{"id":36,"date":"2010-09-05T21:05:43","date_gmt":"2010-09-05T21:05:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stevesamps.co.uk\/wp\/?page_id=36"},"modified":"2025-10-07T10:40:54","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T10:40:54","slug":"home-3","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.stevesamps.co.uk\/","title":{"rendered":"Home"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>Welcome to Steve&#8217;s Amps\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/h3>\r\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\r\n\r\n<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\r\n\r\n<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Guitar, bass and hifi amplifier (valves only) repair, restoration and sale, serving Devon, Cornwall, Dorset, Somerset, Exeter, Torbay, Bridport, Seaton, Dorchester, Yeovil, Bournemouth and Poole, as well as Bath and Bristol, and surrounding areas, and the whole of Europe via courier.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">Maybe I ought to say at this point that I am part time and semiretired these days. I&#8217;m in my early 70s, slightly dicky-tickered and getting a bit arthritic, so I am tending to work shorter hours (10am-3pm), and only on some weekdays. Keeping largely to valve amps limits the flow of work so I can still manage reasonably quick turn rounds. Still delighted to help and still loving this endlessly-fascinating old technology<\/span> \u263a\ufe0f<\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\r\n\r\n<\/span><\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>I share the workshop with a luthier, Andy. It&#8217;s a one-stop shop! Here&#8217;s his <a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.fretandnut.co.uk\/\">website<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/li>\r\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Located in South Petherton, Somerset\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\r\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Repair, restoration and sale of guitar, bass and valve hifi amps, also guitar effects.<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\r\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Guitar amps converted for harmonica<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\r\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Rebuilds of Ami valve jukebox amps, including Stereo Continental<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\r\n\r\n<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\r\n\r\n<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\r\n\r\n<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\r\n\r\n<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">If you want to get in touch to discuss a repair, restoration, sale or harmonica conversion, email me on stevetheampman@gmail.com.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\r\n\r\n<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">If you want to know more about what I can do for you (basically, fix your guitar amp!) &#8211; go to <a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.stevesamps.co.uk\/?page_id=19\">Services<\/a><\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\r\n\r\n<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">For more detail on costs see <a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.stevesamps.co.uk\/?page_id=21\">Pricing<\/a>. Payment can be by cash, card or bank transfer. I can only do card payments in person, not over the phone.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\r\n\r\n<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">For an attempt to use the English language to outline my terms of business, check <a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.stevesamps.co.uk\/?page_id=99\">this<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\r\n\r\n<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">If you have an appetite for extended ramblings on the topic of amps, or are looking for general valve \/ tube amp information,\u00a0 go to my blog here: <a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.stevesamps.co.uk\/?page_id=217\">Blog<\/a><\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\r\n\r\n<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">If you&#8217;re trying to fix the amp yourself and would like advice, try the <a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.music-electronics-forum.com\">Music Electronics Forum.<\/a> There are some knowledgeable people on there. My general advice is that it is very rarely possible to diagnose a fault from the symptoms alone, there is usually a need to do some circuit tracing or testing to narrow things down. I tried to put everything I could offer in the way of advice in a post on my\u00a0<a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.stevesamps.co.uk\/?page_id=217\">Blog<\/a>\u00a0section, have a read there.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\r\n\r\n<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\r\n\r\n<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Here below is a link to my <strong>facebook<\/strong> page, which I update from time to time.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\r\n\r\n<\/span><\/p>\r\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Steves-Amps-437507236706951\/\">https:\/\/facebook.com\/stevetheampman<\/a><\/span><\/h3>\r\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\r\n\r\n<\/span><\/p>\r\n<div class=\"fb-follow\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/stevetheampman\" data-layout=\"standard\" data-size=\"small\" data-show-faces=\"true\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<p>\r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\">\r\n<table>\r\n<tbody>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><small><span style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">AND NOW&#8230;<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/small> <small><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Captain Beefheart&#8217;s Ten Commandments For Guitarists:<br style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\" \/><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">1. LISTEN TO THE BIRDS&#8230;That&#8217;s where all the music comes from. Birds know everything about how it should sound and where that sound should come from. And watch hummingbirds. They fly really fast, but a lot of times they aren&#8217;t going anywhere. <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><br style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\" \/><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">2. YOUR GUITAR IS NOT REALLY A GUITAR&#8230;Your guitar is a divining rod. Use it to find spirits in the other world and bring them over. A guitar is also a fishing rod. If you&#8217;re good, you&#8217;ll land a big one.<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><br style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\" \/><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">3. PRACTICE IN FRONT OF A BUSH&#8230;Wait until the moon is out, then go outside, eat a multi-grained bread and play your guitar to a bush. If the bush doesn&#8217;t shake, eat another piece of bread.<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><br style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\" \/><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">4. WALK WITH THE DEVIL&#8230;Old delta blues players referred to amplifiers as the &#8220;devil box.&#8221; And they were right. You have to be an equal opportunity employer in terms of who you&#8217;re bringing over from the other side. Electricity attracts demons and devils. Other instruments attract other spirits. An acoustic guitar attracts Casper. A mandolin attracts Wendy. But an electric guitar attracts Beelzebub.<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><br style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\" \/><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">5. IF YOU&#8217;RE GUILTY OF THINKING, YOU&#8217;RE OUT&#8230;If your brain is part of the process, you&#8217;re missing it. You should play like a drowning man, struggling to reach shore. If you can trap that feeling, then you have something that is fur bearing.<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><br style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\" \/><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">6. NEVER POINT YOUR GUITAR AT ANYONE&#8230;Your instrument has more power than lightning. Just hit a big chord, then run outside to hear it. But make sure you are not standing in an open field.<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><br style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\" \/><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">7. ALWAYS CARRY YOUR CHURCH KEY&#8230;You must carry your key and use it when called upon. That&#8217;s your part of the bargain. Like One String Sam. He was a Detroit street musician in the fifties who played a homemade instrument. His song &#8220;I Need A Hundred Dollars&#8221; is warm pie. Another church key holder is Hubert Sumlin, Howlin&#8217; Wolf&#8217;s guitar player. He just stands there like the Statue of Liberty making you want to look up her dress to see how he&#8217;s doing it.<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><br style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\" \/><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">8. DON&#8217;T WIPE THE SWEAT OFF YOUR INSTRUMENT&#8230;You need that stink on there. Then you have to get that stink onto your music.<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><br style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\" \/><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">9. KEEP YOUR GUITAR IN A DARK PLACE&#8230;When you&#8217;re not playing your guitar, cover it and keep it in a dark place. If you don&#8217;t play your guitar for more than a day, be sure to put a saucer of water in with it.<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><br style=\"font-family: Tahoma;\" \/><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">10. YOU GOTTA HAVE A HOOD FOR YOUR ENGINE&#8230;Wear a hat when you play and keep that hat on. A hat is a pressure cooker. If you have a roof on your house the hot air can&#8217;t escape. Even a lima bean has to have a wet paper towel around it to make it grow.<\/span> <\/small><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<p>\r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>The great Beefheart&#8217;s death was announced 17 December 2010. RIP.<\/strong> <em>&#8220;my spirit is made up of the ocean and the sky and the sun and the moon&#8221;<\/em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/music\/2011\/mar\/15\/tom-waits-rock-roll-hall-fame\">&#8230;and some better news.<\/a><\/p>\r\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome to Steve&#8217;s Amps\u00a0 Guitar, bass and hifi amplifier (valves only) repair, restoration and sale, serving Devon, Cornwall, Dorset, Somerset, Exeter, Torbay, Bridport, Seaton, Dorchester, Yeovil, Bournemouth and Poole, as well as Bath and Bristol, and surrounding areas, and the whole of Europe via courier. Maybe I ought to say at this point that I&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.stevesamps.co.uk\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Home<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-36","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stevesamps.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stevesamps.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stevesamps.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stevesamps.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stevesamps.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":77,"href":"https:\/\/www.stevesamps.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1395,"href":"https:\/\/www.stevesamps.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36\/revisions\/1395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stevesamps.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}