What is it with "amp repair" guys?

[Dante]

I don't know how these guys stay in business sometimes. This isn't the first time this has happened to me, so I gotta assume all these guys are like this;

I bring an amp to a guy, and they end up having it for OVER FOUR MONTHS. He says it's done, was supposed to send me a bill and ship it yesterday....nothing. I emailed him today, telling him I'd pay him as soon as he sends me a bill....still waiting. He's making this a lot harder and longer than it needs to be.

When I brought my MP-2 to a local guy a few years ago, he had it for EIGHT months. Only to call me later and say he couldn't find the parts to fix it. I brought it to "the authorized ADA repair guy" in the SF Bay area and he had it for another SIX MONTHS. A year after that, it's noisy again (smh)

Rant over

[bunkyloo]

Honestly most don't and won't work on anything with IC's on them. I am in southern California and can't find anyone to step to a mp-2 or classic or anything like that. A mp-1 is a little more friendly to a select few but most of these guys want to work on old fenders and marshalls wich is a different story. There are a ton of vintage tube amp guys but anything digital is lacking. I took ma mp-2 to a go and he looks at it and says (this thing has tubes in it!) totally lost. yep it is a problem.

[Dante]

My Hughes & Kettner is in the Palm Desert. Not that I'd recommend the guy for a timely repair, but he may be near you & he's familiar with the H&K midi programmability features. That's the part that throws the local guys. They see another PCB (or two or three) in there and go ...whoa....wait a minute.

The guy is gonna take 4 months to get $200. Maybe 5 months...who knows. What an unnecessary saga (sigh).

Maybe he can fix an MP-2 with a little help from us on here?

[MarshallJMP]

Hey Dante

I promise I will fix your classic sooner then 4 months  ;D

But you are right as soon as there is digital stuff involved they s**t their pants. You can't believe how many butchered mp-1's I got in that got in the hands of those so called techs. Sometimes I think they only have a 500W soldering iron.

I guess the problem is education, most are self taught and didn't have a proper electronics education or degree and only know some basic analog (tube) stuff.

[Dante]

I promise I will fix your classic sooner then 4 months  ;D

I haven't had that thing for over a year, take your time

[MarshallJMP]

Let's hope it doesn't take 4 months to arrive  ;D

[rabidgerry]

Ok so not the same kind thing but similar story, I know of an amp repair guy and I asked him to take a look at my Rockman Sustainor (guess who ended up looking at it for me  :???: ).  Anyways the guy was initially up for it and thought he could look at it.  Later on he got back to me and as he had never heard of the piece of gear had decided not to look at it.  I remember thinking had I brought it too him it would have been in his hands and he couldn't back out, but since he hadn't got it yet and I assume he really hasn't heard of it he decided it was out of his league.

I've another item rotting away I'd love looked at and I think I asked him to check this out too!  It's Boss GL-100 and he just flat out declined that one because he had never heard of it either!  That's really  :poop: in my opinion.  But if it was a valve amp apparently he's there  !!

[Dante]

Yeah, that sounds about right Gerry.

"I can solder capacitors and stuff, as long as they're not on a circuit board." 

—Amp Repair Guy

[Harley Hexxe]

I hear you Gerry,

           Valve Amps are relatively simple electronics, and while a guy might be able to do magic with valve amps, if you show him something with digital electronics, then you might as well be speaking to him in Swahili. I know a few guys like that, but they will tell you up front, they can't work on that stuff.

      Like MJMP says, they just aren't educated enough to go the complete distance in modern day electronics.

Harley 8)

[rabidgerry]

Ahh I to have an "auld bitch" (this means have a moan basically) on this thread about a guy I asked to look at my Peavey classic 50/50 power amp.

Basically he said no because he doesn't like Peavey as they do things weird apparently.  Same guy did fix an issue with my frets on one guitar and I was happy about that and when I saw he did amps stuff I figured I'd ask.  But no Peavey, wtf?

He's American too!!  What gives?  Thought he'd be happy I'm using US made equipment  :(

So yeah go figure that out.  Same guy is also a bit to quick to jump to the conclusion of buying a new guitar rather than carry out the mods I want done on some of my axes.  I don't get this attitude at all.

[MarshallJMP]

Just had a look at the schematics of the 50/50, don't see anything weird about that amp  ;D What is the problem with it, maybe I can help?

[rabidgerry]

Just had a look at the schematics of the 50/50, don't see anything weird about that amp  ;D What is the problem with it, maybe I can help?

Yeah well I knew it would be no problem for you, a guy with proper credentials when it comes to music equipment   

Oh there is no issue, but I don't know anything about tube amps so given it's age I figured it might be worth while having the amp serviced. 

So what the guy claimed was that Peavey would get 50 watts out of tubes that were usually only designed to get 30 watts therefore pushing the tubes harder and causing them to got very hot.

I replied with "that would explain the fan inside".  I said that to make him feel better because I'm pretty sure it's not uncommon to see fans in power amps.  At least in my time I've found lots of amps with fan in them, including my old AVT150 had two fans in it.  But that's besides the point.

So he was too chicken to look at my amp.

I can't say for sure but I think my version of the classic 50/50 is from the 80's.

[Harley Hexxe]

Hey Gerry,

  I have two of those Peavey Classic 50/50 amps and they are from the 80's. They are pretty good sounding power amps too.

    I bought these because I remembered auditioning an ADA MP-1 Classic through one of these on a 4X12 cab, and I was impressed with how good it sounded. Very much like a vintage Marshall.

    Just my .02 cents

[MarshallJMP]

Well he has a point, peavy is driving these EL84 very hard with a plate voltage of around 400V, normally the max is 300V but the EL84 is a very strong tube and they seem to handle it well. It's also one of the best sounding power tubes IMHO. I have a marshall 20/20, it's one of the best poweramps I have.

[rabidgerry]

Hey Gerry,

  I have two of those Peavey Classic 50/50 amps and they are from the 80's. They are pretty good sounding power amps too.

    I bought these because I remembered auditioning an ADA MP-1 Classic through one of these on a 4X12 cab, and I was impressed with how good it sounded. Very much like a vintage Marshall.

    Just my .02 cents

I mean I have one that has the older logo graphics as well so I'd love to know exactly how old it is.  I'd imagine late 80's may be?  It definitely is a good amp.  I won't lie though, I've played other power amps that are not all tube and gotten similar results.  I just have the Peavey because I can now 

Well he has a point, peavy is driving these EL84 very hard with a plate voltage of around 400V, normally the max is 300V but the EL84 is a very strong tube and they seem to handle it well. It's also one of the best sounding power tubes IMHO. I have a marshall 20/20, it's one of the best poweramps I have.

Well that's good to know he wasn't talking shit then, but he seemed terrified of it, like it was an accident waiting to happen.  I will have to look for someone else to service it I guess.  Was thinking of learning to bias the tubes myself but may be when I'm a little less busy.