Getting stuff repaired.

[Marvin]

Generally, in the UK, getting a lot of gear repaired seems a right royal pain in the behind.

First, trying to find someone and second sourcing parts. Then of course some gear can be obsolete in it goes pop.

 

I thought my Peavey Minimax, which died recently, wasn't worth fixing. By chance someone Mrs Marvin works with repairs amps. He diagnosed the problem, said how much it would cost and I said go for it. Here's the hitch. The parts aren't available in the UK, they had to ordered from the States. And here's another hitch. Those parts have been held up in US customs because they're suspicious that someone ordering 2 capacitors for a couple $s might be assembling drones for Russia 🤔🫣🤪

 

I've had similar with other gear, like a battery compartment for an Ibanez. It took months to sort out. Not available in the UK seems to be a constant mantra. 

 

[DGBass]

I used to have a Barnes & Mullins account when I was into Peavey equipment and they held quite a lot of genuine Peavey parts in the UK(and still do). However lack of use meant my account was lapsed. They seemed less interested in non trade accounts last I contacted them( a while ago).  I would agree though that parts for "foreign" manufacturers equipment seem more difficult to source in the UK nowadays and I suspect a lot of that is to do with the level of UK support available within the contracts awarded to certain amp repair centres for certain brands of bass gear. Also, changing out whole modules or entire main boards is probably easier and more cost effective than faulting to component level, and in some cases its probably cheaper buying a complete new unit if it's out of warranty.

 

Just recently I tried to get what I thought a fairly obvious consumable ( A compression horn diaphragm for a hartke tweeter ). Hartke USA were very helpful and quick to respond with correct part numbers etc however their UK support had just wound up the contract to deal with Hartke who didn't seem to realise this. When referred to their new UK support team, they were pretty much hopeless, despite Hartke USA being in on the email chain. Conversely, I needed a specific part for a twenty eight year old Ashdown amp repair. It was available,  and they posted it to me next day! Go Ashdown! 🙂

Edited 20 hours ago by DGBass

[Lozz196]

As above, go Ashdown.

[Marvin]

I've never had much luck with Ashdown.

An ABM 500 chrome face. Sounded great, until the note decayed and it would hiss. No one could find the fault. I contacted Ashdown, they said take it to a tech. Which wasn't that helpful. And then, an Ashdown RM from a major music retailer was faulty. I sent that back immediately. I think I should stay away from Ashdown tbh. 

[SimonK]

I'm really lucky in that I have a friend who builds amps for a hobby and seems to relish me bringing him something old and broken. I am frequently amazed by quite how quickly he can fix things - often just a component worth pence that needs finding and then switching out. You very seldom need to source something original from the manufacturer (even whole circuit boards can be remade).

 

We then did the figures for setting up a repair service (and market on forums like this), but to be viable would need to be charging £60 to £100 an hour for labour alone. Problem is a lot of the second hand equipment is worth a lot less than the labour cost to fix it regardless of how cheap the components are and simple the problem.

Edited 5 hours ago by SimonK

[synthaside]

We recently took our old powered Peavey floor wedges to the guy one of a Guitarists uses for setups in Surbiton ... turns out he has a little sideline in amp repair mainly older stuff , as sadly no-one wants to be told you need to replace the whole Integrated PCB... for much the same price as a new one .

The thing was making farting noises at volume , i'd guessed the whole speaker was delaminating .. turns out the tweeter was blown , He replaced it with a similarish size one ....  but also remarked it used to be easy to get peavy spares to order/ find like for like but instead had to scrounge one from his " bits" 

Edited 2 hours ago by synthaside

[Steve Browning]

@SimonK is your man available to non-friends (not that I have anything needing repairing at the moment). Reply by PM if you wish. I'll assume no unless you message me otherwise.

[SimonK]

1 hour ago, Steve Browning said:

@SimonK is your man available to non-friends (not that I have anything needing repairing at the moment). Reply by PM if you wish. I'll assume no unless you message me otherwise.

 

...he's the sort of person who will do anything for a bottle of wine so long as the understanding is that he doesn't guarantee results, and if it breaks again and he doesn't fancy/have time to look at it again that's just how it is (although in my experience he has fixed everything I have given him apart from one tricky GP12 that we still can't find the source of a buzz!).

 

PM me if you have something as we are very close (about twenty minutes from Waterlooville).

 

 

[neepheid]

20 hours ago, Marvin said:

Generally, in the UK, getting a lot of gear repaired seems a right royal pain in the behind.

First, trying to find someone and second sourcing parts. Then of course some gear can be obsolete in it goes pop.

 

I thought my Peavey Minimax, which died recently, wasn't worth fixing. By chance someone Mrs Marvin works with repairs amps. He diagnosed the problem, said how much it would cost and I said go for it. Here's the hitch. The parts aren't available in the UK, they had to ordered from the States. And here's another hitch. Those parts have been held up in US customs because they're suspicious that someone ordering 2 capacitors for a couple $s might be assembling drones for Russia 🤔🫣🤪

 

I've had similar with other gear, like a battery compartment for an Ibanez. It took months to sort out. Not available in the UK seems to be a constant mantra. 

 

 

What are these super special capacitors which can only be sourced from the States?