How did you get started building/fixing/modifying guitar amplifiers?

[Two Rock User]

I got started in the 1972 as a teen working for my dad during summers from high school. My dad owned an aircraft maintenance shop. I learned hands on basic electricity and mechanics, and later radio bench repair. Before graduating from high school in 1977, I got into ham radio, and also tested for, and received my FCC first class radio telephone license along with my first ham license (novice) in 1976. Electrical and mechanical things have been a part of my life as an avocation and profession all my life to this time which is going on 40 yrs. Tube guitar amps have been the easiest of all things I deal with electronic to repair and maintain.

I'm loving the renewed popularity in old school fabrication that the smaller tube amp makers are bringing back. after I got out of high school, I'd never thought then, that these old school construction techniques would fade, and then come back. It's good to see it.

[Prairie Dawg]

That's interesting as I got my start (I guess) when I got my A&P license at Northrop Institute in Inglewood California in 1980 taking basic electricity and NC&I which was where I learned how to do AN lacing of wire bundles.
The nice thing about old school construction methods is that they are a craft like quilting or cooking, which always leaves room for artisans who've developed a niche market.

[Two Rock User]

That's interesting as I got my start (I guess) when I got my A&P license at Northrop Institute in Inglewood California in 1980 taking basic electricity and NC&I which was where I learned how to do AN lacing of wire bundles.
The nice thing about old school construction methods is that they are a craft like quilting or cooking, which always leaves room for artisans who've developed a niche market.

By the time I took my FAA General, Airframe, Powerplant written exams and 8hr Oral and Practical for my A&P in 1987, I already had 15 years hands on experience working in the shop with my dad. I had the experience to be endorsed and signed-off to take the exams. I was very lucky, as this was light years better experience than any classroom. I am A&P/IA 460232284.

This is the rub with tech schools........

It impossible to teach much of what hands on experience doing the job you are being trained for. The only way to get the experience is by doing the job.

The license is only the gateway to learn what you need to know. There is no substitute for hands on experience.

[Prairie Dawg]

That's true and you were very fortunate- not everyone's father owns an FBO-or a TV repair shop, or is a bricklayer or a concrete finisher either with time and interest enough to teach a family member all the way along the learning curve without the usual profit motivated consequences that seem to trip up strangers and mere employees. And we don't do apprenticeships in this country any more. So you take what you can where you find it, and nobody held my hand because they were all 2,500 miles away and had never been west of Allentown.

The places I worked you had to learn fast because one f**k up and you were gone-at least the ones where you weren't smart enough to figure out how to fix it before you self reported, and that's where personal relationships come in handy.

Hands on experience is stratified, too. I've seen it work both ways but if you don't start with a feel for the things in your hands, you're not going to get far-kinda like me and sheet metal work. When I worked for Garrett, when we didn't have anything better to do in the engine shop somebody'd had us a large plastic bag of fuel nozzle tips for rebuilding. So you'd strip them down, cook 'em in Oakite, clean, reassemble and test flow. I could do maybe 100 in a day but the one female mech in the shop who wasn't much of a motor mechanic could do usually 350-400 nozzle tips in an eight hour shift. Different people have differing abilities and competences.

When I went through it Northrop had a night program and it was four hours, four nights a week, for better than two years and that was after a full day on my feet behind the counter in an auto parts store.

After that I was an engine mechanic (PT6, TPE331, TFE731, ATF-3, CF34 and JT15D in a number of places and finished as an MD11/KC10 flight line inspector at McD-D in Long Beach. Still got my A&P and my FCC General but the IA went when I couldn't meet the recurrency requirement.

One thing I did find is that real knowledge is rare, and the ability to communicate it rarer still, and the willingness to share it is even rarer. Some folks you'll meet up with on the trail or on the shop floor will share that knowledge, but there are those who will see you as a threat or just enjoy being able to feel a little bit superior, self appointed gatekeepers of knowledge.

If he'd listened to these kinds of folks Chris Columbus still wouldn't have discovered the Canary Islands-sometimes you gotta break new trail.

[Two Rock User]

That's true and you were very fortunate- not everyone's father owns an FBO-or a TV repair shop, or is a bricklayer or a concrete finisher either with time and interest enough to teach a family member all the way along the learning curve without the usual profit motivated consequences that seem to trip up strangers and mere employees. And we don't do apprenticeships in this country any more. So you take what you can where you find it, and nobody held my hand because they were all 2,500 miles away and had never been west of Allentown.

The places I worked you had to learn fast because one f**k up and you were gone-at least the ones where you weren't smart enough to figure out how to fix it before you self reported, and that's where personal relationships come in handy.

Hands on experience is stratified, too. I've seen it work both ways but if you don't start with a feel for the things in your hands, you're not going to get far-kinda like me and sheet metal work. When I worked for Garrett, when we didn't have anything better to do in the engine shop somebody'd had us a large plastic bag of fuel nozzle tips for rebuilding. So you'd strip them down, cook 'em in Oakite, clean, reassemble and test flow. I could do maybe 100 in a day but the one female mech in the shop who wasn't much of a motor mechanic could do usually 350-400 nozzle tips in an eight hour shift. Different people have differing abilities and competences.

When I went through it Northrop had a night program and it was four hours, four nights a week, for better than two years and that was after a full day on my feet behind the counter in an auto parts store.

After that I was an engine mechanic (PT6, TPE331, TFE731, ATF-3, CF34 and JT15D in a number of places and finished as an MD11/KC10 flight line inspector at McD-D in Long Beach. Still got my A&P and my FCC General but the IA went when I couldn't meet the recurrency requirement.

One thing I did find is that real knowledge is rare, and the ability to communicate it rarer still, and the willingness to share it is even rarer. Some folks you'll meet up with on the trail or on the shop floor will share that knowledge, but there are those who will see you as a threat or just enjoy being able to feel a little bit superior, self appointed gatekeepers of knowledge.

If he'd listened to these kinds of folks Chris Columbus still wouldn't have discovered the Canary Islands-sometimes you gotta break new trail.

Uh huh.....nothing new there.

Here's what there is more of today than when I was learning a trade as a young man.

Lazy, clueless people.

No long flowery talk will change that.

Information is easier to get today than when I was learning.

There was no internet when I was a kid. Going back to the OP, I understand his point, and agree with most of what he's getting at.

Also, and again, the know how to do so many things comes by doing.

Period......

And, a good many skills are earned. You can't "drill a hole in someones head and pour the necessary knowledge in", hyperbole for sure, but out of aggravation.

Too many want a simple turnkey answer/solution for so many things without doing anything for it, and even if you tried to explain things you learned they wouldn't and couldn't understand the answer(s).

I see it everyday on the tech and admin side of my business. People to damn lazy to look something up, figure something out on their own. They don't even try. Many times, it ends up easier to just "do it yourself". I don't waste my time with lazy stupid people that don't want to learn.

Then there are the eloquent talkers. These bags of wind, who to hear them express themselves "they sound so intelligent", but when it comes to doing something, they fall down hard. I tell them "spend more time doing, and being good at doing, then trying to sound like you're good at doing what you're supposed to be doing".

Then I'll see the rare exception, the individual who's busted their ass doing all the leg work, nose in the tech manual trying to figure out a complex electrical or mechanical system, they beat them self to death and shook down a system. They've worked so hard, but they missed one simple minor thing. The same thing I missed the first time I was in their situation troubleshooting this specific system. But they're trying hard. That's the individual I'm glad to help. I give them the little piece of information they would have figured out sooner or later, sooner. They fix the problem, and they're grateful. They don't easily forget what they learned because of how they learned it. But most importantly, they earned it.

[Two Rock User]

So rather than do it backwards by just "jumping into it" with someone holding my hand through it all, I instead learned all the basics I could a few years prior to poking around high voltage stuff. Electricity is something to be respected and the more knowledge you can arm yourself with prior to tackling complex jobs on amps the better for your own safety.

Everyone feel free to post up your "How I got started" stories!

Exactly!!!!!!!!!!

[Prairie Dawg]

To tell the honest truth I do not see how an aircraft mechanic can function without the relevant pages of the maintenance manual and IPC there in front of him-you can even make an argument that not having it offends the certification basis for the product.

I had good teachers during my time at Garrett-worked for some wonderful crew chiefs, and the lessons they taught translate directly into all sorts of areas. It is a process that I have sometimes described as a systematic and economical way of thinking about problems. I think you are correct in thinking that many are called but far fewer are chosen, and I think you also know that far more is learned from failures and struggles and the things that didn't go right the first or second time. A lot of people in this field seem to think you hadn't better touch anything until you have a PhD in electrical engineering and a blessing from Dr. Deforest. I've always listened carefully to the experts who tell me all the reasons I can't accomplish something and shouldn't try. I tip my hat and then go on and do exactly what I was planning on. But the only way that'll stand up is if you have a disciplined and open mind-something which seems not to be part of the landscape these days.

[Two Rock User]

To tell the honest truth I do not see how an aircraft mechanic can function without the relevant pages of the maintenance manual and IPC there in front of him-you can even make an argument that not having it offends the certification basis for the product.

I had good teachers during my time at Garrett-worked for some wonderful crew chiefs, and the lessons they taught translate directly into all sorts of areas. It is a process that I have sometimes described as a systematic and economical way of thinking about problems. I think you are correct in thinking that many are called but far fewer are chosen, and I think you also know that far more is learned from failures and struggles and the things that didn't go right the first or second time. A lot of people in this field seem to think you hadn't better touch anything until you have a PhD in electrical engineering and a blessing from Dr. Deforest. I've always listened carefully to the experts who tell me all the reasons I can't accomplish something and shouldn't try. I tip my hat and then go on and do exactly what I was planning on. But the only way that'll stand up is if you have a disciplined and open mind-something which seems not to be part of the landscape these days.

Blah, blah, blah. Lots of words slobbered out to say so little.

A lot of people in this field seem to think you hadn't better touch anything until you have a PhD in electrical engineering and a blessing from Dr. Deforest.

What? That's stupid. Says who? To work on/design tube guitar amps? That's BS. You need to get out more. Write to, talk to Mike Zaite (DR Z) Randall Smith (Mesa Boogie) Mike Soldano, Bill Sundt (Soldano Amplification) Paul Rivera (Rivera), Gerald Weber (Kendrick Amplifiers), the list goes on, and on. These guys are approachable. If you see them a NAMM show, chat with them. They're not that way at all. They aren't PhD's in anything.

Who are you trying to impress?

[Chuck H]

I think you misread Prairie Dawg's sentiment.

[Tom Phillips]

Blah, blah, blah. Lots of words slobbered out to say so little....Who are you trying to impress?

Disrespectful comments that didn't contribute anything useful to the discussion.

[Two Rock User]

Boo hoo cry me a river!!!

Disrespectful comments that didn't contribute anything useful to the discussion.

Neither did his long babbling, rambling, bloated BS dissertations filled with worthless nonsense fodder that masks his ignorance since he didn't know what the hell he was talking about.

Boo hoo cry my a river!

BAN ME.

I won't be coming back to read anymore useless crap info anyway.

[Two Rock User]

I think you misread Prairie Dawg's sentiment.

I think you can't read.

[Chuck H]

I think Mr. 8 posts needs to go away. With your attitude you'll find no satisfaction here.

[jmaf]

I think Mr. 8 posts needs to go away. With your attitude you'll find no satisfaction here.

I think he's just trolling, looking for attention.

Or maybe he's a bored forum member who decided to play using his alter ego and let out some frustration under a different name?

Anyone who had a past issue with Prairie Dawg and who might've wanted to join as a new avatar just to demote him?

[woodyc]

Interesting stories. here's mine: