possibly not the best cap job in the world...

[Alex R]

... or how not to install two new F&T 2x32uF cans and some radials .

I'm not one to criticise other guys' work, but oh my lord... Dunno who did it by the way, a customer bought it like this and thought he should have it checked up because it was humming (I bet it was).

[Enzo]

SOmeone brought in an amp recently with some cap related complaint. Also wanted me to make it stop rattling.

I found a couple radial e-caps taped together with wires running to the circuits. But they were not anchored, they were just laying in there. The loose caps were the rattle. I showed the guy and then instaled a couple terminal strips.

[Sweetfinger]

There are a great, great many people in this world who have absolutely no concept whatsoever that the things they build, repair, use, or ship, will MOVE! Possibly even bonked, dropped, or rattled for 14 hours over a bumpy dirt road in the bed of a truck.

I've seen those kinds of cap fittings on amps. I've seen guitars rewired with rats-nests of uninsulated leads stuffed in the cavity *just so*, but the moment you jostle the thing it cuts out. I get things on Ebay that arrive packed so poorly that I am amazed they get to me at all.
What can ya do?
When I have one of my guys pack something or am asked for advice on how to pack something like a guitar or amp, I usually tell them to pack it well enough that you would feel comfortable standing in the doorway and THROWING the package to the shipping desk. They look startled but you can see the gears working sometimes. Yes, those people down at the warehouse, or airport, or just behind the wall at the counter don't know or care what's inside, they just, yes, THROW it where its going.

Same with refitting components like those electrolytics. I'm thinking about this amp being abused for the next 20 years and whether or not anything is going to come loose. If it does will it touch anything else? It isn't always possible to make those repairs look elegant, although I try, but if you just think about it, you can at least make them durable and serviceable.

[Alex R]

What cracks me up are all those carefully written notes he made on the chassis before he got in there and started soldering everything to everything else.

[dkevin]

Oh My!,

I saw one of this guy's amps the other day. It was my cousin's "unmolested" Silvertone 1481 that he got from E-Bay. This one had definitely been molested several times.

[jrfrond]

I just HATE sloppy work, and won't tolerate it! And THAT is a pig-sty!!!

Makes me wanna track down the tech who did it and slap 'im upside the head!

If I saw one of my techs turn out work like that, I'd let them go. My rule is that it must look as close to unrepaired as possible.

The sh*t I've seen over the years is unspeakable.

[R.G.]

I think that this is for certain

.... **==> Hand Wired Point to Point <==** ...

work.

At least this is very much like the image that comes to my mind when I see "hand wired, point to point" in advertising.

I did a series of articles for a music magazine a while back. One of them was on the issue of hand wired point to point as a selling mechanism. The central question is and will always be

... but whose hands did this?...

The image these words attempt to conjure up is a smart, educated, wise, experienced craftsman who has devoted his life to making the very best (whatever) that it's possible to make, someone who has the knowledge and skill to wring the very best, highly tuned, rock solid performance out of every single part and connection.

And it's possible that is what happened. But the reality is sometimes disappointing. Just like turning over rocks and seeing what lives there.

[Alex R]

Yep, it's definitely been wired by hand, and I can confirm that the wires go from one point to another point. Mostly.

I am half way through putting the damn thing right. I may even consider posting photos of the work when I have completed it (eek). In the meantime, a couple more 'before' pics...

[jrfrond]

I recently did a ripout and restore of an even uglier mish-mosh on an Ampeg B-18N that is in use in a major recording studio here in NYC. They complained that it rattled and hummed (and U2 wasn't even in sight! ). The rattle came from the loose caps AND a partially-blown/loose speaker, and the hum was from poorly-dressed (ya THINK???) wiring. Sometimes you just have to rip it out and start ALL over.

[Regis]

Hope that guy never gets a job in a nuclear power plant!

[tedmich]

the fact these amps functioned at all suggest that guitar amps in general are more "robust" than say...nuclear power plants.

[CharlieP]

The guy may have worked on an oil drilling platform!