Quality workmanship.....

[km6xz]

People ask me if I am nuts trying open a shop in Russia. Yes, no doubt, but why else would I be in Russia and actually enjoy it immensely.
One of my pet peeves is very other unit coming in for work has been worked on previously. Usually by people calling themselves "Masters" working out of their apartments. For some reason, most of them try to modify even simple circuits if they can't get it going. In doing so, they ruin the value, functionality and reliability. Here is one that came in today, from a kid who just picked it from another "master" and was charged money but it did not work. He said he bought this Kustom DE300HD new and this was the first time anyone worked on it. The original symptom was a strange noise when turned up past "6".
The preamp board had a new IC installed on wire legs to stand it above the board. The power amp had parts hanging loose so I pulled the board and heatsinks(only 2 transistors were screwed to the heatsink) and peeked at the bottom of the board.
Most of my work in the last year has been trying to recover a bit of value or functionality to units that unsuspecting customers were cheated out of. The strange thing is that I am the only one who gets angry over this sort of customer abuse, the customers just shrug their shoulders.

I am going to try to recover this one to working status. There must be 50 copper traced burned off the board due to excess soldering heat. There is no indication that there was anything wrong with the power board in the first place.

Anyone have a schematic for a Kustom DE300HD?

[Mick Bailey]

I also get plenty of work where the gear has been somewhere else first - sometimes more than once. It's a real problem to discover what the original fault actually was, but that Kustom is pretty bad by any standard. How much is a board compared to repair cost?

I don't mind picking up a turd, but picking one up that someone else has trodden in - that's a different matter.

[km6xz]

Unfortunately there are no available here, Kustom and every other brand refuses to send parts here because they have a distributor. Of course the distributor thinks sales of new gear will be increased if no parts are made available.
So if this one lives again, it will be me repairing this board. It is not just mid-low end guitar amps, even brands like Neve will not force their distributors to repair or allow other to repair their gear. I have that situation now, new Neve mixer with no assistance with parts or service information. Even companies who have a reputation of good customer service, such as Peavey, refuse to make their international distributors provide service or parts. So desperate owners of gear seek out anyone who claims to be a tech on their kitchen table.
Luckily I have organized a regular part order from a MI retailer back in the who is warranty station for most MI brands even though they do not have a repair shop. Kustom is not one of them however.

[drewl]

Same here guys!
So much fun cleaning up other people's messes.

[audiobrad]

Hey guys , im from south africa and here most of the repairs are done pretty good but you do get the odd job that half the board tracks are broken off or completely missing .I will only take on the repair if the previous tech worked neatly.Now the customer has to pay me almost double the repair cost due some idiot working with a welding rod and plumber solder.

[gtrplayr1976]

I'm a rookie ,and I can do much better than that. That's horrid !

[bob p]

The strange thing is that I am the only one who gets angry over this sort of customer abuse, the customers just shrug their shoulders.

I've spent a fair amount of time in one of the ex-communist-bloc Eastern European nations. I still have relatives over there. What you're reporting doesn't come as any surprise to me. What you're reporting doesn't seem strange to me at all. It's the standard that I was told to expect by the locals when I was visiting that part of the world.

Maybe the customers just shrug their shoulders because they have been conditioned to accept that sort of quality in repair work. That sort of quality may have been all that's ever been available to them, having spent all of their lives in a third-world communist society, where proper repair parts and independent technical expertise are either in short supply or unavailable. Under those circumstances people resort to scavenging and accepting that when things break they just may not be repairable -- of if they are repairable, that they may never be restored to their original operating condition because of limitations on replacement parts and/or technical expertise. I've seen car repairs that look a lot like the electronics repairs you're complaining about -- totally substandard by Western "first world" standards.

Stan, you're obviously operating at a higher quality level then people are used to seeing. You are used to performing at a level that is uncommon in the environment that you now live in. If I were in your shoes, I would not be one bit surprised by the quality of workmanship that you're seeing come into your shop. IMO these are exactly the kind of problems that a first-world repair technician should expect to see when moving to a third-world country where repair parts are difficult to source, and where the average "Master" doesn't have your level of technical proficiency. It's going to take some time for you to train people so that they understand that you can provide a service that they're not used to having available to them. You are attempting to raise the bar when it comes to quality level. That's going to be a challenge when everyone is used to the bar being set so low.

[km6xz]

Bob, I do not find that other areas of service where there is a network of support providers are anything like pro audio repair. For example auto repair has a modern support system of parts, and service centers with factory authorization. Our main business here has several new vans and SUVs and the service has been excellent with modern facilities and first rate equipment. Medical electronics is another field that I have a number of friends in that has excellent facilities. Consumer electronics and cell phone service has a strong support network.
Crafts and construction varies a lot on quality but it is possible to get some of the best available in masonry, plaster, restoration, reproductions etc.
Engineering and programming are top notch, with many western companies recruiting for design centers here in the city.
Those are just examples that contrast to the miserable state of support for pro audio. The main reason is not skill and talent but the fact that the manufacturers did not know that the country was going to be such a large market in the early 1990s so signed distribution contracts with a couple small outfits and just left them alone. The biggest one now, in early 90s was just 1/2 a rock band that now is the national distributor for most of the brands that are imported. They, and 2 other smaller importers, formed an alliance that set prices and policies. One policy was no parts or service for non-warranty items. They state that if a unit breaks even if under warranty, they prefer the customer buy a new unit. None of the manufacturers will ship parts and all say we have to go through the distributor, who has never made even a knob available for sale. So there is no option to get OEM parts, with brands that just do not care or know anything about the size of potential market. Sales are not great because everyone has been burned at least once so the customers do to any lengths to go around the distributors, even if it costs much more to do so. I have talked to dozens of manufacturers and they really do not know how badly sales are through the channel compared to around it. It is potentially the 2nd largest market for new gear after the US, with millions of musicians, enough money to buy yet no industry support network.
I worked a way around the roadblock of lack of parts and have organized my own network of interested skilled techs to pool parts requests and order from the US, through a cooperating warranty station/retail store. We have just started a bit over a month ago but have been averaging orders $1500-2000 a week. I have been selecting one tech who seems like the most suitable from each major city and region to join the group. They have to adhere to the policies I have set down, including 90 minimum warranty on their work and maintaining an appropriate level of test equipment for the types of units they bring in. There is a strong incentive to go along since the penalty for straying from the ethics and quality standards is suspension from the association and parts purchases.
We have no problem with standard parts like ICs and transistors, but few old style parts like higher voltage capacitors, transformers but anything modern is available from many sources. There are 3 parts houses within walking distance of my apartment that stock a large array of transistors, ICs and SMD components. But trying to find a plate transformer or 600 volt caps requires going to Soviet era suppliers that are harder to deal with.
I keep telling product managers that the first company that takes customer service seriously here will own the market. Just recently a few started listening and asking lots of questions about what is really going on. One has planned a visit from the Netherlands next month to get a street level view of what is happening because thus far they only know what the distributor tells them. I am going to take him to rehearsal halls and clubs, pa companies and studios so he can get first hand comments about the current relationship between customers and the distributor. Setting up a service network, parts and local customer support would reverse the current frustration of the customers. It is not like there are no willing customers, there are, with money to spend. These musicians would not put up with the lack of service from their cell phone provider or a restaurant, they have all traveled to enough countries to know the difference. They have modern shopping and services for everything else in their lives, except for the music hobby. Even their dealing with the government is better. Registering a company or finding out about a filing procedure is done very well, all on the web with easy to follow instructions.

Regarding training techs, I only wish I had this employee pool when I was in business in California. The secret weapon for employers here is a great resource of potential employees. Unemployment is low so you have to offer more but the quality of young people with broad educations and good work ethic. In my main business in the tourism trade, we have 28 year round staff and 150 during the season and I could leave for a month and all would be handled well and everything completed on-time. The only thing that some western employers would not be be ready for is the amount of off time taken. There are lots of holidays, and then a minimum 30 days paid vacation. But otherwise the staff is first rate. Finding people who would want to get into this field and who have a university degree in electronics, or conservatory training would be pretty easy. My best tech in my old shop with 15 techs was as man getting his first job after immigrating to the US from Ukraine. We just recently got back in touch and he wants to come back here with his American wife to get back into something fun. He has had a very good job as an engineer for a hi-tech company but was laid off when the company was swallowed up a year ago and can't find another job.

[The Dude]

Good Lord! That is a mess! I see "home repairs" every once in a while, too. I think probably anyone who's tech'd professionally for any length of time has. My biggest beef/thought is this (and it applies to everything- not just electronics).

Part of being intelligent is realizing when you are in over your head and STOPPING! There's nothing wrong with admitting you can't get the job done. Because you don't know something doesn't make you stupid. It just means you haven't aquired that particular knowledge or skill yet. So, when you start having trouble (i.e. lifting traces from a circuit board or otherwise making a mess), please ask for help or refer the piece to someone else.

There's nothing wrong with asking for help! That is how we learn! I've been at it for 30+ years and still learn something every day. My ONLY job is to make my customers happy, which means PROPERLY repairing their gear in a timely manner. And, if that requires asking for help, I've got NO problem with it.

[Enzo]

Oh Amen.

I had a guy work for me for a while, who knew a good deal of electronics, but it was distorted. He was not interested in learning anything, he was only interested in having his notions validated. First question he asked on his first day was "Would you show me the weak parts they put in the amps?" Whaa??? He was sure that all amp makers purposely put weak parts in the amps so they would fail, and then they could make a lot of money selling replacement parts. I assured him they don;t do that, they make a lot more selling amps than they do selling parts. And I said besides, all that has to do is get out to the public, and no one would ever buy that brand again. "Oh no, they are ALL in on it." I eventually found him untrainable and had to let him go. He'd argue with customers even. Asking for help or explanation was not on his list. I once tried to show him an unusual thing on a Crown amp, and he wouldn;t believe it, so I sat it down in front of him and demonstrated it. "No, that is impossible, it can't happen." But you just SAW me do it right in front of you.


A different story now. A customer, not my tech. And customer is a nice guy, and has taken my advice on building from time to time. But this time he tried to get the knob off a pot on a Fender HRD. Stuck tight, he eventually pried it off, but the pot shaft came with the knob. Went to the next pot, knob stuck, pried and pried until the knob pulled the shaft out of that pot too. In fact, honest to god, he went down the row and did that to every pot on it. it was only then he noticed... the set screws on the knobs. I can see maybe the first one, but all of them?

[The Dude]

Your Fender HRD story reminded me of one of my own, Enzo.

I once had a band bring in a 32 channel Mackie desk for repair. It had been rained on, so needed to come completely apart. Right off the bat, I had trouble getting the knobs off and about that time the customer called. I casually mentioned that the knobs were being a bit of a PITA while on the phone. He then told me that, because a couple of the knobs were prone to falling off, their soundman had removed them all and glued them on- every last one of them. I told him at that point that if I was going to continue work, I would be as careful as I could, but some of the pot shafts may break and require changing of the pots. He would have to pay for ALL additional labor and parts including the extra time to remove all of the cemented on knobs. I also gave him the option to pick up the board unrepaired. I was able to get them all off only breaking a few pots, and did charge him accordingly for the extra time it took. It was one of the worst repairs I've encountered because of the glue.

[Mick Bailey]

One of the greatest challenges with audio repair has to be the total cost of parts and repair time compared to the cost of a replacement piece of equipment. With business and industrial equipment I always used the approach that if the repair was greater than 50% of the replacement cost, then it's B.E.R. That doesn't seem to hold with audio gear. I often get "how much will it cost to repair my amp? 'cause if it's going to be more than £25 it isn't worth it". If that's all my time, heating. lighting, experience, risk, parts storage, depreciation, research, overheads and equipment is worth, then I'll pack away my tools and steal from homeless people for a living - it would have more self-respect.

In the past few months I've had reworks on repairs done by;

My Uncle who was in RADAR during the war
A bloke at work
A chap who used to repair TVs in the old days
I thought I'd have a go myself
The electrician at work
Someone I know who does electrical repairs
My Dad
My Son
My mate
An amp bloke who didn't have the right tools
I found a link to some mods.

Now, often the victim has already paid for a shipwreck of a repair, in cash or drink, so fully expects me to subsidise the cost - such that the total paid still comes in within expected parameters. Or it's free, because the perception is that they've already paid in full.

There appears to be no relationship between what someone is prepared to pay for a new item, and what they'll wilingly pay for a repair. Somehow it gets devalued and this is where it becomes tempting to go down the route of someone who'll have-a-go. The freaky thing is that I see lots of failed repair jobs where the approach has been taken to 'repair through re-design' I bet there's a neat German word for this that I should adopt.

[Steve Conner]

The freaky thing is that I see lots of failed repair jobs where the approach has been taken to 'repair through re-design' I bet there's a neat German word for this that I should adopt.

I believe the word is Scheißenkludger. My heart goes out to anyone trying to make a living off musicians.

[Mick Bailey]

I'm sitting in my workshop grinning like an idiot. Took a moment to clock what it meant. Slow burners are often the best.......

That one I'll take.

[Prairie Dawg]

A friend of mine from the eighties had a fixed base operation over by Berrien Springs (Enzo knows where it is) where he mostly serviced crop dusters and the occasional bug smasher. He spent a couple of days completely overhauling the brakes on a C150-everything had turned to black bubble gum. Now remember-aircraft brakes use hydraulic fluid, and the master cylinders always are placarded. So he presents the bill and the owner says "I guess I shouldn't have used that brake fluid from K-mart, huh?"