Looking at the Inside of the Monoprice 15-Watt TUBE amp

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[@thseed7]

Add a disclaimer about how dangerous it can be to touch anything inside the Amp.

[@landonbailey]

you just did! pinned

[@DinosaurDillon1776]

Take the warning labels off everything that’s my motto

[@thseed7]

@@DinosaurDillon1776 gotta take them off with your tongue. That's how i got rid of all the annoying glow in the dark tritium in my dad's watch collection and the crappy peeling lead paint in our basement. Still working on the black mold in the attic, but if I can stay awake long enough, I can probably finish by February 30th.

[@johnstrandberg1652]

Mine failed after 70 hours. Got a warranty replacement. Same problem with the replacement after 200 hours - noise-buzz-squeal. Decided to try tube replacement instead of second warranty claim (2 week warranty replacement turnaround). Replaced V1 (12AX7) no change. Replaced V2&V3 (12AX7s) no change. Replaced V4&V5 (EL84 matched pair) fixed. 300 hours later now. All good. Each tube was $20. Matched pair EL84s $40. Overall with new JJ tubes it does sound a bit better. Good amp and amp design/copy. I think in my case they just had a bad batch of unbranded EL84s. I find no complaints on this amp. This was my experience. I really like the amp. Good luck.

[@BattleRattle4x4]

mine was microphonic. changed one of the 12ax7s and fixed. then it had similar noise/buzz and a set of el84's fixed it. other than that the amp is stellar.

[@DTension]

Thanks for sharing this because I am going on noise/buzz and it's been like 40 hours.

[@gerrykavanagh]

To be fair, this sounds like business as usual for valve amplifiers. In the future, though, power valves are more likely to fail, so should be swapped first

[@jonthomas1377]

Same problem with mine but my tubes were sparking when I tapped them. Replacement Sovetek El 84's did not fix anything so I sent it back. May have had a loose solder joint but I could not see anything on the board. Overall I am happy with the amp but would have a backup if I were a gigging musician. I think the overall consensus from reviewers is that this is the best little home amp you can get for the $.

[@jackpallet773]

Mine too.. 2 failed in a year

[@michelmarleau937]

Hi Landon, I'm a retired electrical engineer. The board assemblies are very good. Little details like blobs of glue securing the caps to the board to prevent vibration failures is very good. Most of the cost is in the speaker (Celestion 70/80), not my favourite but ok. They used to stuff V30's in there I believe. Transformers are costly but I can't tell anything about those. If the amp works well, they're probably good and will last forever. If they get too hot, it could be a problem down the road. Next is the tubes. I can't tell if there are provisions to balance the bias for the tubes from just looking at the pcb. For the money I think you can't go wrong.

[@landonbailey]

appreciate the review! cheers

[@valueofnothing2487]

​@@landonbailey Output transformer info might be good to know. If it is too small, it may not have wide frequency response.

[@danielpayne3336]

Uncle Doug did a run through on the 5watt version and didn't have much bad to say about that one

[@johnosborne3187]

This is a Laney Cub 12R. When I found the schematic on line, it says Laney right on it. It is a fabulous amp. Admittedly, the QC isn't awesome and you can get a DOA one. I bought 4 at a local auction for about $50 each, I got 2 of them working flawlessly so far. I replaced the tubes and have put all of my many other amps away. This is an absolute gem. I continue to discover new, amazing tones. It takes pedals exceptionally well and even sounds great with my HX stomp with Amp and Cab sims turned on. If you're looking for the best deal on a great tube amp with an effects loop and reverb tank, this is the one to get!

[@gerrykavanagh]

The lighter green is because the board is single-sided and has no solder-mask on the unsoldered side. Honestly, these amps are good for the money. They do have some potential failure points - tube sockets mounted directly to the board being the main one, but all in all, not terribly badly designed

[@ChengLi1979]

as often mentioned: it is a laney cub 12r and the laney comes with quite the same preamp like the jcm800. ❤ and the stage right is labeled in germany with harley benton. 😅

[@matereo]

No its a Laney LC15, the model they discontinued when they made the Cub series

[@user-rx7kw6ro6y]

Yeah SubZero branded if it's from one UK based outlet. About £50 cheaper for us to get that one than getting the one from Thomann. That said they also do the 50w version which I might be tempted with.

[@SeanBrown-jz6bf]

First one I received in 2023, was DOA. Wouldn't even turn on. Replacement, no problem. I thought it sounded OK, but I noticed the tubes that I was told were JJ's, had no markings on them. Replaced all 5 with new tubes from tube depot and wow, what a difference. I also added a 3 spring reverb. I then bought a Monoprice speaker cabinet for around $170.00 (good deal), that came with a Celestron Vintage 30 and put that speaker in it. Don't know about the quality of the components, but it's at least a good amp for modding.

[@pm00re1]

I use 2 of these in stereo. Bought a couple years ago, no problems at all so far. And a while back Darrell Braun (DBG) did a video where he swapped the 70/80 for 2 more expensive Celestions, I think a Greenback and a Blue Alnico, and did sound tests to see if a higher end speaker would improve the amp. After listening to them all, I found that I actually preferred the 70/80. So I'm real happy with my purchase.

[@ebikes2xs159]

70/80 speaker gets a bad rap because it doesn't cost a lot so it can't be good syndrome. In fact, I think it's the best celestion made for clean tone.

[@ranman58635]

I took apart a old England made amp and all the capacitors were orange caps. Good! I used them in a few of my guitar's and wow! If anything, you can replace certain parts with more quality ones or higher values and make a cheaper unit sound way different. I wish I didn't sell those guitar's cause the tones were unique. 1970s amp

[@ebikes2xs159]

Lets see here; all tube, real spring reverb, effects loop, master tone knob and 1w attenuation. My $1500 amp I replaced with this Monoprice had almost none of those features. I made a few sweet mods to fit my tone goals and it kicks ass. My only amp now.

[@SpunktAlex]

What was the stuff/mods you did to yours?

[@zanzabar4ky7]

It is a Laney cub 15 with b stock parts. You might get a good or it might be bad

[@jonthomas1377]

Hey Landon I am on the search for new speakers to try. I do not mind the 70/80 at all, it is a decent speaker and did not really get anything "special" by plugging it into my 2x12" with the vintage 30's. Creamback, Hempback, Cannibus Rex, G12t 75? The electronics are what you can expect in a sub $600 amp. I suggest you check out the guitaroligists or other repair video channels to see what makes these things tick! The main benefit of hand wired is the ability to fix it 20 years down the road or make modifications. Most of the repair guys hate it when you surface mount hot tube sockets to the board. Heat kills the components next to the tubes and testing or replacing the tiny transistors is beyond most of us.

[@spookshilljoe7376]

I have one of these for 3 years now. I changed the speaker for an eminence Patriot texas heat and it made a big difference. Still the same tubes and not one problem. It came with JJ 's. Probably my best purchase with tube amps.

[@6stringcodger450]

Got one of these for emergencies in the living room. I have plenty of big $$$ gear including twin reverb and others, but really love this little gem. Sure you gotta fiddle w/knobs to make the tone you desire, but it covers most natural amp tones I need w/o pedals...I just dont drag pedals and crap into the living room, so I cannot comment on pedal capability. It is crazy great when u consider it only costs as much as 2 pedals anyway! As a retired EE and PCB designer, I dont really see any issues w/the boards but always like to see more clearance between resistors and board for thermal stability but cant really see it in the vid and have never pulled mine apart. As for purists and snobs: Take any amp into a club/bar/pavillion and play, no way you could spot any issues with something like this. (most venues make a mess of things, PA or no PA system).

[@landonbailey]

what about bathroom emergencies?

[@stefpenfield5918]

Mine came with a Celestion Hot 100. Sounds great. Customer service seems perplexed.

[@TheFreeman4955]

Mine has a Hot 100. I have always wondered why that shipped like that.

[@brianxcunningham]

I recently got one, w a Hot 100, DOA. Walmart said keep it. Ordered another, works good, came with Seventy 80. I asked about that. They said it was a supplier issue and the 100 is the better speaker.

[@MrMojabo]

Love mine. Speaker change is all 30 watt 70 Anniversary. Mines is steady and ready. Board goes in front. Play it with people who say hey that amp sounds great. Cant beat the 1 watt setting dimed on volume 2or 3 on gain.

[@sboy1955]

Guts look pretty well done, depends on the parts quality. Thanks for the views, was curious about it.

[@danieloren6109]

I mean, its a PCB amp, but it looks like most of the power handling components are through hole as opposed to surface mount which is good. Still plenty of surface mount components to cut on costs though. Would love to get a better look at the capacitors and see how close they're cutting it for voltage ratings. Some of those solder joints on the tube mounts look a little cold, but no big red flags. All said I'd assume it's susceptible to the issues that most PCB amps suffer from with overheating and such. (HRD and Blues Deluxe amps are notorious for this, but they also cost nearly 4x the price).

[@andersbarfodsvaneskolan9378]

It looks like the laney cub 12r I had. It was a good sounding amp but my problem was the power transformer. It got hot really fast.. The signal started to get soft and undefined.. It is a rather small one that powers three 12ax7 and two EL84 and I think the current draw on the filaments are a little to much for the small PT. 3x 300mA and 2x790mA which is almost 2.5A of current draw.. They used the same power transformer on the cub10 with 300V on the plates but the cub 10 has 2 12ax7 and 2 6v6gt tubes which in total draws less current on the filaments.

[@mrwiggles837]

I've built/designed a couple of amps in my day and I'm gonna level with you, electronic components are cheap... like dirt cheap. Unless you are getting some marketing based bullshit capacitors or out of production germanium diodes etc they aren't gonna be very expensive. Even in higher end amps. What you pay for is R&D, brand names and labour costs. The parts that you do have to spend a bit of coin on and likely where they saved their money are transformers, speakers, cabinetry. pots and switches can vary in quality too.

[@jeffwatson4908]

Curious as to what is the replacement cost for the tubes and how easy is it to find them? I know several lower end brands use Russian replacement tubes which were I understand not very durable.

[@GearCat]

Does yours have the spring reverb ? Mine does, that was the main selling feature. I found with mine, it has a lot of hum to it. Tried everything to get rid of the hum, but I can only drop it if reverb if off. Monoprice even replaced it, no charge, and the new one had JJ tubes. Still hums with reverb. I had to just leave it off and use pedals instead :/

[@jayp.2313]

I got atwo types one 5 watt tricked out for harmonica too. Ronnie Shelley model

[@DavidSmith-xz4zz]

The biggest problem is it's a cheap pcb with tube sockets mounted directly to it. Amps like that tend to have issue due to heat from the tubes dissipating into said pcb and killing the tiny transistors and crap around them. In this particular case, they cut a bunch of cost by making the cabinet from pressboard too.

[@jayp.2313]

I got a wharehouse speaker and sping reverb to upgrade it.

[@benallmark9671]

I love mine. I use a JHS little black box pedal through the fx loop and she sounds great at nice low volumes.

[@tkdoff]

I get the same thing happening as with the JHS black box, except I have a Zoom G1 Four plugged into the effects loop for some delay and chorus, turn the amp up and control my volume with the output volume of the G1 Four. I know it's budget, but it's never getting more than 10 feet from my couch, so it should last. I love my budget rig, monoprice, zoom, Epiphone Wilshire, and a Epiphone LP junior. Can't have a better hobby.

[@benallmark9671]

@@tkdoff that’s awesome , great little rig. I bet it sounds bitchin. Enjoy bro

[@brianxcunningham]

I got a DOA one that Walmart told me to keep. If its a transformer, what do you suppose a shop would charge to replace it?

[@deanmccaskill5495]

Do you mind pointing me to a link for that db meter please? Thanks dude Cool video btw

[@jayp.2313]

This will be helpful.

[@thejonathandoan]

Is there a way to remove the front plate to "edit" it? I like that amp; I like that it has tubes, and is affordable, but I effing HATE that reflective front plate. I'm not all that fond of the color: I could probably just dye it or paint over it to change the vibe. I just don't like the reflective front panel. I would remove it, change it to a brushed look, and probably add new decals so I could see the settings better. It's a great amp for the price, but I would want to make it look more cool, personally.

[@matereo]

It is actually a rebranded Laney LC15.. it could be had as an oem after Laney discontinued it for the Laney Cub series. Its a very good amp for its modest money

[@davidmahoney1248]

Thanks for the PIXIES riff Landon.😊

[@landonbailey]

Any time!

[@jjjddd231]

Need more detailed close-ups of the components on the board and to try and follow the traces. Are things tightened properly? Check all the pots and the transformers. I would guess that nothing here gets hand tightened. What is the warranty?

[@edwardkujawa]

iv got a super champ x//d and its comrable to yours twin 6v6s not el34 but i d say you did good it looks pretty good to me time will tell in the long run take care

[@reesewaller238]

Mine died after 2 months-haven't had time to check it out.hope it's a tube problem.

[@hadleymanmusic]

I got one I think its a good deal. Boss metal zone turns it metal pure

[@Wooburnmusic]

Possibly the head version and separate speaker cab would be a better idea therefore the heat from the valves possibly wont damage the PCB boards.

[@davelewis4215]

You can buy both the Harley Benton combo versions as heads now.👍

[@landonbailey]

Oh cool!

[@bottomkitchen250]

Wait, this little amp has a spring reverb? Did I see that right? I'm looking at the RCA cables. If not reverb tank is that how the speaker is connected? Interesting.

[@brianxcunningham]

To use the spring, you need a switch plugged in. Kinda goofy IMHO

[@jeffrocx8599]

It looks like it was made with quality components using robotic assembly. Mixtures of surface mount and through hole parts. It could use a better speaker.

[@indigos290]

It's cheap. It's junk. But it's amazing! If you're willing and tender with your hands on the PC board you can sure up the solder joints and and the clips (which you will have most of your problems with) and maybe change the Cas to higher quality caps and you could have yourself a top class gigging amp.

[@briggsmiller7095]

I bought mine from Monoprice for $199 with free shipping. What a friggin' steal. It's my living room amp.

[@ediek8048]

The first thing you have to do to this amp is change the speaker mounting board. The cab is made of particle board, of course, but the speaker mounting board is not even made of particle board, it is made of about a half inch of cardboard. Both the very wimpy screws attaching the speaker to the mounting board and the screws attaching the board to the cab will tear out with any amount of jostling. If you have this amp, check this out right away.

[@MrMojabo]

Changed my speaker. Yes it was really in there. But my amp is ery solid. Nothing broke

[@voxpathfinder15r]

I think it’s ok, has some smd - but so what. The big takeaway is even if it died. There’s plenty of room to install a handwired board

[@RulgertGhostalker]

looks decent... I see a few surface mount components, but that's not bad if you don't need to work on it .....some people don't mind fixing surface mount. mostly looks like good through hole stuff. t's really all in the engineering......If they are planning on selling millions, they make the investment of having it well designed, and setting up a super organized production facility.

[@robraaiii]

I mentioned in the review video that I got mine during one of their sales for $210 USD shipped. (Though you risk availability by waiting). I don’t know what it is that I wish was different… just wish the sound was “warmer” I guess? If I wanted to try a speaker swap, any suggestions on a good one?

[@raytorvalds3699]

Celestion G12T-75 could be one for you (make sure it's the 8 Ohm version).

[@robraaiii]

@@raytorvalds3699 I’ll look into that one. Ty 👍🏻

[@matthewtyler-jones8317]

Mine (different brand - Hartswood, but actually the same) came with a Vintage 30

[@robraaiii]

@@matthewtyler-jones8317 the HB and the Stage Right are the exact same with exception of different name plates. With the Hartswood, it seems that different build quality, color options and speaker makes it comparable but not really the same. I just saw the dark green one. Wish I had that instead.

[@hughschick6847]

Weber 12A150A. makes it huge. lots of headroom.

[@jogmas12]

So what popular amp is this Monoprice amp supposed to mimic? Vox, Fender, Marshall, peavy, orange, ……..?

[@robdouglas4743]

To my ears it’s sound somewhere between a fender blues jr and a vox ac 15. The additional tone control along with the bass,mids and treble gets you a decently wide range of tones

[@Bliggick]

When you had the chassis out and exposed it looked like the two boards at the top had the date 08/22/23 (September 22, 2023) on them and the one on the bottom had 08/16/23 (September 16, 2023) on it.

[@satanbane]

It looks roughly the same style of construction as you'd get with Fender or others costing much more. Most economical way to get better construction at a similar price would be to build from a kit -- if you're able to. Otherwise, this looks like a reasonably good deal.

[@novlangst3767]

I miss my Montarbo and Session amps.

[@faceboxtv4789]

Hello and thank you for your video , I think This amp is cheap because is it built in china and of course it dose not sound good like other ramps more expansive, depends on the engineer design, but electronically build well from what I see good quality components the same that you fine in a mesaboogie or Marshall fender etc … , you can make sounds batter by upgrading the vacuum tube and of course the speaker… cheers from Italy ✌️🎵

[@martin-1965]

Great little amp at bargain price. Sure it's not my old 1978 Marshall Bluesbreaker, but it's a tiny bit cheaper and for home use a lot more neighbour-friendly. Only thing I changed on mine is the spring reverb and chucked in a 3 spring instead of the standard 2 spring. Sounds good enough to these old ears and last time I gigged a small venue, even had the sound guy tell me to turn it down as it was too loud. Are the electronics cheap? Sorry Landon, no idea but probably. But mine's been fine for over 2 years now, no problems whatsoever and unlike my Bluesbreaker, I can actually carry it with one hand :)

[@I.M.Guitar-Nerd]

I think the price is so low due to the economy of scale, Monoprice is going to be selling a ton of these and so is Thomann. Not to mention all of the ones that Laney has sold as the Cub 15r.

[@HandWiredAmps]

Want it to sound better? Eq out 250-400 Hz about 6db.

[@JoeC712]

Gibson Falcon in a different case.

[@landonbailey]

😱

[@tedfitzgerald3153]

Maybe you know two things?

[@donaldharris8826]

My Two Marshall Dual Speaker Slant Front Cabs came with 70/80 Celestion Speakers in them. They Sound Great, so I have yet to change the speakers out. I do not hear the Need, but I can enhance the Tone by Wattage, Ohms, ECT. Or by Changing Out the Speakers or by Mixing Speaker Brands /Models in the two cabs. I have Celestion Greenback 30's, Celestion Other Models & Wattages, JBL, Eminence, Jensen, Fender & Peavey Speakers !!! Heavens I got a lot of gear Yaw'll !!! "Nice Amp", but the Tranny Looks Too Small To Push This Amp", IMHO" !!! Play 🎸On . . . 👍🆒🤘🎼😀🇺🇸🙏 DDH 3-18-2024.

[@hadleymanmusic]

It reminds me of those kits from china you can build. Probly had so many made it was cheaper to build into an amp and sell than store circuit kits that dont sell. So its inexpensive

[@PipeCat1965]

Go watch Uncle Doug's take on this amp, to answer those very questions.

[@andrewbecker3700]

It's that cheap because it's assembled with the least expensive parts available 8 years ago. So its probably a $200 unit that's been marked up.

[@CraigDeubler]

Stick a green back in there, let's see how Voxy it really is 😄

[@rockoutmichigan]

They come with a decent stock speaker, but the tubes and circuitry are a bit low-end.

[@roberttower8059]

The ones manufactured in the past 3-4 years come stock with JJ tubes. Not low-end at all.

[@rockoutmichigan]

@@roberttower8059 Oh nice! The one I saw was a few years old.

[@coreyoffman8739]

Can you perform all over the world like to USA like Justin Bieber, drake and Shawn mendes

[@malcolmhardwick4258]

For the price it aint bad. Amps costing way more are not much better other than their name !

[@gsbguitarsgsb679]

So maybe you should collaborate with the guitoligiest he works on guitar amps.

[@user-ev9qw3om1g]

I wouldn't be surprised if he had parts left over.

[@jayp.2313]

Cheap labor??

[@simonsmith2642]

Pots on the board. Tube sockets on the board. Cheap transformer etc. The speaker is the asian made version. Basically everything looks like most cheap China made electronics. Built like toys. And will last about as long. That amp probably cost less than $50 bucks to manufacture.

[@prsman23]

It's all cheap components. Nothing to be shocked about at this price point. The pcb looks as if it's cheaper quality. No real "good" caps to speak of. The transformers look generic and not branded (not that it means a ton) but probably ok for a good few years. Not really worth bench time for servicing though. One of those when it breaks get another.

[@billfournier3625]

It's cheap because of the labor costs.

[@oldasrocks9121]

Well, dookey rolls down hill, y'know? Its the sum of all its minor deficits. It might not have a lot of stamina over time, small failures will cascade and it'll eventually take a shite. Its cheap for a set of reasons: they didnt design it, they just copied the Laney Cub 12R. The pcb layout was just pumped through layout software without experienced designers checking for potential failure points and trouble spots. The cabinet is the crappiest fiberboard on planet earth. The bigger through-hole components are the absolute least expensive parts on planet earth. The transformers are sufficient at best. Everything but the line assembly is automated inxluding populating the boards and loading them in the wave soldering tanks. The people plugging the wires onto the spade connectors and screwing the big stuff into the cabinet don't get paid much so the manufacturer can stay well inside their margins (the folks handling the containers on our side of the shipping process and getting the parcel to your house are likely the best paid of every employee involved.) It's likely no tech will volunteer to fix it when it takes a turn since her bench fee to just diagnose it will be just over 1/2 the MSRP plus she'd be right to suspect she'll find a tight little nest packed with nightmares. HOWEVER, its a perfect amo to learn amp wrenching skills upon because it is more or less disposable. But it is also redeemable depending upon your level of determination once it goes tits up.

[@rayfabris2512]

mine has been popping and starting yesterday it started sqealing does that sound familiar? i rescued it at a pawn shop $140 cabinet damage i had scrap wood solid cabinet wood so i made a new cabinet removed the electronics and was working great until the past couple days but i was thinking tubes if so where did you get them I'm new to tube world I've lived in apartments now a house n garage but this works great at 1 watt at 11 pm for my neighbors so if you have any advice I'd appreciate it thanks and have a good holiday weekend Rock On I'm trying i do have a Marshall but need a new speaker cabinet so I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place right now 🤯 lol

[@landonbailey]

Could be the tubes

[@russlora]

Total junk ,, All metal film resistors ,,harsh.. cheap components in a well build cab

[@jayp.2313]

I got a wharehouse speaker and sping reverb to upgrade it.