Rant about amp techs

[Milkmansound]

Got a call from a customer who lost a power tube and took his amp to a local shop. I told him to send me all of the paper work involved. This was a brand new amp, so I want to make sure my warranty covers the tubes.

So it turns out they replaced the power tubes, biased, and then took it upon themselves to add shielded wire and replace 2 preamp tubes. I am kind of distressed about this - because they put in generic Sino 12AX7s and took out the brand new, higher quality and warrantied Ruby 12AX7AC5HG+ tubes that I use.

The shielded wire thing is also bizarre - I specifically wire up my amps for unshielded wire to the input jacks. Its quiet, especially because I shield the entire chassis enclosure. I've never had a complaint about noise - and again, brand new amp here - what were they thinking?

Oh and yes, they charged him for all of those extra parts.

So frustrating for me when someone does a hack job like this on something I put so much work into.

Do you guys feel an emotional connection to your amps or am I nuts?

[M Fowler]

It would make me want to call that shop and ask what are you doing?

Apparently that tech or solder jockey felt if he had built the amp he would have used shielded wire. I say if it isn't broke don't fix it, replace the tube, take a listen to the amp and out the door the amp goes.

Did you have the NOS domino caps in there? Funny they didn't clip those out too.

[Milkmansound]

thanks Mark - thats exactly how I feel!

yeah - he should have snipped out all of the vintage carbon comp resistors too. Surely there is a quieter resistor that can be used!

so frustrating, and so lame for my customer who has to go back there and get his money back - at the very least for the two tubes which were sold to him for no reason whatsoever

[VacuumVoodoo]

I think the tech in that shop was, shall we say, a bit over confident?
Whenever an amp with valid warranty shows up at my shop I contact the builder immediately and arrange for authorization to perform the repair.
We also communicate as needed to make sure both the customer and original builder are happy. It works just fine. The amp doesn't need to be shipped away, customer doesn't wait several weeks to get his amp back.
Builder pays me instead of return shipping, insurance etc. Everybody's happy.
Same process is set in motion with amps off warranty. The difference is that the customer pays for repair, unless the builder extends a good will warranty.

[xtian]

That's frustrating!

I always err on the side of caution. In fact, I'm always talking myself out of jobs. Yesterday guy calls and describes what sounded like a microphonic preamp tube. I suggested some things, and he was surprised to discover replacing a preamp tube was something he could do himself, without having to rebias the amp!

[Leo_Gnardo]

they replaced the power tubes, biased, and then took it upon themselves to add shielded wire and replace 2 preamp tubes. I am kind of distressed about this - because they put in generic Sino 12AX7s and took out the brand new, higher quality and warrantied Ruby 12AX7AC5HG+ tubes that I use.

Some techs are "dialed in" to all the latest internet hoodoo. Hear a little hum, a little buzz, replace this & that & charge charge charge. Whether it makes any real improvement or not. Some techs around here insist on swapping in whatever "hi mojo factor" old (and now X-pensive!) signal caps they can find, never mind they leak DC like crazy and cause the volume & tone controls to crackle, or drive the output tubes into red-plate. Oh THAT's an "improvement." Grrrrrrr......... Hell there's one guy who's color blind and puts in 4K7 instead of 470R screen grid resistors. Can't tell red from brown. I don't blame him for being color blind, but I do blame him for being too f'in lazy to check with an ohm meter since he KNOWS he can't tell the difference by looking. Oh perish the thought! After all he's an EXPERT!

Heck some techs work under such noisy conditions - music going, TV too, kids, pets, wives, mothers-in-law, people testing amps out in the store "Smoke on the Water" twang twang twanggggg..... it's hard to tell whether there's amp noise or not, never mind whether the changes they make improve it. I can tell you I've had some frustrating moments trying to wrench amps on stage with the FOH blasting music and the monitor mixer shouting "one TWO one TWO" while the drummer bashes away and the other guitar player insists on showing off his lame licks at 120 dB SPL.

Then there are shops where the boss strongarms the tech into "fixing" more than need be done, in order to inflate the bill. "No bill under $150, not here, or you're fired. This is a BUSINESS not a welfare program!" Yup, seen that too.

[Cliff Schecht]

That's frustrating!

I always err on the side of caution. In fact, I'm always talking myself out of jobs. Yesterday guy calls and describes what sounded like a microphonic preamp tube. I suggested some things, and he was surprised to discover replacing a preamp tube was something he could do himself, without having to rebias the amp!

I'm very upfront about problems that people can fix themselves and that I will be charging them $40+ if I have to get inside of their amp. Some people like the idea of me going through and making sure everything is copacetic though. More times than not I'll spot and be able to fix potential problems before they become worse (especially with jacks and pots, check the jack solder joints and spray the pots if needed) and this is what I consider part of any service, fixing all issues whether the customer knows a problem exists or not.

Also I have 1952 Danelectro (model 68, recovered and freshly reconed P12R) I'm selling on commission that was given a once over by one of the "trusted" techs in Austin. Upon the first fire-on I discovered that the first channel of the amp has a horrid crackle and drops volume if bumped. It's probably just sockets needing retentioning, but it shows the lack of testing after completing the work. The amp sounds weak too, I would never send out an amp sounding this lame! Definitely going to beef it up a bit before it gets posted. I don't want to name anyone or complain too much, I think this work was done as a favor and and the work itself is quite neat, but the job is not complete and I now have to put in extra time to troubleshoot this crackling issue before I can start to improve the sonics. Other than the work itself being clean, this is the same thing I deal with time and time again - having to spend time fixing and cleaning up other peoples work before I can even put any time into tracking down other issues and making sure the amp sounds as it should or as the customer wants.

There is one guy I do a lot of work for that has pristine EVERYTHING. Nothing has been touched, all virgin Fender and Marshall amps that he wants playable and studio ready. It's been a real treat getting to work on those amps and doing what I consider a proper job and especially on those old Fender's making sure that everything is reversible as much as possible without sacrificing safety or reliability. Most haven't been played in 30+ years so it's really fun to see the owner light up every time we fire on something he hasn't heard in decades. It's jobs like these that keep me excited about being an amp tech!

[Milkmansound]

I just looked at the invoice again. It says "replaced preamp tubes for improved tone"

Seriously.

Brand new amp. New tubes. Ugh.

Maybe he needed to improve the tone after he destroyed it with that shielded wire.

[RWood]

One of the few guys in my area always replaces input wires on every amp he touches with shielded wire "to lessen noise and improve tone" for a "small $30.00 fee" of course.

I took my '69 silverface Bassman to him and he replaced the filter caps with NOS Milspec caps he said he got surplus from the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville Al. At the time I didn't know beans about that sort of stuff, so I was excited. Of course they were 40 years old and looked new, but started leaking after only a few weeks of playing (dimed of course). You could plainly see the oozing. It took over a month for him to get time to replace them, and he told me that occasionally a bad one gets through like anything else. A month later...You guessed it. The replacements started leaking. The third time he had it he told me that the PT was probably spiking and that there were lots of other issues that would take several hundred bucks more to make right. He offered to buy it from me and I agreed.

Just a few months later I started taking electronics classes which started with valves. Imagine my ire when I found out that "Vintage NOS" capacitors shouldn't be used after 20 years. The best amp I ever owned was gone because some Bozo convinced me that old caps were superior.

I've since stolen most of his business.

[teemuk]

Are you guys sure you read the title right? A tech is spelled T-E-C-H, not H-A-C-K.

[Stevem]

Maybe the guy /TECH had to add sheilded wire due to those new noisless Sino tubes that cost $2.25, LOL!

[Leo_Gnardo]

started leaking after only a few weeks of playing (dimed of course).

Wouldn't have mattered whether you played it dimed or not, even just idling those old caps would have failed.

Had the tech "formed" the caps by slowly bringing up voltage on them, he and you might have gotten away with the old caps. But when it comes to filter caps I really don't see any advantage in subbing in old ones anyway. They DO have a lifetime.

BTW I have a box of unused hi voltage electrolytics from the late 1960's. Some of them are 400V "beer cans." Just in case anybody wants to pay me a premium price, I'll be glad to sell. Might turn up in the "for sale" department here. Or in the county dump where they belong.

I've since stolen most of his business.

Stolen? No you deserve the trade. Good thing your customers recognize the advantage of quality work over hype.

[martin manning]

It's really too bad that non-technical folks are regularly taken advantage of by people like this. I don't know what can be done except encourage the buyer to beware, meaning always do some checking if at all possible to find out who is both competent and trustworthy, and that that information is current. No different from any other tech repair field.

[Phil_S]

I've since stolen most of his business.

I'll echo what Leo said. Customers vote with their feet. He failed to retain his customers and you earned their business. This is the most basic of market forces at equilibrium.

[The New Steve H]

Maybe the fundamental mistake here is assuming the tech was thinking about something other than money.