Favorite Guitar Amps To Service

[patlaw]

What are your favorite guitar amps to service? Things to consider:

• Quality of design
• Availability of schematics
• Availability of parts
• Ease of diagnosing
• Ease of servicing

[Enzo]

Hard to answer. To me amps are amps, some are more convenient than others to work in, some have better support than others, etc. Peavey is by far my favorite company to work with. They make service documentation easily accessible to me or anyone. They have a parts department that kknows the stock, and in fact they maintain stock on parts a lot longer than most others.

A lot of guys hate working on a peavey Classic 30. the boards are laid out inconveniently. But after a few of them, I was familiar with it and can have the whole thing apart and the boards out in a few minutes. I have no problem with them. If you see two of them in your lifetime, you'll hate them. Experience matters in a discussion like this. I hate working on many Mesa amps, but a guy who works on lots of them will have learned where what parts are and the best way to access them. he likely won't mind.

Ease of diagnosis? Circuits are circuits, troubleshooting them is universal. It may be less convenient to access some point in the circuit in some amp, but you still have to take the same voltage readings and check components the same way.

Certain brands do not make schematics easy to find, but most schematics are available. The majority of repairs do not require schematics I find.

Parts are largely generic. Sppecific parts are transformers and pots. Otherwise, resistors, caps, diodes, transistors, ICs are all pretty much available anywhere. As an authorized service center, I buy my specific parts direct from Fender, Peavey, etc. But there are part sellers for most major brands available to all.

What does quality of design mean? How clever the circuit is? How nicely it is built? Whether it has test points all over?

To me a question like this is like asking what is my favorite type of audience member. Do I prefer male or female? Single or couples? Older or younger? Drunk or sober? College kids or blue collar? The thing is, when I get to the gig, likely as not I am going to have all of those, regardless of my preference.

[Tom Phillips]

My Favs are amps that I have serviced in the past which the owner brings back as needed (maybe every 3 to 5 years) and no one else messes inside them. I have many that are like my babies that I've been taking care of for over 20 years.
That wasn't on your list but that's what I like

[g1]

For the criteria you have mentioned, I would say vintage Fender from around the blackface era is the clear winner.

[tedmich]

not a MK4?

[Justin Thomas]

Messa Boogers indeed. BLUH!

I tell customers who ask: it sounds great NOW; don't call me when it breaks. With 4 channels, (I presume), I'd rather just have 4 amps.

Though, in fairness - I dare anyone to do THAT with a turret board. Chassis'd be the size of a picnic table.

PS I vote for BF Fenders, SF Fenders, 60s/70s Ampegs, pre 1980 Marshalls, old Peaveys, in that order...

Justin

[The Dude]

not a MK4?

That's the dumbest looking cell phone I've ever seen.

[tedmich]

my favorite shot is from a tech who had to get a main board replacement and snapped a picture after installing it but before attaching all the leads...

man earned his money...course he could have repaired the original board if he wanted to bill +20h labor...

[Chuck H]

course he could have repaired the original board if he wanted to bill +20h labor...

Yup. The new board means he only has to charge +15

Not fair to say, but I much prefer servicing my own amps because I build them with the consideration that I'll probably have to go back in there some day Something I've been glad for a couple of times. Other than that I haven't had many complaints about the classics (Fenders and Marshalls prior to 1975). Pretty easy. I did an older Mesa for a guy that used a top lam circuit board that I didn't need to lift to repair. That was a pleasant surprise. I did an old Kustom 250 and I thought it was pretty neat the way the different circuits were separated on their own boards that were fairly easy to remove making it easier to access "only the problem". I'm sort of ham handed so I like anything that's got a little room inside (because I hate the smell of charred lead insulator jacket).

[Leo_Gnardo]

Fenders, blackies, silvers, tweeds in no particular order. Leo & his assistants designed 'em for serviceability. Imagine if Detroit had done that with cars, we'd be seeing a lot more old classics on the highways.

Good ol' Fenders jump to the front of the line around here. I could just about fix 'em blindfolded.

60's-70's Marshalls next in line.

Then everything else.

You haven't lived 'til you had a peek inside Mesa Mark V. Mike B gave me a headsup just before they released 'em: 47 relays.

[patlaw]

Have you seen enough bad printed circuit boards in a particular amp that are either poorly designed or no longer available such that you were tempted layout and produce a replacement? I refurbish a particular piece of commercial broadcast equipment for which plug-in cards are no longer available. Because of people hacking up the boards over the years, it would be helpful to have replacement boards. I'm really tempted to produce some.

[R.G.]

Oddly enough, yes. I have recently completed and had a couple of installations of replacement boards for the entire preamps of the Thomas Organ Vox family - the Beatle, Guardsman, Buckingham, and Viscount, as well as the "suitcase" Vox amps, the Cambridge Reverb, Pacemaker, and Pathfinder, and the Berkeley 2. I have completed layouts for the Berkeley 3, and UK Vox Supreme, Conqueror, Defiant MK3 preamps, and the common preamp for the 700 series, but no boards made yet. I'll try these if I ever recover financially from making prototypes of the first few.

As to servicing, have you ever worked on a Workhorse amp? Probably not, because (a) there aren't that many of them and (b) I designed them with both not needing service and being easy to work on as primary design criteria.

[Dave H]

As to servicing, have you ever worked on a Workhorse amp?

Visual Sound Workhorse Pony Tube Guitar Combo Amp | Musician's Friend

[R.G.]

Wow. I didn't know that picture was on line! Thanks.

There was a 2x12 50W, the "Stallion", as well.

[Diablo]

my favorite shot is from a tech who had to get a main board replacement and snapped a picture after installing it but before attaching all the leads...

man earned his money...course he could have repaired the original board if he wanted to bill +20h labor...

So what was Mesa thinking when they designed this? The most complex circuit and design would be a big seller? The higher the parts count, the better an amp sounds? I just had a look inside a Mesa Basis, changed three 12AX7 tubes, put it back together and prayed it all worked.