Techs...

[Beastly]

Its always the same.

 

"These tubes are old (NOS)- You want JJ's" - no i dont, you do.

"How are you running it?" - with electricity, dick

"How old are you?" what does that have to do with anything?

"Im going to quote an hour over what i think it will take, just incase, you know?"

yeah i know, but i almost always end up paying that extra hour dont I?

 

but todays new one - the distortion broke your amp - you should really get your drive from a pedal. Can i put you down for a MT-2?

Oh? I thought it was designed for that, and no thanks

Well, you shouldn't run it on ten.

Then it should only go up to 8?

Its not really a punk amp

Who said anything about what i play? did the amp grow a mohawk sitting in your shop all week?

 

Its usually the small guys I have a better experience with, but some things i still bring to the shops. But i dont get why you dont just tell a guy "this is broke and this is how i'll fix it" instead of just going into the "tube amps for 12 yr olds" schpiel.

 

and {censored} JJ's

 

/rant

[Cirrus]

Haha sounds like you've met some arses.

[jenksdrummer]

 

Its always the same. "These tubes are old (NOS)- You want JJ's" - no i dont, you do. "How are you running it?" - with electricity, dick "How old are you?" what does that have to do with anything? "Im going to quote an hour over what i think it will take, just incase, you know?" yeah i know, but i almost always end up paying that extra hour dont I? but todays new one - the distortion broke your amp - you should really get your drive from a pedal. Can i put you down for a MT-2? Oh? I thought it was designed for that, and no thanks Well, you shouldn't run it on ten. Then it should only go up to 8? Its not really a punk amp Who said anything about what i play? did the amp grow a mohawk sitting in your shop all week? Its usually the small guys I have a better experience with, but some things i still bring to the shops. But i dont get why you dont just tell a guy "this is broke and this is how i'll fix it" instead of just going into the "tube amps for 12 yr olds" schpiel. and {censored} JJ's /rant

 

 

I thought I'd come up with a witty response to each item, but, {censored} it...

 

I once went to a shop to try out the hand wired 18w Marshall. After pulling their teeth over being "serious" about buying it (mind you, I'm 28 at the time), they pull it out of the box, and within 3 minutes of it being powered on, after everyone ELSE played through it, I'm finally handed the guitar, and within 20 seconds, idiot comes over and unplugs me, and plugs me into a Zakk overdrive pedal, then plugs it back in - and say, YEAH, that's the sound right there!

 

I said I wasn't interested in hearing the pedal, that I'm there to check out the amp...and they just went on and on, and I handed them the guitar, next idiot that worked there started wanking (badly) on it, and I just took two steps back, waited a sec, then walked out. Just as I crossed the threshold for the door, someone said, I thought you were serious about buying this amp - I replied with "I thought you were serious about wanting to sell it".

 

A handful of months later, the owner gets busted for distributing pot and using the store to do it from.

[Cirrus]

As a student I drove to the nearest city (Ancient York, if you're interested!) and went to a guitar shop to try out some strats - I really wanted one, the student loan had just arrived etc. Walked into the shop and asked if I could try a white strat that was up on the wall at about

[Beastly]

 

I thought I'd come up with a witty response to each item, but, {censored} it... I once went to a shop to try out the hand wired 18w Marshall. After pulling their teeth over being "serious" about buying it (mind you, I'm 28 at the time), they pull it out of the box, and within 3 minutes of it being powered on, after everyone ELSE played through it, I'm finally handed the guitar, and within 20 seconds, idiot comes over and unplugs me, and plugs me into a Zakk overdrive pedal, then plugs it back in - and say, YEAH, that's the sound right there! I said I wasn't interested in hearing the pedal, that I'm there to check out the amp...and they just went on and on, and I handed them the guitar, next idiot that worked there started wanking (badly) on it, and I just took two steps back, waited a sec, then walked out. Just as I crossed the threshold for the door, someone said, I thought you were serious about buying this amp - I replied with "I thought you were serious about wanting to sell it". A handful of months later, the owner gets busted for distributing pot and using the store to do it from.

 

 

funny thing is (unless you intended it that way) is this is the 18w Marshall Im having fixed. And its like, what kind of guy with that amp isn't getting all the amp distortion he can out of it? This is Marshall Authorized dealer (im new in town so next time ill shop around a little more) and he's telling me how to run it, and what tubes to use (always jj, any town), and saying "clapton doesnt play on ten" - like i care, but you know, i bet he would when he had to so its a pretty weird statement.

 

just fix things.

[MetalHed]

Walked into the shop and asked if I could try a white strat that was up on the wall at about

[TruSlice]

I've got one -

 

 

 

Bought an old Gibson Ga-200 amp off of ebay, sold as-is. Didn't cost too much but it was DOA. Supposed to be like a bass amp and some reputable people pointed out to me that the transformers were great, original caps were intact, but needed some screen resistors replaced and such.

 

I didn't know too much about tube amps at the time )besides the fact that I owned and loved my Gibson Skylark which I had repaired and played with), but I did my homework on the items mentioned and it checked out. So I take it to a tech to do the appropriate work to get it up to speed and I get the schpeel that the components are no good, the amp needs a re-build. I am pissed off but regretfully comply as I just bought the amp, I figured that it would be worth it to have a custom-made amp inside the amp itself instead of going out and buying another one.

 

I was told that he warranties all of his work, 'just send it back if you have a problem and I''ll fix it accordingly" deal. Get the amp and it sounds great. Sounds like a warmer bassman with an extra gain stage, pretty close to the sound I was looking for anyways, so I though I got a good deal. The amp was a bit noisy though. About two weeks later I start having problems with the amp, noise issue gets worse and started to "garble" if I hit a ferocious chord a high volumes. Conveniently, the tech's website doesn't work anymore, so I couldn't get my phone number from him (I couldn't remember what I did with his number and for some reason the phone didn't have a great call log feature on it...). So I finally look up his number in the business classifieds and I call - the number has been disconnected and is no longer in service...

 

 

... me

 

 

I didn't really know how screwed over I was until I found another amp tech (bat-{censored} crazy as hell, charges more than god, but does top-notch work) and he had a look at it. He tells me that even though there are some quality elements to the design (ptp board, bulky filter caps, etc) there are safety and grounding issues all over the place, and by off-chance one of the areas that was actually grounded was behind the volume pot, but with extra wire that would get in the way as you turned it and would trip on the chassis. So those filter caps that were generously bulky? They were way over spec because it was just a lazy way of making sure the amp wasn't making excessive noise. So Repeated trips of $200, $200, $85 (that's for one hour) the amp is still making the same noises. The builder managed to make a rat's nest of some good components here and there (and some that looked like radio shack components), but ultimately made something that no tech that I have used so far can figure out how to fix.

 

So I'm stuck with this great-sounding, yet extremely temperamental abomination that will work for low-volume cleans, but sounds like it's going to blow at louder volumes or every time I hit the standby switch.

 

 

So yeah, I've learned quite a bit about tube amp since owning this thing, trying to get it to work on my own at times - draining the caps, biasing the tube (it has a bias circuit oddly enough) changing out some key resistors, but I would have rather learned without paying through the nose for it

 

 

 

P.S. - I think the original builder tech got busted for cocaine awhile after I did business with him.