Here’s some photos from an emergency repair I did for the band Swans. I got phone call from their tech saying that one of their amps. a MESA Carbine M9, had died with smoke emanating from the innards. Swans needed the amp turned around quickly as they were on tour. I said that this didn’t look…
I’ve had a few Hughes & Kettner TubeMeister 18 amps in for repair. This is an 18W fixed bias amp that uses 2 x EL84s in the output stage. These amps have a quite sophisticated biasing system that automatically adjusts the output valve grid voltage for optimum bias, and also shuts the amp down in the…
I’m a massive fan of the Hammond organ: well who isn’t? Anyhow I’ve recently been helping a friend of mine, and Hammond organist extraordinaire, Joe Glossop, get his Hammonds and Leslie cabinets into working order. Joe recently acquired a couple of 60’s M series organs and a Leslie 145 cabinet (to go with his C3…
We often get 70’s Marshall JMP amps in for repair; these are excellent rock amps and are still very good value for money. Ahe major issue with these amps are the voltage and impedance selectors which are prone to falling out. Someone had done a really good job of wiring the mains selector in this…
Here’s an Ibanez TS9DX Turbo Tube Screamer we’ve just repaired. The pedal came in with a common fault: the switching was intermittent. This is usually due to the foot switch wearing out, however the foot switch in this pedal was fine. After some prodding with a high tech implement (a chopstick!) I found that moving…
New American TV drama Better Call Saul, which premiered on 8th Feb, is a prequel to Breaking Bad. The theme tune for this exciting new series was composed and performed by Little Barrie and features a JPF Regent 25 amp that was used both for the guitar and bass guitar. Click here for a sound…
I’ve had quite a few Ashdown bass amps in the workshop for repair. Here’s the inside of a MAG300 I had in a recently. The amp was not powering up, and on inspection the mains fuse has blown. On energizing the unit employing a current limiter (a 60W light bulb in series with the amp),…
Here’s a rare example of a 70s Ampeg SVT that I had in the workshop. Introduced in 1969, the SVT has, rightly, gained the reputation as one of the greatest bass amp ever made. Indeed, even today the SVT is the industry standard bass amp for live work. However, working on these amps is not…
We’ve repaired hundreds of vintage Fender amps, and it’s always a pleasure to get these classic amps back in tip-top working order. It’s a testimony to Leo Fender that so many Fender amps from the 1960’s are in use today. Here’s a picture of the inside of a vintage 1960’s Fender Blackface Deluxe Reverb we…
Here are a couple of Electro Harmonix Memory Man Deluxe delay pedals we’ve had in for repair. The pedal in the right was distorting badly with an ES-335 when set to unity gain; a problem with the Memory Man is that they don’t like hot guitar signals. This can be reduced somewhat by calibrating the pedal…