Bugera V55HD questions and concerns

[Gtr_tech]

Semiconductors are electrically connected internally. Tubes are not. Just a few metal parts hanging in the air....or lack of.

[Enzo]

My first question is this: Are you supposed to be using slow blow fuses? And are you using them?

And assuming the fuses are correct, the MAIN reason fuses blow in tube amps is... bad power tubes.

[jackruby64]

Thanks for all the replies. The tech at the music store that the external fuse should be fast, that's what I've been using. He got into the amp today, he said it ran for several minutes then blew the fuse again. One of the power tubes was glowing as he put it "cherry red". He's waiting for schematics from Bugera (of which I will be requesting a copy for future out of warranty issues for my tube amp tech). May just be bad tubes, as suggested. We agreed that the amp has traveled half way around the world, been through UPS or FedEx terminals, on trucks, etc. so it has probably been bounced around a bit.

[Enzo]

Well, if that tech is an authorized Bugera service shop, he cannot give you a copy of the schematic, he had to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

If he is an authorized repair station for behringer, the V55 schematics are already on the support site for him to download, no waiting. if he is not an authorized repair center for them, they won;t send him any schematics, they will want to send the amp to a repair station or exchange it for you.

Cherry red tubes are either defective or missing their bias voltage, either thing is easily determined without a schematic. 6L6 and all the other common power tubes we run into have well known pinouts to any tech. My suspicion is the tube is defective, try a different set of 6L6s.

The internal fuses are fast except for the +/-15v supplies which use T1A fuses.

The mains fuse is shown as a T2A for 120VAC operation. T1A for 240vAC.

T, as in time delay, slow blow. With red plating tubes, I don;t think the fuse speed is the real issue though. Using a fast where a slow belongs usually only pops at power up.

[Chuck H]

jackruby64, I just want to back Enzo. This is a thoughtful post. Enzo is "arming" you with the info you need to avoid any shinanagins and get on the right track toward your goal and he's spot on. You can use this info to determine if everything is on the up and if the guys handling your amp actually know how to help you.

[Enzo]

And I wasn;t suggesting the guy was dishonest or anything, but he may not realize they won;'t send him schematics and he is patiently waiting for them.

[dwoodpub]

Bugera V55HD problems

Greetings! I recently purchased a Bugera V55HD head and had some questions regarding reliability issues, any mods, etc. First off, I have blown 3 fuses already, one the interior fuse and the back panel fuse twice. The interior fuse blew after switching the standby switch on after a break before the fourth set my bar band played one night. The external fuse blew when my 20 month old son turned the amp off while I was playing at home, so that's an obvious. Last night we played a 2 hour opening set, and towards the end of the set, the external fuse blew. I spoke to the local music store where I bought the amp after the first fuse blew, and I was informed that the local bars are notorious for having crappy wiring, and other guys have had problems. My concern and question is is this amp robust enough to be gigged at least twice weekly? I'm playing classic rock, country, some newer stuff as well, and I'm not running this amp anywhere near full bore. Would a power conditioner be a sound investment? Would it alleviate the fuse blowing under bar playing conditions? Any recommendations would be appreciated. I'm running into a Marshall JCM 800 4x12 by the way, and it really is a great sounding amp.

12 months ago I bought my first 55 head and within a couple months I had to take it back to GC. It would rattle and buzz when I played through it. They swapped me out for another new head. This head has been fine over the past 10 months. Let me say that it has only been turned on about 20 times over the past 10 months. It sits in my home studio and never leaves the house. Last week it started crackling and cutting in and out. I would thump the top of the head with my finger and it would be ok for a second then do it again. It's got to be either a bad tube or just a loose connection. What I don't get is that it sits in the same spot, in the same room, never moves and is used very little. Up until now no problems. I love the clean sound of this amp but the od channel is really bad, in my opinion. Today I got an RA # and have to send the head to the authorized repair shop in Kentucky. With all this said, it's not just Bugera that's having lots of problems. Over the past year I have gone through 5 Egnator Rebel 20 and 30 heads, and 1 Orange Dual Terror. The Orange went back because I really like the Egnator sound and versitility. I am waiting on a new Rebel 30 head that is being sent straight from the California location, bypassing the GC distribution center. I hope it works. All of the Egnators were either bad right out of the box or developed a problem within days. It could very well be the tubes. Oh, Bugera told me that if I took the tubes out the warranty would be void because they are inclosed in a metal housing and only an authorized tech can take them out. I would love to sell the 55 head but don't think anyone would buy it for anywhere close to what I would feel comfortable getting for it.

[jackruby64]

Hey dwood and all,
I got the amp back from the Bugera repair facility in Elizabethtown, KY back in February or March, and have gigged with it quite a bit since then, 2 to 3 night a week almost every week until last month. It has performed flawlessly. I really like this amp, it has the sound i was looking for. One mod that will be performed once the warranty runs out is changing one of the two footswitch functions from turning the reverb on and off to activating the boost function. This is my only beef with the amp right now, I like the boost feature, but it really needs to be footswitchable in my opinion.

[dwoodpub]

Bugera V55HD

Thanks for the reply. The repair shop in KY has the head now. The guy there seems to be really nice and confident. I'm waiting to hear what he found. I'll keep you informed. Thanks again!

[dougiestyletone]

Although I do not own a V55HD, I have played them at GC - very sweet sounding amp. I do own a Bugera 1990 and possibly my experience with it can help. Bugera is a budget amp brand (Behringer is the parent company). It is cheaply made, but it can be as reliable as any other amp. The most important thing any tube amp player can do is to find a reputable amp tech as near to where you live as possible. Fortunately for me here in Phoenix, I found Lowell Hunt of Hunt Amplification and he is outstanding. Anyway, tube amps are inherently very fragile and finicky devices that can get out of whack pretty easily. You could have a short in your circuit board, a bad transistor, a bad pre-amp tube, or most likely a bad power output tube. Always have back-up tubes with you when you gig, but it is a good idea to bring your amp in periodically to your amp tech for tune-ups every three-six months depending on how often you use it. When I played my 1990 and it got warmed up, it would start to make this weird whiney-hissy noise, then shut down. It did it repeatedly, so I brought it into Lowell and he fixed the problem in about 20 minutes. Since then, the amp has been rock-solid reliable. All tube amps need to be biased correctly as well, so you may want to have your V55hd bias set to specifications. An out of bias tube amp could prematurely burn out it's power tubes and possible blow fuses. I also own a Mesa Boogie MkIIb which has needed it's share of TLC through the years to keep sounding it's best. If all else fails, buy a Roland Micro Cube and don't worry about tubes. It is a great sounding little amp with a nice variety of tones. Rock on.

[Ozeshin]

Hi guys...I realize that this is quite an old thread but I was wondering how the O.P. got on with his V55HD repairs?
Has it been reliable since being repaired?....or did you simply sell it and replace it?
I ask because I recently bought a V55 combo which promptly died after one day's use......just made a sound like caps popping and that was it...no more output.
Luckily the owner of the music store I purchased it from is a buddy and I swapped the DOA for floor stock.
As I figured Bugera do NOT burn their amps in at all because the floor stock amp has been running sweetly for a couple of weeks.
I also own a Bugera 1990 which has been back to the shop 5 times in it's short lifetime.
The most frustrating thing is that despite obviously poor QC at the factory these amps sound brilliant for very little cash.
Saddly this isn't just isolated to Bugera as I had a brand new Marshall MGCF101 which died after a month of home usage....swapped it for the Bugera which died after one day lol.
Loving the tone of the V55 though and am glad I stuck with Bugera

[Randall]

I'll chime in to this resurrected thread. I had one of these on my bench last year, and I thought it was a straight up piece of soulless crap. Aside from it's looks, I didn't like one single thing about it.

And worrying about flipping the standby switch a few times a night seems to me like worrying about the wear and tear that switching your ignition on and off does to the engine. It might be a factor, but in both examples so is idle time, how hard you drive them, mechanical vibration, and how long you warm them up.

[Ozeshin]

I'll chime in to this resurrected thread. I had one of these on my bench last year, and I thought it was a straight up piece of soulless crap. Aside from it's looks, I didn't like one single thing about it.

And worrying about flipping the standby switch a few times a night seems to me like worrying about the wear and tear that switching your ignition on and off does to the engine. It might be a factor, but in both examples so is idle time, how hard you drive them, mechanical vibration, and how long you warm them up.

They sound good though....everything plugs into a PCB so I get that a point to point snob would get upset about things like that.
Many players just want to be able to turn the amp on...use it...then turn it off without the fear of it never turning on again so there is a definite reliability issue....but as I stated...bang for buck they're a good sounding amp...when they work

[DrGonz78]

Always have back-up tubes with you when you gig, but it is a good idea to bring your amp in periodically to your amp tech for tune-ups every three-six months depending on how often you use it. When I played my 1990 and it got warmed up, it would start to make this weird whiney-hissy noise, then shut down. It did it repeatedly, so I brought it into Lowell and he fixed the problem in about 20 minutes.

After working on a Bugera 6260 I am not so certain how this relates to this amp... Although in the 6260 manual it reads to adjust the Bias about every 6 months. That is because of vibrations that cause the Bias Pot to move just a bit as it is just a small knob(pot). So get yourself set up to read the bias and set it to maintain these brands of amps. Other than that at least this 6260 was not full of surface mounted crap, I will give it that much. Now how this relates to V55HD is beyond me... lol. Either way I could not help myself.

[Randall]

What you think sounds good, and what I think sounds good may be two different things, based on each of our experiences. But calling someone a point to point snob in your second post upon joining an electronics forum is bad form, and not appreciated.