D. Boyden amp (did one of you guys build this?)

[teemuk]

Looks "boutique" all right.

Then again, this is a boutique too.

[Chuck H]

Looks like MY bench!?!

Not really. But to put things in perspective...

My shop and bench WAS the spare room in my home. My daughter (20yo) just ran into tough times and is at home for awhile. My wife hates all that "ugly old stuff" I use. So I'm on a spare table (an old, ugly, hand painted thing from a garage sale) in the darkest corner of my great room (where the computer, my desk, the bookshelves and a ping pong table we never use anymore). Far away the normal common areas of the home. Needless to say, my bench access to tools and such is clumsy, I have no privacy to avoid "honey do's" while trying to work and most of my "stuff" is still in, what is now, my daughters closet. Which sucks if I need to get in there and can't at the moment. Efficiency is at a minimum. As is organization. Yet I'm working on a custom order right now!

The amp I build will be NOTHING like that Boyden thing.

[Prairie Dawg]

I hear you man. I've got a small room next to the laundry room in my basement which measures about 8x8. It has one window and I share it with the gas meter and my parts and tube collection on three shelving units and a bunch of test equipment and technical information. I do have a door I can close, and a picnic table in the laundry room holds my tube matcher and a number of project amps that are in work. It is difficult keeping it organized, so much though that I usually take one afternoon a week to clean house and put everything away. Half of one workbench is occupied by a 21 inch monitor that is connected to a ten year old Dell built out of scrap parts, but it does schematics very well. The last workbench I built I had to assemble inside the shop. But nothing leaves here until I'm satisfied it won't kill anyone.

[Chuck H]

But nothing leaves here until I'm satisfied it won't kill anyone.

Good policy. It should be universal in the trade.

[R.G.]

Maybe boutique amp builders should swear to something like MDs do - first do no harm.

[Chuck H]

I "have" built booteek amps. I'm not a builder per se. I have six customers. I've built two for one customer and I'm working on a third for another. So, for my small experience in the trade I would think that killing customers is, at the very least, bad for business.

[guitician]

We may be looking at this out of context. Maybe the chassis was in a enclosure with a big note saying something like "no user serviceable parts inside", "refer service to qualified technician". That would cover his butt....maybe? If the tech gets killed, then it's the tech's fault?

[R.G.]

We may be looking at this out of context. Maybe the chassis was in a enclosure with a big note saying something like "no user serviceable parts inside", "refer service to qualified technician". That would cover his butt....maybe? If the tech gets killed, then it's the tech's fault?

The tech's widow or widower, children, significant other, prospective heirs and possible even left-hanging debt holders, in the USA, could - and likely would - file a wrongful death suit. IANAL, but my (dim) understanding of US law is that you cannot label away liability. On top of that, given the history, it's hard to logically maintain that socketed tubes are not replaceable by a user. A clever, skilled product liability lawyer could probably shred that labeling defense in minutes.

Imagine Perry Mason in his newest incarnation asking the amp-builder on the stand "Now Mr. [Whomever], can you tell me whether you used IEC600650 or IEC6550328 for your safety guidelines?

And can you produce your detailed records of the safety testing you did on the amplifier which caused the deceased's death?

And list for me your experience in safety standards compliance testing.

You have no such experience? Well, then, can you produce the report of the safety testing lab that reviewed your products to see that they meet the minimal standards for such consumer products?

Well, how do you know that the amplifiers you made have even any minimal thoughts about safe use under normal conditions?

By the way - what are "normal conditions" for the use of your products?

So you have no clear idea what normal conditions of use are, no experience in safety standards, no records of testing your product for safety, didn't ask any service whose business it is to know and test for safety, and not even any clear idea what standards apply? Is that true?

Mr. [Whomever] - do you know the meaning of the word 'reckless'?"

Well, you can see where this goes. And that's before the New Perry produces a witness to describe the real standards tested to today and why they are used.

If I were [Whomever], I'd be hoping that my state law let me keep my house, car, and tools of my trade, because everything else is going to be auction to satisfy the judgement. Assuming I have anything left after the $100K - $250K it takes in legal defense fees to get the the place that Perry II is saying these things.

I personally know little about safety testing and legal liability - but what I do know scares me.

Frankly, one defense that works in civil cases is to be judgement-proof. That is - "OK, fine, you won the suit. My net worth is MINUS $50k. How much of that debt do you want? Oh, and I have no liability insurance. Go ahead, sue me. See what you collect."

N.B. IANAL, which stands for I Am Not A Lawyer, and don't even play one on TV or any other way. The height of my legal credentials is that I like old Perry Mason reruns. Your Mileage May Vary. Offer void where taxed, regulated, or prohibited.

[catstrat]

Hi everyone. Dick is one of my competitors here in Pensacola Florida. I can say that i've never seen any of his amps much less worked on one. I can't vouch for the workmanship. I read where Warren Haynes used one for a while. I have worked on a couple of Rick Hayes amps,Vintage sound amps. Rick does a good job. Same with John Landgraff amps. He does good work to. But Dick, i just don't know.

[Chuck H]

Very professional of you NOT beating up your competition. But I think the world would be an easier place to understand if we weren't always posturing and trying to be PC about everything. I'm a painting contractor by trade. Sometimes a customer will ask me what I think of a competitor that gave a bid on the same job. I always play nice but it's not easy. There are some real hacks out there in any business. If I were to speak the truth it would be more valuable as a warning and a service to the customer than any etiquette served by carefully worded avoidance amounting to a nice lie.

That amp is a shame. I don't even care how it sounds. The workmanship and safety issues are bad enough to counter any possible merits. There, I said it. But I'm not running for any office here either.

[Steve Conner]

"By the way, what are normal conditions for use of your product?"

It's to be used by drunk musicians in a dark, cluttered, high-stress situation with glasses of highly conductive beer balanced on top of it. Some military standard for battlefield equipment would probably fit best. Ensure fuseholder is aimed away from groin area.

[guitician]

Yeah, you can sue anybody for anything these days....and win. The lawyers acting ability and the judges sense of judgement are all there masking the real justice.

For that exposed HV I would just slather it with a really tough conformal coating of some sort. One that could be removed if necessary, but be plenty of insulation. And those terminal strips seem like they could be re-positioned to make the layout much easier to work on. IMHO

[imaradiostar]

You could also use self-fusing rubber tape. You apply it as a tape (after peeling off the backing) but within seconds it becomes a layer of rubber. We use it for some extremely high voltage transducer circuits at work. It's pretty amazing stuff and with some finger pressure it could be made to contact itself between the terminals on that transformer, sealing in the high voltage.

Jamie

[R.G.]

Really tough conformal coating... Yeah! I like that.

How about wrapping the amplifier in about 1/4" of woven glass fiber and applying some catalyzed epoxy resin. About three coats of this and it should pass some of the testing probes from IEC600650.

[Chuck H]

"By the way, what are normal conditions for use of your product?"

It's to be used by drunk musicians in a dark, cluttered, high-stress situation with glasses of highly conductive beer balanced on top of it. Some military standard for battlefield equipment would probably fit best. Ensure fuseholder is aimed away from groin area.

If we could "like" things twice I would.