Rant about amp techs

[M Fowler]

I hate amp techs

[Structo]

Maybe the tech thought it was an old amp?

Did he know it was under warranty?

Maybe it was the Sino 12ax7 that made it noisy so he installed shielded cable.

My opinion is that the owner should have contacted you for repair information before taking it to Billy Joe Blo amp tech.

[talbany]

I wouldn't necessarily consider running a shielded wire from the input jack to the grid of V1 a hack job (I could show you some hack jobs. ) Maybe he was having some noise issues?..When selling amps to the general public you never know what they will plug into them and where they will take them ..A shielded input can provide a bit more protection from RFI and gain noise from a high gain pedal (like a fuzzface) especially on longer input runs and no grid resistor in certain situations.. Even if your chassis is shielded (every little bit helps on sensitive grid inputs)..Although the added capacitance there is small (depending on the run) you can easily compensate for that by using a guitar cable with a lower PF rating (there are ton's of them out there)..In the case of Jimi Hendrix and SRV liked the sound of higher PF rated (cheap) cables to smooth out the sound on those early Marshalls, so as far as tone goes if he likes the added capacitance (or could even hear it?) of the shielded run on the input then that's what counts..Basically the same when it comes to tubes..If his tech rolled a few in there and found some that biased up to his taste (with the shielded cable) then IMO he got his money's worth, and could have been MUCH! MUCH! WORSE!!

No matter how good it sounds to you ...Others will always have a different opinion..There's just no accounting for tone and what people like..Build it the best you can and throw it into the wind!

Tony

[Milkmansound]

Maybe the tech thought it was an old amp?

Did he know it was under warranty?

Maybe it was the Sino 12ax7 that made it noisy so he installed shielded cable.

My opinion is that the owner should have contacted you for repair information before taking it to Billy Joe Blo amp tech.

I told the customer to pull the chassis and send it, but that would take weeks. He wanted to use it the following night at a gig - which he did do, and of course he was delighted with the amp. He gave the tech my cell number but the tech never called me.

I am slowly getting over it. I am going to refund the price of the tubes and get credit from Ruby. I will eat a little bit of that cost - but thats a small price to pay for keeping my customer happy with his amp. And he is!

[martin manning]

Did your customer at least get the original tubes back? I've heard of cases where the tech didn't return the old parts, and that to me is a red flag.

[talbany]

Yes you should always return the parts you replaced!!..However many times customers don't want them (especially if they are bad).. If the customer decided he wanted new tubes and there was nothing wrong with the new ones that were put into the amp then why is it your responsibility to refund his money..Good customer service always wins so you try to get the tubes back refund his money and write off the inventory at tax time and move on.

It's Spilt Milk!.

Tony

[Milkmansound]

exactly my thoughts - an unhappy customer can be much more expensive than a $100 set of EH tubes purchased at retail.

He did have the original parts returned to him, and I told him to put them back in and return the Sino crap. Meanwhile, what shop charged $15 apiece for those! And one was a 12AT7! You can find an RCA for that money.

I guarantee its one of those situations where they need every repair to cost at least $100. This one would have been $70 if they did not sell $35 worth of parts.

Meanwhile, he never should have opened the amp chassis at all. I put the bias adjustment on the rear panel for a reason. Just pop the new tubes in, and a fuse, use the lightbulb trick and its done in 10 minutes.

[talbany]

Prices on repairs and mods really depend on where you live and of coarse where you go?

Most of the shops here and around DC area that do amps/PA's and other types of musical equipment charge a straight 70.00 just to put the amp on the bench..15.00 for a pre amp tube is about average for these shops and wouldn't consider it a ripoff but certainly not a good deal!..The best ones are the small shops that enjoy working on amps and some are really good at it and are honest!..Some are NOT!.. Taking a step back and looking at the whole picture.. Customers in general don't want to ship there amps!..They want it done quickly and don't want to deal with the packing or expense..I am always nervous when a customer ships an amp back and most of the time is not packed correctly..Even with just the chassis there is always a risk the amp/Tubes will get damaged, then claimes will be a nightmare if any are honored..Sure we like to see all our babies come back so we can monitor their performance and keep an eye on them..Sometimes it's just not possible

BTW..If you ever need an amp looked at on DC Metro area you can contact myself or VVT Amps as we would be happy to work WITH you to repair or maintain any of your amps in the field at a reasonable rate!

www.vvtamps.com

All The Best
Tony

[Cliff Schecht]

Oh we're doing ads too? Anybody feel free to message me if you are in the Austin area and need good amp work done at an affordable price!

[Leo_Gnardo]

Oh we're doing ads too? Anybody feel free to message me if you are in the Austin area and need good amp work done at an affordable price!

OK same here then. If you can get past Granny Yokum and her shotgun... I'll be offering a Sadie Hawkins Day special 10% off for the ladies every November 13th with a bonus one Feb 29th. 'Til then I 'spect I'll stay plenty busy.

[beasleybodyshop]

When I first started amp repair at GC they put my bench next to the guitar techs, which was out on the sales floor. It was impossible to work on stuff with joe customer walking up and practically staring over my shoulder as I was poking around inside an amp that was live. Also having to hear little timmy play "Smells like teen spirit" over and over again was the last straw. I moved my bench into the back of the store and I have since regained my sanity lol.

And I get what you mean when customers are like "Hey here is my amp, can i pick it up in a hour? I have a show tonight" Not knowing you are six deep on the bench. Then when i say its another 30 bucks for expedited service they get all pissy. "You mean you can't work on my amp RIGHT THIS SECOND unless I pay you more!?"

Yes, Virginia.

[NickC]

When I first started amp repair at GC they put my bench next to the guitar techs, which was out on the sales floor. It was impossible to work on stuff with joe customer walking up and practically staring over my shoulder as I was poking around inside an amp that was live. Also having to hear little timmy play "Smells like teen spirit" over and over again was the last straw. I moved my bench into the back of the store and I have since regained my sanity lol.

If they ever move you back to the sales floor ....... call their insurance company and ask for a sales rep to stop in to speak with you. When they arrive, say "I need to tie a bow in this lacing ..... would you mind holding your finger here <you point to a B+ PS node> while I tie it?"

If you know someone with OSHA, have them there too.

[Leo_Gnardo]

And I get what you mean when customers are like "Hey here is my amp, can i pick it up in a hour? I have a show tonight" Not knowing you are six deep on the bench. Then when i say its another 30 bucks for expedited service they get all pissy. "You mean you can't work on my amp RIGHT THIS SECOND unless I pay you more!?"

Yes, Virginia.

May have mentioned it before - please forgive - but there's a tech nearby that charges $75 in advance for "priority service." $75 CASH IN ADVANCE and does not apply to the repair charge. And his definition of "priority" is 3 weeks. This is the same one that's apparently color blind, can't tell red from brown.

Customers happily shell out their $75 plus exorbitant labor/parts prices.

They don't get pissy until they arrive on my doorstep with their mangled amps that weren't fixed right by mister hi-bucks.

So far I don't charge for priority service. And nobody has offered any $$$. Maybe I should start - an extra couple grand a year would be nice. I need a new hot water heater, and mattress/box spring, dental work, odds & ends like that.

[Milkmansound]

I used to repair televisions back in another life

every year, like clockwork, about 1 hour before closing time the weekend of the Super Bowl I would get flooded with customers wanting their sets repaired in time to watch the big game that sunday.

also, there was one particular TV made by RCA that always had the same problem, which took about 5 minutes to repair. Another TV tech told me that issue was his bread and butter. He would charge the full hour just to re-flow the grounds around the tuner shield. Sure enough, and time went on, I repaired dozens of that model television. Thats the equivalent of replacing an amps power tubes for a TV - 5 minutes of work, billed for an hour, and you barely even need to test the damn thing after you are done.

[xtian]

there was one particular TV made by RCA that always had the same problem

We have that in computer-tech world, too. It's called Microsoft.