Silly Repairs

[The Dude]

So, this amp came in for repair today and I got a good chuckle out of it. The symptom was "Comes on but speaker doesn't make any sound". It took only a few seconds to find the problem.

[glebert]

Did they bring in a pair of headphones for you to fix too?

[The Dude]

Did they bring in a pair of headphones for you to fix too?

[Enzo]

So they screwed it up?

[nevetslab]

More than once I've found a Fender Deluxe Reverb over in the repair shelf area (of CenterStaging's Guitar Dept Rental Depot) with a gaffer's tape label stating 'NO VIBRATO'. I brought it back to the shop, set it up on the bench, saw there was no pedal unit in the back plugged in, and plugged in my dummy plug to activate it. Vibrato worked just fine. Sigh.......

The new 'standard' for labeling over there, instead of a gaffers' tape labels marked 'NFG', they're now placing a large 'X' in Gaffer'e tape on the gear. That's like taking a person that's unconscious to the emergency room and just dropping him off. Guitar techs.

[bob p]

so did backing out the screw fix everything, or did the screw break the headphone jack?

did you bother to ask WHY that screw was there in the first place?

[The Dude]

I removed the screw and it worked. No damage to the jack. The guy had his grand kids over for the weekend. He's pretty sure one of them did it.

[bob p]

ah... reminds me of the PBJ sandwich in the VCR tape slot...

[The Dude]

I actually got several of those back when that commercial was running. "It eats these things". I remember one in particular that was full of Christmas decorations, but you'd find all sorts of things from Cheerios to combs to spoons, etc.
One I'll never forget: Some kid stuck one of those "Lite Brite" pegs into the 1/4" headphone jack of Dad's receiver. That one took longer to find because you couldn't see it unless you peeked deep inside the jack.

Edit: I found the commercial!

[killivolt]

I worked at a TV repair shop for 10 years part time, the boss hires a new kid and he's trying to acclimate to the shop he is walking around pocking his head into everything I'm doing. At the time I was working on a Yamaha 5 Disk Player, this particular player was something my boss had no idea was wrong with it. He had never been successful repairing them when they displayed read error, thinking it was a bad laser he ordered one and it was my job to install it, I put in the laser and of course it didn't work.

So, the kid is behind me and asked what was wrong with it, I said I have no idea I'm not an engineer, maybe you can fix it I said, he's a young buck fresh out of school. Me I'm self taught and still don't know anything but, I try anyway. However, this kid say's well what did you do, I said installed a new laser but it still won't read, he said where is the laser with my finger outstretched a foot away I point to it in the corner of the disk player. He say's so where is the laser, I said in the middle, he said what? I said in the middle of that square thing in the corner, he said why are you pointing your finger so far away. I said, I'm not strapped down and the player is on, he said but I don't see where your pointing to, so I moved my finger closer thinking I'm ok about an inch from the eye of the laser when suddenly a blue spark jumps off my finger into the eye of the laser or thereabout.


To my astonishment as to what just occurred I look at the kid and he's looking at me, Through the window of my bosses office I turn to see if he's looking, lucky for me he's not.

I'm thinking I just killed a possible repair this thing is barely out of warranty and is still around $500 OMG!!!!!

So, I quickly unplugged it and crossed my fingers hoping it would turn on when I plugged it back in, suddenly it began searching for disks, I'm thinking what the hell? So, I put in some disks and I explained to my boss what happened, we sat it on the finished bench and played it for 3 weeks without fail. We still don't know exactly what happened but, maybe I discharged a loaded cap or something? Customer happy boss happy, but I'm still confused to this day.

kv

[Chuck H]

Doesn't this belong in the what did you find in an amp thread

A stupid and obvious reason why something doesn't work isn't reserved for novices BTW. It happened to me. I was selling a little Boogie amp. The potential customer came into my living room and I fetched the amp for him to try it out. And no sound came out. I wiggled and jiggled a few things, checked knobs and connections and just otherwise scratched my head. Said goodbye to the guy with the agreement that I'd call him when I figured it out...

This amp has a small "mute" switch on the UNDERSIDE of the chassis. NOT on the back panel. When I moved the amp I must have inadvertently flipped it. Since I never use the switch I didn't even think about it. And since you can't SEE the switch, and actually have to reach THROUGH the rear baffle vent and FEEL for it under the chassis, I couldn't see that it had been flipped.

[Jazz P Bass]

Happened to me too Chuck.

[Gnobuddy]

A stupid and obvious reason why something doesn't work isn't reserved for novices BTW.

At a jam recently, the regular sound guy didn't show up. I was asked if I'd set up and run the sound instead. It's an unfamiliar mixer, but I get stuff plugged in, and find that all the microphones work, but nothing plugged into a line-level input works.

Ten minutes of hurried faffing about follows, then I finally realize I've plugged all the line-level sources into channel insert jacks.

On this particular mixer, the XLR mic inputs are on the front face, as are the insert jacks - but the line inputs are on the back panel.

This amp has a small "mute" switch on the UNDERSIDE of the chassis.

That should be sufficient cause for hurling overripe bananas at the engineer who came up with that idea. And everyone else in the chain who approved it for production.

-Gnobuddy

[bob p]

That should be sufficient cause for hurling overripe bananas at the engineer who came up with that idea. And everyone else in the chain who approved it for production.

that smells like a small time operation to me. any major production facility with a decent bean counter would have eliminated that switch as an unnecessary expense.