Reliability of Polytones?
tomsalvojazz
store; however, I've heard nothing but horror stories about
reliability. Are these exaggerations, or are the Polytones really THAT
unreliable? Should I stay away?
Formerly Sideways
wanting to pull the trigger on a Clarus/RE. About a month later a
practice, we suddenly smelled an electrical smell. The Polytone quit
just like that, and simultaneously, the faceplate fell right off.
Apparently, the overheating associated with the amp failure partially
melted the epoxy holding the faceplate on.
Legato took care of Jason. He exchanged the Polytone for credit toward
the Clarus/RE and that was that.
ott...@hotmail.com
ten years, no Probs, except when the handle broke and it hit a cement
floor.
Was easily fixed, but Only after getting a schematic from Polytone.
Oh yeah, mine's an '80's model which I bought Used.
Bg.
Dan Adler
stories. Bottom line is I've had Polytones for 15 years with no problem
ever and Clarus/RE for 2 years with no problem, so I definitely
wouldn't base any decision on anecdotes like that.
Steven Rosenberg
but I'm not sure. It had two sets of inputs and two speakers -- the
guitarist AND the bassist both plugged into it.
The thing was a freakin' tank. You couldn't kill it.
Same with my Roland Cube 60 from the early '80s. It seems like nothing
can kill those, either.
Most solid-state equipment, if it lasts a week or month, it'll last 20
years.
rhan...@comcast.net
and never had any real problems at all. Matter of fact, I sold the
last one (MegaBrute) to help finance my Clarus and wish I hadn't... the
Clarus is great, but I wish I still had a small combo amp for solo and
duo gigs.
Good Luck,
Russ
tomsalvojazz
solo gigs, where my main rig would be way too much (a Mesa/Boogie Mark
IV). I've had a Clarus in the past, but found it to be almost "too
clean." I just sold my Koch Twintone, which is a great amp, but too
much of a duplication of the Mk IV for me, so now I have a small hole
to fill, and something like a Mega Brute might do it. :)
Dan Adler
dhn...@sbcglobal.net
purchased it used. From the get go, I was getting a strange popping
noise. Had it in the shop 3 times to try and fix the problem. The
last repair person ended up re-soldering the entire board (or something
like that) which ended up solving the problem. He just guessed that it
was a bad solder job that caused the problem in the first place, or
perhaps a loose connection caused by the amp get jolted or jarred
during shipping.
Recently, I had a 1999 PT Mega-Brute. I purchased it used. It worked
and sounded great. I only owned it for about 2 or 3 months and decided
to sell it to buy an AI Clarus 1R. Even though I sold it, I was
satisfied with my last Polytone amp, though I did not own it long
enough to determine its long term durability.
My gut feeling is that Polytones might be a little less reliable than
your average amp. I also learned that most amp repair people sort of
scratch their head when they see one. I found this to be more
problematic than the reliability of the amp itself. It's compounded
by the difficulty in getting help from Polytone to either do a repair
or to suggest someone in the area that can do the repair.
I guess I would buy another, but to me it's not as slam-dunk a
purchase (in terms of being trouble free) as say buying a Roland JC120.
I've owned 4 (used) Roland JC's over the last 20 years and each
one was a work horse - never once was one in the repair shop. Having
said that, I'm sure there's someone who has had nothing but bad
luck with JC's. :)
Rick Stone
I'd characterize them as reasonably powerful, lightweight, and extremely
reliable.
The first one was bought in 1982. The reverb coil went bad 2 or 3 times, no
other problems. I sold it to one of my students around 1995 and to the best
of my knowledge, it's still in service.
I purchased the second in 1988 and am STILL using it (6 nights a week for
most of the last 3 years). I've replaced the reverb once and upgraded it to
a 3-spring unit (Polytone changed from the side mounted to the bottom
mounted reverb on this model and it seems to help). The only other thing
that went bad was a fuse holder that broke when someone banged into it in
the closet at the restaurant were we worked. A piece of tin foil got me
through the night. Bought a replacement fuse holder at Radio Shack the next
day and was back in business.
The thing that tends to go wrong is the reverb (the coils are soldered to a
transducer at each end and come loose if the amp gets banged around a lot).
If you put the reverb in a padded bag and just leave it semi loose in the
cabinet (rather than screwing it down) you'll probably have better luck.
Then again, some people just like to go with a digital reverb (I remember
buying an Alesis MicroVerb in the eighties after seeing John Hart and a lot
of other guys around here using them with their Polys).
Musically Yours,
Rick Stone
website: http://www.rickstone.com
Listen to clips from my new CD "Samba de Novembro" with Tardo Hammer, Yosuke
Inoue and Matt Wilson at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rickstone
And drummer Al Ashley's CD "These Are Them" featuring Dave Leibman, Rick
Stone and Oliver Von Essen at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/alashley
"tomsalvojazz" <toms...@optonline.net> wrote in message
news:1125324951....@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
Jack A. Zucker
--
Experience a revolutionary way to approach the instrument.
Introducing Sheets of Sound for Guitar
"Let the music govern the way you play guitar instead of the guitar
governing the way you play music!"
Check it out at:
http://www.sheetsofsound.net
"Rick Stone" <rick...@rickstone.com> wrote in message
news:RNNQe.4087$Ni1.2943@trndny03...
Keith
and have NEVER had a single problem with any one of these three amps.
Two of them are from the 80's (Baby Brute and a Mini S15) and my "new"
one is a MBIV from the mid 90's. Once I bought a scruffy old MBII that
looked like it was damaged in a flood and it needed a little work after
that. I used it for a couple of years, but sold it because I never had
the confidence in an amp that had been so badly abused before I got it.
It never let me down though. Before switching to Polytones, I used
vintage blackfaced Fenders and I remember a couple of my Fenders
quitting on gigs.
Keith
Tone
Well, the speaker cab is filled with fiberglass, or used to be anyhow,
and sticking your arms into a mess of fiberglass isn't a real inviting
proposition. A guy who's worked on my amps charges $30 extra just
because of the sliver factor.
Pt
wrote:
I gigged with one twice per week and had no problems at all.
Actually the best solid state amp I ever used.
Pt
Woland99
almost everyday - sometimes several times a day. Took it to
NGW blues camp. Never had single problem.
JT
Jon Fox
gigs. For larger groups (most things with drums) I still use my Fender
Blues Deville, but the Cube has been great for the smaller gigs and for
keeping in the practice room or teaching studio.
Jon
--
"tomsalvojazz" <toms...@optonline.net> wrote in message
news:1125336308....@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
Rick Stone
1) Comins (2x10" model) - 60 watts, only a couple pounds heavier than the
Polytone, good overall sound, and loud enough to play without a PA on
outdoor gigs, with organ, loud drummers, etc.
2) Polytone Minibrute II - Nice lightweight amp, good for certain gigs (I
usually prefer that sound for solo and duo gigs or with my nylon string).
It also served me well on that restaurant gig. We were playing 6 nights a
week, it was a pretty quiet gig, and I felt okay about leaving it there in
the closet.
3) Fender Deluxe Reverb - My favorite in terms of sound, but I'm kind of
protective of this thing. It's not as loud as the other two, substantially
heavier, and being an older amp, dragging it around a lot can be hard on it
(tubes, connections, etc.) It took me so long to get this one to sound
EXACTLY the way I want it to (and I haven't played through another Deluxe
that I like as much as this one) that I think I'll just keep it home and use
it for recording and such.
I've got a couple others that I intend to sell. They're good amps, but I
need the space (virtually no storage space in a Brooklyn house!) I'll
probably put them on EBay, but in case anybody's interested you can contact
me via email:
Music Man RD112 - this is the 65 watt model with an EV speaker. This was my
main amp for most of the 1990s. I liked the way it sounded with my Fender
D'Aquisto and my ESP prototype archtop, but the chemistry wasn't right with
my Comins.
I've also got a custom cabinet (a reproduction of a Fender Pro) that's got a
Bandmaster Reverb head with a Weber VST AlNiCo magnet 15" speaker and a
3-spring reverb. I had quite a bit of work done on this and it's a cool
sounding amp, but I just don't need it.
Musically Yours,
Rick Stone
website: http://www.rickstone.com
Listen to clips from my new CD "Samba de Novembro" with Tardo Hammer, Yosuke
Inoue and Matt Wilson at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rickstone
And drummer Al Ashley's CD "These Are Them" featuring Dave Leibman, Rick
Stone and Oliver Von Essen at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/alashley
"Jack A. Zucker" <j...@jackzucker.com> wrote in message
news:E82dnY8OHLK...@adelphia.com...
Tom Walls
keith...@rogers.com says...
> Before switching to Polytones, I used
> vintage blackfaced Fenders and I remember a couple of my Fenders
> quitting on gigs.
> Keith
>
>
--
Tom Walls
the guy at the Temple of Zeus
Joe Finn
<rhan...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:1125335645.2...@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>I second that. I've had two Mini-Brutes (12") and one MegaBrute (8")
> and never had any real problems at all. Matter of fact, I sold the
> last one (MegaBrute) to help finance my Clarus and wish I hadn't... the
> Clarus is great, but I wish I still had a small combo amp for solo and
> duo gigs.
Same here. I've had several polytones and have yet to have a problem with an
of them. .......joe
tomsalvojazz
plunge on a new Mega Brute tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes!
Bob Agnew
have the reissue and love it, but it keeps going down and I have to keep
sending it back to the factory. It last for a few months, then same thing
again.
"Rick Stone" <rick...@rickstone.com> wrote in message
news:PLYQe.2420$LK.1034@trndny09...
skrohn
I am enjoying the Twintone very much - great amp.
I have a mini-brute that I got new in the late 70's and
another one that I got used in the early 90's. No issues
with either. I would recommend them.
I don't know about the newer polytones.
Scott
tomsalvojazz
Labor Day backyard party-type gig with it on Sunday, and I ran out of
headroom, but that's OK, because it was outside. They were a bunch of
classic rock fans anyway... hahaha! "Hey, can you play some Neil
Young?!?" UGH! Ha ha! Great tone, though! I've been enjoying it.
For the bigger things, I can always haul the Mesa Boogie...
Hey everybody - Scott here is a great player, by the way!
Tom
Rick Stone
My Fender Deluxe Reverb is a silverface. I think from the early seventies?
(it's the one WITHOUT the metal binding around the grill cloth.
Musically Yours,
Rick Stone
website: http://www.rickstone.com
Listen to clips from my new CD "Samba de Novembro" with Tardo Hammer, Yosuke
Inoue and Matt Wilson at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rickstone
And drummer Al Ashley's CD "These Are Them" featuring Dave Leibman, Rick
Stone and Oliver Von Essen at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/alashley
"Bob Agnew" <rag...@cox.net> wrote in message
news:Qf2Te.166232$E95.70720@fed1read01...