Who do you trust with your vintage amp?

Re: Who do you trust with your vintage amp?

I have a friend who is a commercial electrician and an experienced hobbyist electronics guy. He did a wonderful job on my Marshall 6100 when it had a couple of rectifiers fail, and he did filter caps and a few things for me at the same time. It's like a brand new amp now.

He also biased my Marshall 1959RR, including changing the bias resistor value to allow it to be biased quite a bit hotter than the stock value allowed.
 
Re: Who do you trust with your vintage amp?

I trust a man called Mr Hackman.

In the past, he was involved in designing this beast (OT tranny + Channel3 and some tricky stuff):

VH4


In the present, he manufactures these:

Mastertone
 
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Re: Who do you trust with your vintage amp?

my friend kirk is an electrician and does anything that i am not comfortable doing myself
 
Re: Who do you trust with your vintage amp?

Here in Indy, I go to Kevin Silva - owner (and sole proprietor) of Uncle Albert's Amplifier Repair.

He's the go-to guy in these parts for local dudes and touring bands alike. His client list is way, way too long to list here, but I'll give you a brief sampling:



  • Ted Nugent
  • Foreigner
  • Alanis Morissette
  • John Mellencamp
  • Bio Hazard
  • The Damn Yankees
  • Tom Petty
  • Kenny Wayne Sheppard
  • Toby Keith
  • Bad Company
  • Harry Conick Jr.
  • Medicine Wheel
  • Green Day
  • Fleetwood Mac
  • Aerosmith
  • Dokken
  • Willie Nelson
  • The Guess Who
  • The Cars
  • The Drifters
  • Prince
  • Kyuss

...and me. And a lot of other people. :)

His always crazy busy - his workshop is floor-to-ceiling amps wall-to-wall - but he usually gets things done for me in about a week or two (which is real nice of him).

He's a licensed tech for practically every amp company and I can't recommend the guy strongly enough.
 
Re: Who do you trust with your vintage amp?

So fortunate to know a couple of ex military electronic guy's that work on guitar Tube Amps exclusively.
The last creation one made for me was converting a 50 watt 6L6 Bassman / JTM 45 style head into basically a 6V6 Dr. Z Remedy... except cathode bias! And I can blend the volumes... Normal and Bright... So very cool! Thank you Stan B! You are awesome!
.
 
Re: Who do you trust with your vintage amp?

I've had a few amps retubed by some dude named "Evil Pancho" who works at a local pro sound store. Never asked about the name, but he does a good job.
 
Re: Who do you trust with your vintage amp?

Sosomething... Do you remember the band Red, Beans & Rice in Indy?
Used to play at The Slippery Noodle a lot...
Anyway, I used to play with them... back mid 90's... I miss Indy, it's a good city.
.
 
Re: Who do you trust with your vintage amp?

My amp's not exactly "vintage" but it's vintage-styled. It has never needed repair, but if it did, I'd return it to the manufacturer... me.
 
Re: Who do you trust with your vintage amp?

sonnyblu said:
Sosomething... Do you remember the band Red, Beans & Rice in Indy?
Used to play at The Slippery Noodle a lot...
Anyway, I used to play with them... back mid 90's... I miss Indy, it's a good city.
.
Click to expand...

I've only lived here since 2003... Sorry!

But yeah, Indy is a nice place to live. Not the hippest of the 11 largest US cities, but one of the cleanest with some of the nicest people...
 
Re: Who do you trust with your vintage amp?

There are lots of really good techs out there. A few things to look for before you entrust them to work on your vintage gear include:

(1) Are they insured against loss, theft, fire, etc...

(2) When you call them, do they really listen to you or do they tell you what they think you should have done and ignore your input.

(3) Can they recall amps that are similar to yours that they have worked on and what work they required.

(4) Ask others who have had work done what their experience was like.

I would try to stay with a local tech if at all possible...that way, if there is an issue that pops up later...and with vintage amps, there can be...you can get it taken care of easily.
 
Re: Who do you trust with your vintage amp?

Theres a guy in San Antonio named the 'Amp Monster' that Ive heard nothing but good things about.
Other than that , I'd trust Jeff Seal in Houston, but thats 200 miles away.
There are supposed to be some good techs in Austin though.not sure.
 
Re: Who do you trust with your vintage amp?

BloodRose said:
He of the famous Brown eye mod and Friedman amps??
Click to expand...

Yep, and EVH, Lynch, DeMartini, Cantrell, Stevens, etc...

I can't recommend Dave high enough, and he goes out of his busy way to make customers happy.
 
Re: Who do you trust with your vintage amp?

Pat at Dietze Music in Lincoln can handle anything I throw at him, be it keyboards, guitar amps, power amps, etc.
 
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