Red Goop In Dr. Z & Metro Amps

[pdf64]

Dr Z isn't one guy building a handful of amps per month for sale within his region.
It costs >$10,000 and several amps destruction tested to get electrical equipment certified for sale in the EU.
Same again for Canada, Japan etc.
And that's for each amp model.
20 skilled employees that require holiday pay, health insurance etc.

Try to make some money doing what I do for living

Brother, I'm with you on that one!
Pete

[Gaz]

It's not really tamper protection, just QC, anyone can get their hands on a red Sharpie or Dykem.

I saw a Dr. Z interview a few years back where he says that they sell 2,000 amps a year!

[Blackburn]

It's not really tamper protection, just QC, anyone can get their hands on a red Sharpie or Dykem.

That too. Forgot to mention QC. I've seen a few that still use it and don't put out serious numbers, though.

[Ken Moon]

I agree that, at least on the Dr Z, that red mark just shows that that solder joint has been visually inspected, so they don't accidentally leave a connection unsoldered.

Now this is goop, on this Suhr Badger amp, which loooks like it's put there to hide the values of the preamp components:

[img:640:475]http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg15 ... amp005.jpg[/img]

[cbass]

Just wanted to apologize for being a butthole.I'm trying to quit drinkin and smoking so far I'm not very good at being sober.

DR.Z makes great amps and I'm glad he is doing well.

[NickC]

Just wanted to apologize for being a butthole.I'm trying to quit drinkin and smoking so far I'm not very good at being sober.

DR.Z makes great amps and I'm glad he is doing well.

Good luck with the sobriety. Been there, done that. It's good.

However, you do realize that sobriety will require resetting your bias?

[mhuss]

Harry Joyce's crew starting doing the 'solder joint QC with a marker' thing when wiring Hiwatt chassis in the early-to-mid 70s. Blue was a popular color.

--mark

[JazzGuitarGimp]

Harry Joyce's crew starting doing the 'solder joint QC with a marker' thing when wiring Hiwatt chassis in the early-to-mid 70s. Blue was a popular color.

--mark

I have heard Harry worked in aerospace electronics before joining up with Reeves at HiWatt. Perhaps this solder joint QC discipline was born out of his previous work experiences.

[husky]

Dr Z isn't one guy building a handful of amps per month for sale within his region.
It costs >$10,000 and several amps destruction tested to get electrical equipment certified for sale in the EU.
Same again for Canada, Japan etc.
And that's for each amp model.
20 skilled employees that require holiday pay, health insurance etc.

Try to make some money doing what I do for living

Brother, I'm with you on that one!
Pete

Nah not true
I do CE for all my gear. The only ones who want to destroy it are China for their approvals. CE isn't good enough.
It costs me around $3,500 max depending on the amp for CE

Without CE many distributors will not carry your product since they can be liable

[VacuumVoodoo]

That nail lacquer, or whatever, on solder joints only says "Yes, someone dotted the joint".
I've unmasked a lot of poor solder work once that lacquer was washed off, especially on turrets. Most common is massive excess of solder resulting in cracked granular joint.

[pdf64]

The only ones who want to destroy it are China for their approvals

Don't the insulation tests required by the Low Voltage Directive involve applying kV pulses to all terminals (ie jack and line sockets)?
I guess they may well survive but not be seen to be fit for sale without re-work?
Maybe they could be assigned for demo etc?
Thanks for your insight - Pete

[Leo_Gnardo]

It costs >$10,000 and several amps destruction tested to get electrical equipment certified for sale in the EU.
Same again for Canada, Japan etc.
And that's for each amp model.

Nah not true
I do CE for all my gear. The only ones who want to destroy it are China for their approvals. CE isn't good enough.
It costs me around $3,500 max depending on the amp for CE

Without CE many distributors will not carry your product since they can be liable

Hi John! Before I started my morning coffee I was wondering what CE had to do with all this. (I was thinking, the parts outfit in Arizona.) No, dummy, thought to myself, the CE safety certification! So - for the perplexed, here's a link that may clarify things, it did for me:

http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies ... cemarking/

Learn something new every day - I always thought CE was Canadian, because I first saw it on Traynor amps. Gettin' smarter faster thanks to you!

[MGW]

With regard to the badger goop...Husky can add to this and I'd be curious to hear his opinion, but I was talking with John Kasha a few months ago when degooping a old Rockmod II. John said that the reason for the goop was two fold. One, it hid values. Second it affected the frequency response of the circuit. Whether it does or not I don't know. The pre didn't work before I degooped. Sounded pretty good after though.

[Leo_Gnardo]

John said that the reason for the goop was two fold. One, it hid values. Second it affected the frequency response of the circuit. Whether it does or not I don't know. The pre didn't work before I degooped. Sounded pretty good after though.

"Sure Mr. Kasha," the goop affected the frequency response to the point there was no signal... what about that? Maybe he was using conductive goop. How does THAT help sell the product?

Luthier Dominic Ramos told me the story of when he was the apprentice in Dan Armstrong's NY shop, late 60's. Dan had just perfected the first pickup for his plexiglas guitar then potted it in brown goop. Then it didn't work. Dan and a friend took off for lunch and to try and brainstorm the pickup problem. While they were gone, Dom stuck a magnet in the liquid goop & pulled up a big wad of it. The brown pigment was magnetic iron oxide - and that's what stopped the pickup from working. Dom showed Dan after lunch & the next potting effort was successful, with a different compound.

SO - choice of goop CAN make a difference. Especially if there's a lot of it. A little dab here & there to show a connection has been inspected, not so much. And careful covering up those component values - if you chose a conductive goop, a dab too much might short out the component.

Next, the difference between goop and glop. Stay tuned

[JazzGuitarGimp]

It costs >$10,000 and several amps destruction tested to get electrical equipment certified for sale in the EU.
Same again for Canada, Japan etc.
And that's for each amp model.

Nah not true
I do CE for all my gear. The only ones who want to destroy it are China for their approvals. CE isn't good enough.
It costs me around $3,500 max depending on the amp for CE

Without CE many distributors will not carry your product since they can be liable

Hi John! Before I started my morning coffee I was wondering what CE had to do with all this. (I was thinking, the parts outfit in Arizona.) No, dummy, thought to myself, the CE safety certification! So - for the perplexed, here's a link that may clarify things, it did for me:

http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies ... cemarking/

Learn something new every day - I always thought CE was Canadian, because I first saw it on Traynor amps. Gettin' smarter faster thanks to you!

Back in the day, the Canadian safety organization was the Canadian Standards Association, or CSA. Don't know if it still exists. But pretty much everything sold in the US had stickers for both UL and CSA.