2 Faulty Grandmeisters...Help?

Hi,

Bought a Hughes & Kettner Grandmeister in early April, unfortunately after playing it for 2 hours, the amp switched off and didn't switch back on.

Got it replaced on the 15th of April, and yesterday after nearly 1 month of playing the amp without any issues the same happened again, new amp doesn't switch on.

Did anyone else face the same issue?

I live in the UK and I've been doing some research to check if this was reported due to the difference in Voltage (240 V - UK)... this comes to mind as I bought it from dv247 (same as musicstore.de) and even though it's sold in the UK, they come with 230V.

Any feedback or suggestions would be appreciated as I'm entering the studio in 2 weeks time and really need the amp to record.

Just for info, the UK mains voltage is now officially 230V not 240V.  The caveat is that it is allowed to drift to be within +10% and -6%.  That now means that electrical equipment should be able to cope with European 220V and UK 240V, (edit: better say the old UK 240V).  It's a legal "harmonisation" thing.  The full range is 216V - 253V with 230V as the nominal level.  That's a large range to cope with but that's how things are when legal guys get to rule over technical guys.

What conditions are you using the amps under?  Speakers and impedance?  Power level?  Material type?  There is a thread in this forum, "Disaster first time I played loud", where the poster managed to blow the HT fuse in his amp.  This is supposed to be a "return for replacement" issue so you can't open it to replace yourself.  You may have done that.

That's interesting info about the UK mains voltage thanks bordonbert! I got a switchblade tsc combo from dv247 and also got 230v. That explains things.

I hope you manage to get your amp sorted in time for the studio GabrielM. I've been seriously considering swapping my Switchblade combo for the Grandmeister head - but when I looked at the photos of all that circuitry crammed into the tiny space with all the hot tubes it made me worry if the amp would be reliable.

I'm sticking with my Switchblade for now - it's much more spacious internally and has proper ventilation above the tubes.

My friend just bought a Grandmeister so I'll see how he gets on with his.

I must admit, both my practice and gig rigs have little pc cooling fans strategically placed to mitigate some of the heat. I've never had a problem, but I believe a like extra air flow can't hurt...

Many thanks for the reply guys.

I'm taking care of the replacement, just a bit unsure about the reliability of the product now, even though I absolutely love the sound and how functional and practical the amp is.

At home I'm plugging it to a Palmer ADIG-LB at home and Marshall 1960 4X12 for band practice, using the amp at 36 watts running a Maxon 0d808 in front and decimator 2 G-string (front and FX loop) at all times. Mostly using the Ultra channel (only engaging the amp's boost for solos) as I play mostly metal.

Hope you have better luck with the replacement!

I'm just wondering With your Palmer DI / Load box do you still run the amp at 36 Watts and use the Palmer's load box to silence the output?

I ask because on the other thread people were wondering if using the Grandmeister at home at like 1W mainly, then occasionally at 36W for gigs was what was causing the amp to blow for some reason.