Evans amps

Steve Stallings · Post by **Steve Stallings** » 15 Oct 2001 9:08 am

I recently had problems with my two large cab evans amps. One of them started cutting out intermittently and buzzing. The other one just started making weird noises and humming. I heard of a guy in Chilton, Tx named Roy, who had worked on Dearmores and Skeeter Blacks Evans. Anyway, I took them out there and he had them for a couple of weeks (I used my two small cab evans as spares) I picked them up yesterday and he told me that these are really well built with the finest components. Apparently, the modular circuit boards had become loose over the miles and years. The one cutting out had to have a new circuit re-engraved or something like that. Also, about two months ago I had resoldered the spkr connection and it was loose. He didn't think they needed recapped. I'll try them out this week and see how they sound.

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Steve Stallings
Bremond, Texas

chas smith R.I.P. · Post by **chas smith R.I.P.** » 15 Oct 2001 10:32 am

My disclaimer, I know very little about electronics and am unafraid to to muck around where I have no business being. That said, the blue/green connector seemed to be problematic in mine so I hard-wired all of the connections with 'jumper wires' and that seemed to make a big difference.

Lee Baucum · Post by **Lee Baucum** » 15 Oct 2001 2:20 pm

I have an Evans FET-500LV (large cabinet) that Darrell built me in the early to mid-80's. It's wonderful. On the rare occasion that it has made some funny hums or noises, I have pulled the chassis out of the cabinet and removed the modular components, cleaned the connections, and "re-seated" them again. This has always fixed the problem.

Once again. It's a wonderful amp.

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Lee, from South Texas

Bill Tauson · Post by **Bill Tauson** » 15 Oct 2001 5:57 pm

I have an Evans and experienced the same problems. I called the company and they gave me some suggestions to fix it. It helped, but the problem returned. Finally, I shipped it back to Evans and they repaired it and it's worked fine since. They told me that they re-soldered all the contacts, etc.

I know of at least 3 other Evans amps which did the same thing. I'm not trying to pick on Evan's amps and they were very helpful, but I have heard of the problem before.

Fred Murphy · Post by **Fred Murphy** » 15 Oct 2001 7:34 pm

I just shipped mine off to Evans Co. and about a month ago and got it fixed. They said it had bad connections in the preamp and they replaced a capacitor. The charges were very reasonable ($25.00) labor. It would occasionally drop most volume and get static in it.

Steve Stallings · Post by **Steve Stallings** » 16 Oct 2001 7:04 am

Both of these are older amps. One has a brown control panel with the Hughey reverb control. The other is a black panel with identical controls except no Hughey reverb control. My two other Evans are both much newer and are the small cabs. All of these amps sound wonderful!

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Steve Stallings
Bremond, Texas

chas smith R.I.P. · Post by **chas smith R.I.P.** » 16 Oct 2001 10:42 am

The Evans is my first choice unless I'm going to be playing where stable power/voltage is dubious. When it doesn't get enough power it stops working and the speaker does a slow in/out oscilation movement and it's very unforgiving, so if I'm playing outdoors where the power is coming from a generator I take something else. I've been in clubs where the entire band was plugged into one circuit and during the sound check everything was fine, but when the first tune started and everyone was up, it just plain stopped, and I looked like the professional musician.

tomsteel · Post by **tomsteel** » 16 Oct 2001 9:05 pm

I might be out of line here,,,but for an amp to cost that much,,,it should be built like a tank.I mean roadworthy to the max.It seems that I,ve read and heard from other players how great they sound but give so much trouble,like they are afraid to haul it in the back of a truck for fear that it will get loose solder joints etc,etc.Any amp in that price range should have a reputation of being super reliable.I,ve never played thru one and quite frankly,I would be afraid to buy one for fear of getting a lemon.

Steve Stallings · Post by **Steve Stallings** » 17 Oct 2001 5:56 am

Well.....Both of these amps are twenty plus years old and in the shop for the first time.
They have thousands of miles on them in flight cases which have just been beat to death. More jobs than I care to remember. I think they are pretty "road-worthy". My other two Evans amps are much newer, but I would not hesitate to put them into use on the job. Just my own opinion.

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Steve Stallings
Bremond, Texas

Miguel e Smith · Post by **Miguel e Smith** » 17 Oct 2001 8:06 am

With the exception of the Evans preamps I have, I've had several Evans amps (built by Jim Evans) and literally beat them to death for many years (including flying in a road case). No piece of gear will hold up to day-in, day-out punishment. With every piece of electronics I've ever owned, I occassionally take them apart and tighten everything up and resolder most of the parts (although please be careful because you can touch some very dangerous things like large capacitors or erase memory from circuits with batteries).

I finally put to rest my Evans amps, but realize these are 25+ years old and had been rode hard and put away wet most of their life.