Of course I plugged it in. Do you think I'm stupid?

[olddawg]

It does happen, lol.

[Leo_Gnardo]

The other side of "I plugged it in." Customer bought an old mid 50's Sears Silvertone, paid way too much. Smelled burning odor when he fired up. So he continued to play it until the PT smoked. Lucky for him a Princeton PT fits. 6X5 rectifier had an internal short. OT started arcing as I brought the Variac up to 75 VAC. Some ten thumbs Tommy had gotten in there & poured solder onto the input jacks until globs of metal shorted them solid. I'll let you imagine the rest. $250 repair bill and I had to throw in free stuff and extra time besides. In the end it did sound awesomely good for such a little lightweight amp. Good will maintained...

Lots more stories like this but I'll spare you.

Next! . . . . .

[52 Bill]

I thought that this was gonna be a tale of: "My amp was in a flood, so I shook out the water and I plugged it in to see if it still worked."

[Chuck H]

I fixed an old Kustom where the previous "tech" fixed a reverb oscillation by installing lower value pots. His 24mm solder lug pots didn't fit where the 16mm pc pin type were so he just installed them upside down... And then didn't re allocate the tabs, so the pots worked backwards. Maybe he didn't realize he could swap the tabs or didn't test before reassembly and then got lazy. I can't be sure. So, a weak reverb with backward operating pots. All good! The customer actually had a receipt from this guy.

That's one. I'll spare you some others... Next?

Actually, that didn't address the OP, which is about customer service technical walkthrough issues. One of my custom amp customers called me after a show to complain that his amp wasn't working right. It sounded garbled and kept cutting out. I made a house call for this one and found nothing wrong with the amp. Another show, another call. Amp not working right. I went back out and found nothing wrong. He took another amp to his next show and had the same problem. He'd only been using his tuner at shows lately and it had a dying battery. He apologized, but had already said some things he couldn't un say and was on the verge of punching me for two weeks!

[Enzo]

Had an amp come through that sounded fine, did maintenance. Customer came back, it still is real distorted. I went through it again, sent it home, same complaint. Asked him to bring the amp back along with his guitar and cord, show me. Sure enough, it sounded awful. I said "Those are active pickups, how's your battery?" Be said, "Battery?"

[myfoot]

[Chuck H]

Here in Poopville (Coupeville, Whidbey Island, Wa.) I see that sort of thing all the time. And it might even have been that way through the course of an addition and a remodel that would have required inspection! What you can get away with is all in who you know in a small town.

[J M Fahey]

Had an amp come through that sounded fine, did maintenance. Customer came back, it still is real distorted. I went through it again, sent it home, same complaint. Asked him to bring the amp back along with his guitar and cord, show me. Sure enough, it sounded awful. I said "Those are active pickups, how's your battery?" Be said, "Battery?"

A friendīs Mother first car was a Citroën 3 CV .
Reliable simple car, air cooled engine, only required gasoline every week , oil change every few months and sometimes a little air for the tires.
LONG years of faithful service.

Then she changed it for a standard Renault car .
A month later she noticed a stinking overheating smell, the engine was weak, would not stop instantly but keep spasmodically turning for a few seconds .

The service station guy told her:
- "hey Madam !!! ..... you are fully out of water !!!!! "
- " ....... WATER???? ..... doesnīt it run on GASOLINE????? .... "

[J M Fahey]

Here in Poopville (Coupeville, Whidbey Island, Wa.) I see that sort of thing all the time. And it might even have been that way through the course of an addition and a remodel that would have required inspection! What you can get away with is all in who you know in a small town.

Hey !!!!
Beautiful place !!!!!!

[Chuck H]

Yep. It's pretty great... As far as it goes. But it's sorta like a painting. A small one. You get use to it and then you're just in a box. That postcard image you have there is the tourist area of downtown Coupeville during the best weather of the year. If the photographer had turned 30* he/she could have snapped a pic of the lovely sewage treatment plant. Leave downtown proper and a lot of life here has more to do with meth heads living off gravel roads in trailers, failing buildings on yards full of nettles, very bad quality water and the intense noise of local military air operations. Just sayin' It's tourist town. That's why I get to live here. Retirees and tourism means there are buildings that need finish maintenance and I'm a painter. Living in a box has it's advantages and disadvantages. I like that people here are VERY supportive of local commerce and charitable programs. Also, people here feel very free to be individuals and "let their freak flag fly". Very cool. Example: I get my eggs from one of many homes that have a sign on the road that says "EGGS" and I almost never lock my home or my car. But... As I tell people, if it doesn't catch salmon or chop wood it's hard to get on Whidbey Island. That's an exaggeration, but not a big one. Overall I do like it here.

Thanks for listening.

[Audiotexan]

Let's see if I can guess this one?!

Non-code wall-fish for a wall mounted lcd?!!
What do I win Alex? *chuckles*

/edit: insurance companies LOVE these for not having to pay claims!!!