• Servicing Getting your guitar amp match-fit ....
  
• Repairs It's all gone horribly wrong ....
  
• Customising Better, faster, louder... for guitar and for harp
• Jukebox amps I fix these too
  

Servicing

Sometimes your amp just doesn't sound as good as it did.

Or maybe you wake up in the middle of the night, sweating because it's years since the inside of your Marshall head saw daylight, the way guitarists do...

Maybe you've got a gig coming up, and you're worried it's going to crap out on you at a critical moment...

Either way, it's time to give your best (musical) friend a treat. It's like sending them off on a little holiday, from which they come back fit, tanned and healthy. In servicing your amp my number one aim is its reliability.

First, I'll switch on and play it for a while to get a sense of where the amp's at. Then I check the components, and note any required replacements, possible little tweaks etc. If it falls within the standard service spec, I go ahead and sort it; if it looks complicated I ring you with the news & at least some idea of the extra cost.

The standard service includes cleaning, chassis integrity check, and simple component checks and replacements, and where necessary or requested a re-valve and re-bias with my idea of the best current production valves, which I stock. Labour for this process will be either £30 or £60 depending on the amp, plus cost of valves (£10 per preamp valve, £15 per power valve) and any major components like filter caps.

Valves currently stocked are: EH/Sovtek 6CA7s for EL34 applications; EH 6L6WXT+, and for preamps JJ ECC83S and Phillips/JAN 12AT7.

Where replacement components are no longer available or prohibitively expensive, I'll consult with you over modern equivalents.

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Repairs

If your amp goes down, give me a call. If you bring it round we can have a listen and as far as possible I'll tell you what's involved in putting it right.

If you have to have it couriered to me, here's a  Repair consignment form for you to fill in. Don't forget to put it in the box, now, will you Henry... and when I get the amp I'll take a look and give you a call before getting too deeply into it.

It would be nice to say, I'll have a look and give you an estimate, but in truth with most jobs by the time I truly know what's wrong with it, I've fixed it. But you can trust me to be economical and sensible in sorting it out.

To try to give a guide, it might help if I say that most repairs take one to three hours. Complex transistor amps can take longer, as can jobs that are more in the nature of a rebuild, as can modifications that need tweaking and tuning to get just right.

I do promise to warn you if a repair looks like it's getting uneconomical. And remember my rule - no fix, no fee.

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Customising / Modification / Upgrades

Sometimes you hear a sound in your head that you just can't get out of your amp.

If you've got an example of an amp that you think could be doing better, or could sound more like "so-and-so's", then there may be a number of things we could do.

Tweaking and modding

Getting a "hotter" or "cleaner" sound from your amp may be as simple as swapping valves, installing a different speaker (not always the expensive imports) or changing one or two little pre-amp components.

Sometimes it's a bit more fiddly. One popular mod is "blackfacing" Fender amps from the 70's. It's cheaper than going out and buying an original '63. (Beware! Some silverface fenders don't blackface well - we'll let you know if yours can be 'rodded in this way).

Designing and fitting extra gain stages is no problem, though it's surprising how much spare gain there often is to be found in the most gentlemanly of old amps at the price of a few hours' work and a resistor or two. However we definitely won't suggest that re-cabinetting your combo in rare Guatemalan Wiggly-tree hardwood and fitting solid gold jacks will get you the "Johnny Whoozat" sound.

Either way, tell me what you hear in your head and I can recommend simple, effective changes that can get you closer to your goal. We'll talk you through the options, work out a cost and get back to you.

Steve's Custom Shop

No this doesn't mean kicking your bassman reissue round the yard in the rain to make it look like a '59... but hot-rodding and customising amps in a rather more radical way than 'tweaking' might suggest is definitely a possibility, though it very much depends on what's already there. More gain stages, more power supply 'sag', pentode/triode or fixed bias/cathode bias switches, wholesale configuration changes - it often can be done. Call up for a talk about this.

However, your mum, partner and bank manager will be pleased to know that there are some things we just won't do. If you want your Fender to sound like a Marshall, it might be better to buy a Marshall!

I do build amps, and when I get round to it will post pics of my own harp and guitar amps, which are fully handbuilt including cabs. For me to build such an amp for you (something I have done for people in the past) would have to cost around £1500 because of the hours involved, and given that most of that cash would immediately evaporate in terms of resale value you will probably not want to go that route. However there are other options...

I can do major rewires on old (and otherwise knackered) amps like silverface Fenders etc. Examples of this kind of thing that I've done recently include rewiring the normal channel of a silverface Bassman with a Vibroking-type preamp (and adding a feedback lift switch to complete the VK cloning process), and rewiring a silverface Showman with the '59 Bassman preamp plus some switchable extra gain. Budget £200-300 for major rebuilds like that (not bad for a custom-built point-to-point amp). Simpler 'standard' mods like chaining the parallel gain stages in old Marshalls are cheaper.

Another way forward might be for you to purchase one of the now quite cheap and widely available classic amp kits (eg those at Ted Weber's site) - and get me to build it. I can upgrade components and introduce mods as I go. Up to £300 for the labour on such a build.

...a teensy bit more like Little Walter (harp players' section)

Like the harp tone of your guitar amp but need to lose the feedback? Tired of the "gain on one, no sound whatsoever - gain on 2, screeching feedback and a hell of recrimination with your fellow musicians" situation? Fancy a little bit more variation on the tone controls than bass on 10, mid and treble on 1? Not hard to do. Simple valve swaps will take us a long way in cutting feedback and increasing volume and grind. I can revoice your amp for harp by switching some internal components. I can advise you on mics too, and maybe flog you one. I might even let you blow through my 50s black label CR element Green Bullet. [That's enough harp voodoo - ed.]

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