Hey All, new member here. Bought a new PS-100 from Guitar Center, only used it with line input for a few weeks, and then it went quiet on me. Using FX return, it was back to normal level, but the Line input failure concerned me so I returned it. Had them ship me a replacement which worked for few hours, and then the line input went quiet on me, this time with power tube red plate plating and the unit was too hot to touch.
Tried calling every day this week, but nobody seems to be answering the phones, tried sending an e-mail via the webform, but after submitting the form it just went to a blank page, and I never got a confirmation of receipt. I waited a day, and sent an e-mail direct to Fryette’s e-mail address. Again, no confirmation of receipt, and no reply. I get that this is a small boutique gear company, but 4 days without acknowledging contact or even manning the phones is a bit odd. Is the shop out with the flu or something?
I’d love to have a functional PS-100 since it was great while it worked, but I’m not loving the fact that both units I purchased failed so quickly, and that customer service doesn’t seem to exist. Is this typical of Fryette Customer Support? Anyone have any suggestions on how to move forward?
Oof, I hope not. I wish I had saved some of the documentation from the last unit to verify. A couple clues might tell you though. Was the box double taped? And was the IEC cord just wrapped in a circle without a bag?
Fwiw, I heard from Fryette today and they think it’s bad power tubes so they’re sending me a new set. Hoping that solves the issue. Although it raises the question, would bad power tubes kill the line input, while still powering the speakers fine via the fx return? I don’t know the first thing about amp design, but does this mean the line input is powered by the power tubes, while the fx return is not?
Edit: It was doubled taped but the cord wasnt in a circle, but had no bag. I see where they cut away the address labels on the box as well.
As far as the other questions i wish i could help. Im hoping tubes and a fuse fixes my issue and it doesnt turn out something else. Please update when you get your parts and i will as well.
Oh yeah, that sounds like a return. The IEC cables in both of mine were in bags. And neither of mine had previous shipping labels cut off. Will definitely update here as things progress. Good luck on yours!
Short story: Your PS-100’s tubes have failed to get a free replacement sent out to you; follow these instructions and request a new set of tubes and fuses: How can I make a replacement part request?
The longer answer is that a few tubes in a batch defeated our QA procedure and have failed in the field. We are replacing them as fast as we can when we hear from PS-100 owners like yourself. We are also working with the tube manufacturer so that these kinds of failures are caught by them in the factory.
If you did not get a confirmation email after sending an email into the webform, then I am afraid it did not complete. Yes, we need to update the website; we are working on it.
I think in this case the webform did not work and the phone is not always manned (depends on how busy Steve is). This is not your fault! We need to improve that.
I try and reply the same day here on the forum, and it is usually the same with Gil who tends to look after the email. I am actually away on holiday at the moment, so I am being a bit slower than normal.
Much appreciated, Dan. Gil reached out this morning and will be sending me some new tubes (hopefully soon!). With any luck, this will resolve all my issues and I’ll get years of enjoyment out of it.
So I got new power tubes sent up, and I’m still seeing a pretty big volume and tone discrepancy between the Line in and the FX Return. To the point that 50% on the volume knob is like a night-time bedroom practice level (and it’s much darker sounding). If I engage the level switch on the front, I can turn the volume up to 100% and it’s about the same level, which is roughly the same level as the strings heard in the room. This is with the Line out of my Kemper as well as multiple pedal preamps, so I don’t think it’s an issue with the signal level.
Using the FX return, I can barely crack the volume knob over 20% before it’s at full band practice volume. Fryette is saying this is normal, but when I first received the unit, before it all went dim, the Line input was very loud and usable. Am I losing my mind? Can anyone verify that the Line input on their unit is also unusably quiet?
Hey Dan, yeah, I agree that 50% should be substantially louder than it currently is. I just connected my 22 watt Fender Super Sonic to it, and the Fender amp at <50% passing through the PS-100 in bypass mode volume is louder than the 100 watt Fryette at 50%. See video below. I mentioned to Gil that I have a limited time window to either resolve this or return the unit, but I haven’t heard back from him since last week. I’m hoping my case hasn’t just been dropped.
I think he has some family visiting and I was away, so we have been a bit slower than normal. But he should be around.
In the audio clips what is connected on the back panel? Unplug everything from the FX loops, just have you amp going in and speaker connected to the PS.
I would not read too much into the relative positions of the amp volume and the Power Station volume, because that is an arbitrary scale. Can you get your Power Station up to a useful gig level volume or not? It sounded quieter but I would have thought that could easily be compensated for by turning it up (but it is hard to judge room volume from clips).
What are the impedance settings on the two switches on the back panel and the impedance of the cab?
Here’s a photo of the back of the unit as it was for the video recording. I would say that no, I would not be able to get useful gigging volume with either the line input or the load input unless I cranked the volume of the Fender (which also completely changes the tone, obviously). If I wanted my Fender to stay clean, there’s no way it would be audible over a drummer even if I dimed the PS100. It seems like this unit is running at like 20% power, unless I use the FX return where it’s plenty loud.
I also want to reiterate, that the unit seemed to work totally fine when I first got it (both units did, actually). I didn’t try the amp input with either unit before they started acting up, but the line input was plenty loud, and then after a couple hours, both units went quiet. One eventually turned off completely, and this one just stayed quiet.
Then in this case it seems a re-tube might be worth a go. Can you give me the details of when you bought them, you said you had two? Was that a replacement unit?
So, just to clarify, this is with the new set of JJ power tubes that Gil sent up last week. Are you thinking these tubes might be bad as well?
The first unit was purchased in early January, and returned in mid Feb. due to the level drop (and eventual silence), and that’s when this second unit was sent (replacement).
Then no, the JJs will not be the issue then or at least extremely unlikely. We better investigate elsewhere for now. What’s the position of the level switch? Try toggling that to maximise the signal.
Yeah, you’ll notice at the very end of the video I posted, I toggled the level switch to the quieter mode. This makes the unit quieter than conversation level even at max volume.
I should also mention, I do have a multimeter and a bias meter, so if you want me to check anything a bit more technical, I’m up for that. Just need to know what numbers I should see and where.
Unless you are qualified and experienced I can’t ask you to do that. It’s just too risky. And I would not, off the top of my head, know the measurements points. If it was in my bench it’s the kind of think I would do following the signal through the different stages, monitoring with a scope.
What are impedance settings and the cab impedance ? Make sure they are all matched.
It might just be a case of input sensitivity. What is the Watt output for your amp (the rating). You might just need to turn it up to enable the Power Station to amplify it. Moreover, the Lo level might not be Lo enough for you amp?
As for impedance, both input and output are set to 8 ohms. The Fender output is 8 ohms, and the Marshall cab is 8 ohms. As mentioned above, turning up the volume on the Fender completely changes the tone. The video I posted was with the Fender set much higher than I’d ever typically play it. My hope was that the PS100 would amplify this quieter clean tone to stage volumes, as that was one of the selling points.
