Oh no! Another bedroom amp...

[Wayne]

A Revenge Lil Rock appeared magically in my office a couple of days ago.

http://www.recycledsound.net/indexrock.html

It belongs to a co-worker. Sharp looking little thing. Haven't got to play with it much yet. I suspect a tube change would make it better. I've been promised a look at it's innards and I suspect there are probably some subtle changes that can be made in there as well.

My question is this - even with offshore manufacturing/assembly, how in the hell do you build this cheap enough to sell for $200????

W

[j-po]

Mass production?

[benoit]

Mass production?

I dunno how massly they're getting produced but their vid on youtube says you have to order 20 at once or some such thing. But this isn't that weird, It's fairly similar to a valve Jr on a superficial level, and costs about 100 more. On the site the Hard Rock and Little Rock are billed as "Imported." My guess is if they WERE imported from somewhere where qc was reputed to be good, they would have said what country. Since they didn't, I'm guessing China. Not saying quality actually IS bad, and they may very well sound great.

[MBD115]

I would haft to assume the caps and transformers would be marginal. It would be difficult to sell so cheap with good ones, wouldn't it?

[Wayne]

I don't think numbers are huge on this - my understanding was that they do runs of 20 at a time. You only have to order one, but you'll wait until nineteen other orders are placed if you're the first. They take half down, half on delivery which is kinda weird, but my buddy took the leap of faith and they came through.

I'm sure the country of origin is China - the tubes are "Made in China" brand. Literally. There is no other marking on them anywhere.

I'm sure there's lots of marginal stuff in there. Whaddya expect for $200. What blows my mind is - build a head cab, cover it, get pots, jacks, switches, tube sockets & iron. That should just about eat the $200, shouldn't it? Even if assembly labor was free, I don't see where there's any room for profit.

And no, as I'm sure some of you suspected, this is not a plug. I am not affiliated. Just baffled.

W

[M Fowler]

Weber does the same thing they sell a chinese made 5EC chassis amp completely built no cabinet/less tubes for $240 sold out so people are buying them.

Mark

[Cygnus X1]

Weber does the same thing they sell a chinese made 5EC chassis amp completely built no cabinet/less tubes for $240 sold out so people are buying them.

Mark

...And it is advertised as such.
At first I chuckled, but it makes it difficult to convince people who don't know any better that build quality does mean something!

[Wayne]

I didn't know about the Weber amp. I'll bet if I look, there are even more.

I'll also bet that I speak for many here when I say I've got mixed feelings about these rigs. I know for a fact that my co-worker, a former xsistor amp player out of necessity, could not afford to go all-tube any other way. It's a good opportunity for him, and I was there to see the look on his face when he heard & felt the difference. It's probably a good jumping-off place for someone who wants to start building/tweaking and doesn't have a lot of money for parts as well.

On the other hand, I would rather see the money land in the hands of a N. American builder. I had even entertained thoughts of making small runs of no-frills amps myself, but there's no way I could compete with this!

To the guys doing it for a living - my hat's off to you. Hope it's going well.

W

[MBD115]

I'd like to know what it would cost to hand build that circuit with quality parts. I'm guessing and would bet over $500.00 with the head cab.

Rebuilding one of them, replacing everything that needs be with quality parts you've have over $500.00 in that mod. (again a guess)

I think I'll stick with my own amps.

[M Fowler]

Well I was guilty of using transistor amps myself for convenience. For 15 years I used my Peavey Bandit 65 without one repair job needed and it sounded fantastic.

I had plenty of tube amps sitting around even a 65 Deluxe Reverb and Superreverb but it was easy carrying combo and no tubes to keep track of.

Then I decided to get back to using tube amps and I would also rather build my own too.

[Wayne]

How on God's green earth did you get a Bandit to sound great?

I'm not about to send to China for a shiny new amp, but I'm a prime example of someone who should. Very limited budget - projects sit for weeks at a time until parts can be ordered, and not enough time - time enough to make a few circuit mods to existing gear here & there and try them, but nowhere near enough time to produce a clean, neat, scratch build like some of the ones I've seen here.

I'll continue playing the crap I've got and slowly assembling the pile of parts until I get time and patience to build something.

W

[M Fowler]

That no a bad way to get your amp done Wayne.

Rushing doesn't help one bit and results in errors. Besides building the power supply first and testing that going forward is a good way to build it.

As far as the Bandit, I don't know I first heard one at a party near Fargo, ND when this keyboard player/guitar player with Burton Cummings band was jamming with me and I had an old bassman through a 212 bottom and he had the Bandit 65. He sounded good I sounded bad so I bought the same setup he was using. We both had Les Pauls. Then I sounded good.

Mark

[Wayne]

Dunno. I had one for a few years when I was younger. Some issues were probably related to my inability to figure out what to do with TMB (still working on that ), but if I had to use a single word to describe the sound coming out of my Bandit, I would choose "offensive".

Guess I'll say the same thing about amps that I say about women - I'm glad they come in all different shapes & sizes!

W

[M Fowler]

Now I played a new version of my Bandit 65 and it sucked big time.

What in the hell am I talking about Solid State amps for enough of that crap back to tube amps. How about the Bugera line of amps at least they have tubes and I own the 1960 loud and very clean amp. I like the new 6V6 112 combo they have out very affordable for those on a budget.

But I have a bunch of tube amps I could sell.

Mark

[Wayne]

Hear, hear. Back to tubes!

I got a chance to try out that little amp in more detail today - my buddy showed up at my door just after lunch with it under his arm.

It actually sounded good through a pair of G12-75Ts, but (surprise, surprise) it has issues. The tone control is largely a non-entity (leave on 10 for acceptable tone), and the amp squeals like a piggy when you dime it.

It made enough output to make the cat's fur all stand on end, and would even do the "blooming feedback" thing if you were patient enough.

I'm sure there are better single-ended amps out there - a good score on a used one probably wouldn't break the bank, but the amps owner is as happy as he can be, considering what he spent.

I can't wait until my junk pile at home reaches critical mass. It would be nice, and surely possible, to throw something like that together with minimal expense and have some fun with it.

W