Ibanez Promethean 5110 repairs

[artist57]

New to forum, I'm hoping someone can help with a technical problem.

For the last couple of years I've been using an Ibanez Promethean 5110 combo with, up til now, no complaints at all. It does what it says on the tin and the good reviews were all pretty accurate. Last night, at set-up time, I plugged the amp in and there was was a faint crack sound and the power went off. Tried all the usual suspects like new power cable, different sockets, etc but it was dead. This morning took to recommended electronics engineer who tells me, having taken amp apart, that an IC chip has blown, as has an open circuit fuse. This was, as he said, the visible damage, there could be more he couldn't see. Without technical specs from Ibanez, maybe even with them, he wasn't too sure he could do much to help so he recommended I got in touch with Ibanez who could maybe recommend somebody who could make a repair. Easier said than done it seems as I've spent half the day trying to get this info. He also said it may be cheaper/quicker just to buy another head. He's a valve amp expert admittedly and has the view that all combos of this kind will break down in the end, sometimes for no very good reason, maybe as little as a power surge. None of this is very comforting. Worse, maybe, is that part of my searches today seem to be telling me that virtually nobody sells this amp, never mind offers repairs them. Whether this is because they're unobtainable from Ibanez or because once broke they're very difficult to repair I don't know. To be fair, since purchase, I've used it a lot, upwards of 200 gigs so maybe I just have to suck it up and buy a new rig. Anybody got any good ideas? Has this happened to anybody else?

Chris

[gjones]

There's a guy selling a Harley Benton version of the Ibanez promethean on basschat, You could buy that and fit the amp to your head? Here's Harley Bentons version [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LU6wOzOa9g"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LU6wOzOa9g[/url]

[artist57]

Not a bad idea. Always been a bit cautious about the Thomann cheap range being not sure about quality. Having said which, Behringer gear used to come in for a fair bit of stick for the same reason but I know a good few people now using it quite happily and it's no longer quite so cheap!.

Thanks anyway. Ii the amps are interchangeable it might be the only game in town.

Chris

[neepheid]

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1379172645' post='2209478']
There's a guy selling a Harley Benton version of the Ibanez promethean on basschat, You could buy that and fit the amp to your head? Here's Harley Bentons version
[/quote]

They're not directly interchangeable in the sense that the screw holes for the thumb screws are in a different place on the HB/RedSub variant (in the sides of the head instead of in the "bottom" of it for the Ibanez).

[BassTractor]

IMS, printboards are identical on these versions, so the HB might be functionally identical - probably with different sized headphones and aux connectors.

If you can't find out in the mean time, I'll check this out later this evening, when I have some time.


Edit:
Not found what I wanted to find, but here you can find pictures of the innards of the HB and Ibanez versions:
http://basschat.co.uk/topic/168416-another-promethean-clone/page__st__100

That whole thread offers quite some insight, like that RedSub and Harley Benton are identical, that the Ibanez has a different pre-amp, and that the Beta Aivin has some extra stuff on the back. Dunno about its pre-amp.

Edited September 14, 2013 by BassTractor

[TheButler]

I am selling my HB. If there is any other way I could be of assistance ie. measuring something jus ask