Bad amp tech's !!!!

[blindboybenton]

Hi

Ive got to get a few things off my chest today!!. I live here in the uk on the south coast working from home repairing guitar amps and hifi equipment
Ive been to school and college to learn electronics. Spend alot of my time in dead end jobs repairing easy stuff.
Got into audio/visual in the 1990's and had a successfull business repairing tv/audio etc and due to Flat screens closed it in 2002

I concider myself to be a ok tech and generally get the job done to a good standard! Ive had a busy week fixing stuff that other amp techs mucked up or stuff the customer has tried to fix themselves

Jcm2000 DSL had 1 bias pot changed from 22k to 1k and two anode resistors changed from 1 ohm to 0.22 ohm and 0.68 ohm and moved all the connectors around customers mate and local repairer
Marshall 100watt head.. Bias resistor changed from 15k to 3.3k. This amp had been back to marshall for a full service inc pot and valve change. But they didnt replace or ask the customer about this 3.3k His bias was at 11ma per tube Local amp tech had changed the resistor
High fidelity record player 1966. UL84 output tube changed for a 1/2 wave recitfier tube! Local hifi shop
2 other combos where the customer had drilled out the center of the jack socket or drill out the pot shaft to take a different knob. Both stopped working after customers

I just there are so many people out there who just want to make a quick buck. I think on the marshall 100watt head they replaced the 15k for 3.3k because they didnt notice or able to test that a 56k connected to the pot had gone too. Ive had customers who have questioned what im saying because their friend told them that the tx is in working order because it been tested with a DMM. He thought i was ripping him off. Smoke pouring out of it had no bearing

Its just been a bad week in general i don't get any real trouble

any thoughts on it ????

BBB

[Jazz P Bass]

Stick to your high standards.
And take a break now & then and go fishing.

[Leo_Gnardo]

Ive got to get a few things off my chest today!!. I live here in the uk on the south coast working from home repairing guitar amps and hifi equipment

Its just been a bad week in general i don't get any real trouble

any thoughts on it ????

BBB

Some things seem seasonal, others permanent.

There's a tech @ 40 mi west of where I am, who demands a $75 upfront payment for "priority" work. $75 does not apply to the bill, so it's effectively a demand for a big cash tip. And priority means 3 weeks (!?!) No wonder he's living the life of Riley! But wait there's more - either he works in the dark, or is color blind. So many times I've had to re-repair his repairs (and the customer's attitude is in the tank by then) and found he's swapped out some resistor, but it's the wrong value. Can't tell red from brown apparently, and too lazy/stupid to put an ohm meter on the part or observe the result on a scope. If you put 4700 ohm resistors in as screen grids in a Fender, I think anyone could hear there's something wrong with that.

And recently, a customer who had a burnt power transformer + other problems all of a sudden decided to stop the repair, because he suddenly decided to move @ 800 miles away. I put his original broken PT back in but got a phone call and a lengthy earful of %$#@ because I didn't use the original hardware to bolt the covers on the transformer. Now why in the world does he need "original parts" on a non-collectible amp, and on a transformer that's just going to the junkyard, bolts nuts & all? So I scrounged up the original parts for him (still not happy), meanwhile he must have driven @ 60-80 miles to get his half-a-buck worth of Chinese hardware. So it can make its way to the rubbish heap, together. Go figure. Good thing he's moved away. Crossed that one off my customer list.

And there's big-name funny business too. About 20 years back, a local musician/composer sent an amp to Bogner for mods. Brown Fender Concert - I would have refused to touch it with a drill but... It came back modified all right. Row of white knobs sticking out the front panel about 2 inches - had to saw all those down to length. Bogner or his assistant piled a bunch of cheap filter caps right atop the power transformer, so they could soak up all that heat. Schmart? Nicht! If that wasn't enough, instead of building a low power supply for channel-switching, Bog & co lashed a wall wart to the bottom of the "dog house", soldered skinny wires carrying line voltage to the prongs, and stuck a short piece of heat shrink on each AC prong of the wall wart. So it's not just some Ten Thumbs Tommy or Knuckle-draggin' Looie. Even the big name pros can do goofy things.

[blindboybenton]

I would love to charge a fee up front. But we don't do that thing here really in the uk. I get enough work just about. still building it all up. I had a Blackstar HT5 in which a local tech who works for a big guitar shop in the area about 2 days aweek. and then the shop adds a few bucks on. 1 x Blown fet and a new resistor changing $170 .. 2 hrs labor @ $156.

Im now doing the job for $90. :

Blindboy

[Leo_Gnardo]

I would love to charge a fee up front. But we don't do that thing here really in the uk.

Cheeky lad he is to demand a large tip up front. I'll bet you a snake & pygmy pie he doesn't pay income tax on it either.

[The Dude]

I look at these sorts of things as "job security". Shoddy work will always come back to bite you in the a$$. You're either going to have to do it over and lose money, or you're going to lose a customer. Either way, it doesn't pay in the long run to do anything half a$$ed.
I don't advertise AT ALL and ALWAYS have more than enough work because I repair every piece of gear as if it were my own.

If it's worth doing,......it's worth doing RIGHT!

[Jazz P Bass]

And then go fishing.

[The Dude]

And then go fishing.

Does fetching olives out of a finished bloody mary count as fishing?

[Enzo]

If nothing else, it counts as vegetables.

[Mick Bailey]

I get plenty of second-hand jobs where a customer has paid for a repair somewhere else and then the equipment finds its way to me. I don't like handling that kind of work; the phrase that I use is "I don't mind picking up a turd, but I don't want to pick one up that someone else has trodden in"

I have an amp right by me today that's been elsewhere for repair. At least 20 components are missing off the preamp board and every one has its solder pad and track missing with no clue as to what goes where or what it was in the first place.

Everyone makes a mistake somewhere down the line; it's how you handle the situation and maintain your customer's trust that matters. I would like to think that If there's still a problem with a piece of gear that the customer would be happy to ring me up and for me to take another look at it, rather than go somewhere else and complain about my work. If it meant me losing money on the job and keeping the customer that's fine. Sometimes it hurts to be pretty.

[drewl]

Alot of tube guys are not good at pc board work and I see stuff torn up all the time.

[Jazz P Bass]

Does fetching olives out of a finished bloody mary count as fishing?

Maybe if you use a tooth pick.
Think carp fishing with a bow & arrow.

[stokes]

Alot of tube guys are not good at pc board work and I see stuff torn up all the time.

Thats because old point to point and fender type boards can take the heat from hell,pcb's not so much.You gotta lower the heat on that iron with the pcb's.Still most of the crap pcb's most amps use these days are way to fragile,I do hate working with them.

[R.G.]

As a step sideways, I suspect that the profusion of bad repairs is one ugly consequence of the high quality of this and perhaps other internet forums.

The uninitiated but eager beginner thinks all they need is a soldering iron and some parts and they're an amp tech. Either that or they're stricken by a bad case of BUMS (Blind Urge to Mod Syndrome) and manage to get some things working, some things not so much.

Then there's that whole "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" idea.

I've heard the guitar described as the easiest instrument in the world to play badly, but one of the hardest to play well. I suspect that amp repair may have some similar characteristics.

[blindboybenton]

I agree. Hate it when they put the output tubes bases on a pcb. I guess its the sign of the times