube farting" problems before so I'm not familiar with how that would sound, but I can't figure out any other explanation.

In any case, as for now I'm the owner of an "unusable" NEW (from sealed box) Egnater Rebel 30 head.
I would greatly appreciate any input from anyone as to what is the problem, how to fix it and how to make sure it never happens again.
It would be better yet that being my Rebel 30 under warranty (obviously, it's only 1 week old!) Egnater themselves would address my case and actually offer a solution.

I really like the amp but I've had nothing but bad experiences with 2 of them in a row.

Thanks to anyone that can share any info about this problem.

Jaqo
Click to expand...



All of you guys had faulty amps imo
OPERATING NORMALLY - The Rebel amps are consistently very QUIET on all channels imo.
I've owned 2 - R20 and R30.
My current R30 clean channel is very quiet with almost no audible hiss at all maxed out - same every day
The dirt channel has some noise (as is normal) but is relatively quiet for a tube amp - same every day.
My R20 was the same - consistently quiet every day.
I'd be asking Egnater to either repair it or give me a new one asap
 
No questions about it, we had faulty amps. Like I said, I liked (and like) the amp but I couldn't be bothered with something that didn't work as I expected, specially brand new and right out of the box. The actual thing that bothered me was no real response and left in the air from customer support. The problem with the no sound was one of the pre tubes, that fixed it still had the same problems so I decided to just sell it and so I did.

I'm glad for people that have good experience with them, I didn't so I moved on.
 
It does seem that a considerable amount of Rebel 30 owners reported issues, but the vast majority of those issue could be solved by a tube change; however, not every problem can be solved with that.

But, my Rebel 30 is quiet, and the clean channel is fantastic, as is the overdrive channel. I've had it since 2009 with no issues other than blowing a fuse and changing the tubes.
 
musicmanmu":1g48dmr7 said:
It does seem that a considerable amount of Rebel 30 owners reported issues, but the vast majority of those issue could be solved by a tube change; however, not every problem can be solved with that.

But, my Rebel 30 is quiet, and the clean channel is fantastic, as is the overdrive channel. I've had it since 2009 with no issues other than blowing a fuse and changing the tubes.
Click to expand...

Musicman - the thing that bemuses me is people having standard tube issues and then blaming the amp maker for it.
It's unreasonable imo. They don't make tubes.
As long as the tubes were in good working order when the amp arrived at the distributors store the amp maker can't do anything else.
Most of these blown tubes occur in transport and from what I've heard about companies like Guitar Center they're extremely careless with gear :D
 
I agree, the issues with the tubes are completely reasonable and are somehow expected. I had my issues and complains about other things that weren't tube related.
 
Just to add my experience with the Rebel 30. Mine was doing the popping/cutting out thing during the demo when a guy from Craigslist was trying to sell it to me. He had brought it over to my house. I recognized the familiar tube fault and swapped out the pre-amp tubes with spares I had. Problem solved and I banged $50 off the top. I did a full re-tube a couple of weeks later and have not had any problems what so ever since. The Rebel seems to have a bit of a bad reputation. From what I've read it's enough to turn perspective buyers away. I wonder how many of the failures have just been tube related?
 
AXEL276":336nu2i0 said:
Just to add my experience with the Rebel 30. Mine was doing the popping/cutting out thing during the demo when a guy from Craigslist was trying to sell it to me. He had brought it over to my house. I recognized the familiar tube fault and swapped out the pre-amp tubes with spares I had. Problem solved and I banged $50 off the top. I did a full re-tube a couple of weeks later and have not had any problems what so ever since. The Rebel seems to have a bit of a bad reputation. From what I've read it's enough to turn perspective buyers away. I wonder how many of the failures have just been tube related?
Click to expand...

I'd say about 95% of the issues I've read here, and on TPG, have been simple blown tube problems.
Another 4% have been blown fuses which take 30 seconds to fix with a new 25cent fuse.
2 or 3 others have been more serious issues that were clearly Egnater QA/QC issues.
That's a very good reliability record for any amp maker imo but somehow the Rebels are getting a reputation for the opposite.

I have a Mesa 5:50 also and I've seen similar happen there the past few years.
People being unfamiliar with tubes amps explains most of it imo.
Plus, as Egnaters are made in China, people immediately blame that with the strong inference that.......
IF they were made in USA they'd never have an issue :D

Then I go to the Mesa Boogie forum (which are made in California) and see a few owners with an obvious blown tube blaming Mesa Corp and dumping on the amp.

Then if you really want a laugh hehe check out the Line 6 forum.
There you'll see 100000000s of owners constantly griping n flaming about a huge range of programming bugs & broken off parts & blown everything.
Customer service seems to be just as bad.
And Line 6 gear is all SS and digital crap hehehe
 
Waxhead,

Except for the prototype, 'amp makers' make nothing. Not the tube socket, trannys, pots, hell, they don't even make the hookup wire!! That being said, I'm every bit as demanding about tubes as any other component. You should be too.
Early tube failure is every bit dependent on amp design as the manufacturing of the said tube. Slight bias changes can do wonders for tube life. DON'T leave on standby longer than 5 minutes. It's not a beer button. Contributes greatly to cathode stripping. Toodles folks..
 
Heavy usage on my Rebel 30 for 2 years. 1 re-tube no problems or noises.
 
The issues I had continued after at least one re-tubing. As I said I went through 3 or 4 Rebel 30's. Combo and head plus cabinet. I liked the sound but it was too unreliable.
 
Len Rabinowitz":3amv82o6 said:
The issues I had continued after at least one re-tubing. As I said I went through 3 or 4 Rebel 30's. Combo and head plus cabinet. I liked the sound but it was too unreliable.
Click to expand...
Well, what was the problem? I know lots of people gigging with th r30 with no problems. All I have ever hear is some bad jj tubes, some bad pots on the first run
 
Hissy and noisy, which I think is just part of the design, and a lot of burbling, cracking, "farty" kinds of noises which continued even after a total tube change. I tried 3 or 4 and they all did this, combo and head/cab. A lot of people love the Rebel 30. My guess is that it is a QC issue. I wonder what the new, redone ones will be like?
 
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