Hanging up the soldering iron

[Mars Amp Repair]

well, we decided a few weeks ago to hang up the soldering iron...it became apparent that the price to replace amps (other than the vintage stuff) was getting so cheap that repair became a game of 'how much will the customer tolerate to have the item repaired' as opposed to how much do you have to charge to pay the techs & bills.

Here in Denver (and probably most places) it seems you can basically charge 1980's level labor to support 2012 overhead. Even the guys working out of their homes are having a tough time of it. Frankly the ‘D’ class stuff reminds me of what happened with VCR’s & Camcorders in the 90’s as the stuff just kept getting smaller, lighter, & cheaper so that the viability to repair the stuff basically just evaporated. That combined with work for some inexplicable reason just about drying up helped with the decision. Things do traditionally slow down at tax time, but the slow down never stopped this time around even with exclusive referrals from all the guitar centers in the state. It was either weather out the storm & get behind & upside down or take history as an indicator & quit while we could still pay our techs & leave with everything relatively caught up. We opted for that & haven’t looked back. It’s actually been quite a relief.


Also sold my entire extensive parts department to a local shop for about 2wice as much as I thought I'd get. Actually, I bought the parts dept 7yrs ago from another servicer going out of business...bad omen? For someone who knows the value, the parts were really worth what the guy paid for them.

As for doing any further repairs, there is some interest with the other local servicers in having me do some part time contract work for them. I also had just gotten into refurbing the Wurlitzer electric pianos and was really enjoying it, so I might see how much interest there is for that locally as well as for the Rhodes pianos which I have done before.

Well, onto the next phase...glen.

[52 Bill]

Sorry to hear that. As I get older and as business keeps getting worse I'm often torn as to whether or not to continue in the field. As long as consumers are willing to buy disposable gear it will just continue to get worse for the service industry. My dad went through a similar situation with his radio tv repair shop back in the '70's.

Good luck with whatever direction you end up going.

[J M Fahey]

Ugh !!!
Best wishes, Mars.
Keep hanging around, will you?
Having experienced eyes and brains available sure can help other people's problems.
Good luck.

[km6xz]

Good luck, service is, like many traditional industries, changes rapidly as technology and consumer habits change. Change is the only constant and I've found that if we get a handle on a particular specialty, the only survival skill that weathers the change is adopting change as new opertunities. Sometimes the greatest skill is knowing when wishing and hoping that things return to another period, they are not going to. That happened to me in the recording industry as it totally collapsed due to shrinking budgets and home computer productions where the labels would give a new band $40,000 to record themselves in the 1990s. The glory days of the great independent studios was over. I was lucky and got out when there was still some business to be had but almost all the rest went out of business due to the high overhead and the labels not caring at all about quality any more. By that time all the labels were taken over by accountants and lawyers so they put value solely on profits and none on quality which had been the tradition when labels were all small musician owned companies.
There was no going back to the old days that were, frankly, just too much fun and profitable to last very long. It lasted from the mid 60s to 1990 which in any technical field is several life times.
Same with service, when I opened my shop soon after selling the studio, the orientation of the shop changed continuously as opportunities opened and other waned. Luckily I was able to spot trends and shift to meet them so eventually most of our work was contract work as replacements for closed down factory service, depot service AS the company's total repair and warranty entity.
One advantage of getting away from the bench is being able to see opportunities which pop up everywhere if someone pays attention and is out and about. Few opportunities are seen from the vantage point of a workbench or windowless office. Flexibility and being out in the community is where the opportunities are. Look for specialty niches that are not hobby dominated so you are not competing with people willing to work for free. Fixing a guitar amp is worth 1/10 as much as performing the same tasks as say industrial instrumentation or medical electronics only because guitar amp repair is viewed as a hobby not only by the customers but also competition. Owners of gear frequently do not care about their gear as much as a long time tech who is determined to restore it to full function for emotional as much as business reasons. Many people just do not care so if it is not repaired, it gives an excuse to buy something new. I would venture a guess that most defective gear is sitting in a musty garage or closet and will never see a repair shop. Gear is still breaking but fewer are bothering with hauling it to a repair shop. Think of all those Chinese made effects units, small mixers amps and speakers which are sold every year, in the millions, but how few stay in circulation. Where are they? Sitting unused, replaced by something even cheaper and more temporary. So there are two markets for MI repair, too cheap to bother with and more expensive hobbyist gear that it targeted by every shade tree repair hobbyist in town, and being a hobby, willing to do it for almost free.
Get out there and find those opening opportunities but do not get married to them, change when the trends change. Good Luck!

[Steve Conner]

Sorry to hear the Chinese claimed another victim!

For what it's worth: I love guitar amps. I'm fascinated by the old tube circuits and how they manage to get so much tone. But I've ended up designing industrial instrumentation for a living, for exactly the reasons Stan just listed.

[Steve L]

Sorry to hear about your having to close up shop. Business certainly has changed quite a bit over the past few years, and not for the best.

I have only done repairs and such part-time over the past 30 years because I have a great job designing industrial electronics. It would never make any sense to give it up unless I lost it, and so far that has not happened. The company is still doing well right now.

There were a lot of other repair shops in my area over the past 30 years and they all came and went after a few years. There are a few left, but I have heard from different people that they are all hurting right now.

I would agree that looking for a specialty niche is about the best thing to do. They are still out there. I hope the best for you.

Steve

[Mark Hammer]

I was chatting with folks on another forum about repairs and mods, and it occurred to me that there is a new untapped market out there of "virtual repair": talking people through repairs and/or mods via Skype. Basically repair consulting. So, person contacts you, they pay some sort of prearranged fee via PayPal, and you talk them through the troubleshooting. I'm sure there are all manner of obstacles and catches I haven't thought of yet, but in many instances, the customer probably COULD do the repair/mod themselves...if only there were someon with more knowldge to guide them through it. The only reason they don't get it repaired is that, by the time the item is shipped there and back, and the shop-owner's operating overhead costs are addressed, it's not worth it for the cutomer.

But what if there WAS no shipping, and your repair shop was a desk and a webcam? And what if the customer came away knowing a little more at the end of it? Maybe it would be worth it for them to $35 to repair a $129 amp, or hotrod a Squier/Turser/Rondo guitar if, after the 40min they learned something useful.

I'm not saying a person could necessarily live off the revenue, but it would provide a nice additional revenue stream, keep stuff out of the garbage dump, and shave time off the turnaround so that musicians can have the stuf they want, working well, faster.

[big_teee]

Why would anyone pay for help and support.
When they can come to places like this, and get the info for free.
Most of us regulars here, have helped scads of musicians on a regular basis.
T

[kg]

look at it this way: this is a way for you to do what you really WANT to do with audio electronics. no more working for someone else.

i've always looked at my hobbies as just that--MY hobbies. yes, i worked in a guitar shop for a while doing repairs, but it went from being fun, and being something i enjoyed, to WORK. of course i grew to hate it.

when the shop owner decided to close up, i can't say that i was too sad. sure it was nice to get a few bucks here and there, but when i got my freedom to do what i wanted when i wanted, for FUN, then i found i really enjoyed playing with my soldering iron again.

luckily for me, my day job pays the bills, and i can tolerate it.

[J M Fahey]

True, but so far few people have come here for that.
I mean *real* repairs, with followups, step by step instructions, asking for certain measurements to be made and modifying the repair tips along the path, based on that.
They can be counted with the fingers of one hand, one particular example being our friend Lowell (fine with me) and repairs that took a couple of pages until successful.
Which is similar to what would be offered by the "remote control coaching".
Then there are hundreds of other demands, most by unskilled people, which often don't go beyond "bridge the Loop jacks/clean the pots/switches/give it the Enzo whack/reseat connectors and resolder suspect pads" etc. which I group into a *very* light technical help.
In fact, they are common sense !!
Similar to our friendly car mechanic telling us "aren't you out of gasoline?/have you checked the oil?"/etc.
I wouldn't consider *that* as "he's repairing my car".
This light load we are voluntarily taking so far can come under the "I do it for fun" label, at least I take it as that, but if, say, we had 5 or 10 such new "help" demands a week (which has *never*happened so far), I'm sure they would be ignored or dealt wit the lightest basic advice possible.
And anything beyond that: "please choose one of the suggested "Online Techs" available, make sure to pay the entrance fee before you place the first question"
There's also a couple help threads where I (and I'm sure others) detached from, simply because the original poster showed himself way too clueless or inexperienced or simply couldn't "read" instructions and carry them in a useful way.
Or never answered what he was asked to do or measure but answered something absolutely unrelated , maybe something he was obsessed with but which was not the real problem.
Won't give names so nobody feels uncomfortable, that's not the point anyway, but we can all remember recent (and old) examples.

So yes, I *think* (may be wrong) that setting up a "remote coaching" service help *can* work, provided there's some hourly fee to be paid in advance, and once the time's over .. it's over or ... pay again.
This can automatically weed out undesirables by itself: if somebody is so klunky as to need, say, 3 20 minute coaching sessions @ U$30 or 40 each to re-solder an input jack .. it's *his* money (which by the way is being transfered to us).
And if he gets tired and gives up ... end of story.
And if it takes $300 in coaching to help repair an AMPEG SVT ... fine with me.
jm2c

[km6xz]

There are many of on-line consulting businesses such as in the medical field where doctors seek specialists in diagnostics but repair sounds like a losing proposition. First off, someone talking a person through a repair needs to have the one doing the repair to have a minimum set of test instruments of known condition and calibration or else a on-line session would be very frustrating and time consuming.
It also presupposes the one doing the repair can remove or install components, most surface mount because almost all electronics is. A repair is cheaper and faster by simply having an experienced tech with suitable equipment repair it much faster than talking a beginner through a repair.
What might work however is to offer that service to repair shops taking in units that they are not familiar with. There seems to be a high percentage of employed techs who don't have the basic skills needed to do effective and quick diagnosis of a defect.

[Jazz P Bass]

And then there is the liability issues.

[Steve Conner]

I think I'd rather poke my own eyes out with a pointy stick than do this sort of remote troubleshooting for a living. It's incredibly slow and painful compared to what you can achieve with the faulty gear in front of you.

On the forum, we get to pick what problems we contribute to. Threads with a clear description of the problem are more likely to attract attention and get solved. Maybe that makes the process look more effective than it would be if you had to answer each and every problem.

[myfoot]

I don't post much but check in everyday and read how you folk use knowledge and common sense to help other people out. I hate to see any of you quit this art form. Especially when this guys around :

TPMG Princeton Reverb Look - YouTube

Read the comments underneath and tell my how he can make a living fixing amps ???????

[Tom Phillips]

That video must have been made on April 1st.
There is too much BS and misinformation to list in my available time.
However, it was interesting to learn that coupling caps turn brown when they are overdriven. Is that where the term "Brown Sound" originated?
The video has also taught me that I can get rid of most of my test equipment and dispense with the test bench. All I need is a handheld meter and a glass display case.

(I usually don't use the smile faces but in this case I felt they were necessary)