Master blaster

Holy crap the Jules and the dementer are expensive. Way out of the budget. 😜

The tech dealt with the distributor. It was just an instant “you gotta replace the board”. Its such a waste. I have the tone hammer pedal, which is lucky as I’m now having to rely on it with IEMs. I like the suggestion of a clean power amp. I think it’s that or something that’s not class D. It’s disappinting, I had a GK 700rbII for 8 years before this. Gigging just as much as I do now, and used a lot more for home practice. It was cheaper then the th500. But it never went wrong. Thanks for suggesting the ashdown. I very rarely drive the amp with gain and distortion. Will be interesting to try one.

He called it a controller or something. I’m not tech minded at all. It had a similar fault before where the first tech I took it to said it needed a new board. The guy that has it now fixed it buy resoldering a back joint.

I’m very quiet on this forum. Been a member for a long time but I’m rarely online to be honest. So greetings to everyone. Anyway, I’ve been playing with the Aguilar th500 for the last 3 years. As people know, it’s a great little amp which sounds great. However, I feel really let down but it’s design, due to the amp cutting out mid set. Now I know design issue probably isn’t down to Aguilar but they did choose to use a Bang and Olufsen Icepower module for the power section. The problem is a small component has failed, a complainant that according to my tech costs little to replace. But down to it being a non universal design, and the uk distributor being unhelpful, the whole module needs to be replaced. At a large cost. (The amp is out of warranty). We’re looking at over £200+ for a replacement. This is rediculaous in my opinion. Why can’t they use a module that uses universal components? Feels like it’s a way to con people out more money then what’s needed to me. I love this amp, but I feel like I want to move away from Aguilar. I’m loooking around online at possible replacements but I feel lost. And I live to far away from any music shops with a decent selection of amps to try some out. Does anyone have any advice/opinions on possible replacements that share a similar tone to this head? Sorry if this is a bit rants. Look forward to peoples opinions/input.

I found it interesting that Fender seemed to have released quite a few limited run guitars at Namm with their Parallel universe series. Could that be an attempt to try revitalise interest in their guitars? Lots of brands copy most of the fender the body shapes, so maybe they're coming up with more alternatives to try beat anyone else to it.

I kind of feel that the reason big companies don't do so well is because of several reasons. Note this is just my opinion. Firstly there are far more luthierers and manufacterers that make superior instruments to there likes of Fender and Gibson etc. Just look at Sandberg for instance, for the price of an American Fender you get a much better and more consistent instrument in terms of quality. Also if your after a high end custom guitar, then there is a large choice of luthiers available that can offer a far more personalised experience than the giants. Also why buy new when for the same price you can buy a better used instrument. I haven't bought a brand new bass for a while and I kind of think, why should I? I've had many p basses over the last 15 years, some new and some used, and hands down the best one I've had and still own is an '82 JV Squier. I just don't think the large companies will be out there for much longer, Fender has huge debt like Gibson and it'll only be a matter of time before they can't pay anything off too. As far as guitar music not being popular, I feel this isn't a huge factor into the decline of sales. Music education in a lot of school around me is healthier now then it was when I was in school. We were only encouraged to play the recorder, where as now they plays ukes which will gateway into guitar lessons etc. Theres still a loads of new bands promoting guitar music which are getting recognition. It just so happens that genres like Grime currently have the edge, and are getting more air play to the middle class masses who buy anything just because its "in" and compliant. Anyway, thats just my opinion.