(no subject)
Guitar geekery alert:
Just last night, my friend Paul Spitalny, who has been doing my amp repairs lately, was out at the Jam and asked "how are the amps holding up?"
"Everything is great," I said.
Today I pulled my small amp out of its padded cover, and all three of the little throw switches on it were completely sheared off.
Let me side step a second before I go further. The (highly regarded and rightfully so) man who built this amplifier back in the 90's has a small potential of seeing me vent here, so before I go further: a lot can happen to an amp in twenty years or so, all tube amps need regular maintenance, even the best quality controlled lines can sometimes put out a lemon, and for this specific problem today: all of these "Dumble and Dumble-ish" type amplifiers feature these little tiny throw switches.
But...
This little amp that I traded a mountain of my gear to get, is an eff'n money pit. This is intolerable enough as considering I've been somewhere between "suffering artist", "indigent", and "homeless charity case" the past four years. But the real heartbreak of that realization is that two of the things I traded to get it, a Fender '65 Deluxe Reverb reissue and a Hermida Zendrive, in my hands did everything this thing can do and did it much more consistently and reliably.
The reason I'm frustrated today is that I have a fairly decent padded cover for this amp, I'm just moving it around in the back of a station wagon, not going on the tour of doom and this will be the second time that I've had broken switches on this thing. They're just three bits of metal, barely wider than a needle sticking way out from the front of the cabinet just waiting to be snapped off.
On the flip side, from my Frankenstein "Vibro" amp made from what was originally a Bandmaster Reverb head and probably the only surviving parts that are original are the chassis and the switches. Y'know the "bright" switch on the front is one of those boring rectangular slider switches but the sucker is probably older than me. It still works and it's not gonna get busted off.
Why is this a big deal? Those special little switches were an extra week or so of waiting time during the last time it was in the shop for repairs, if'n I remember correctly.
And this doesn't even get into the other breakdowns I've had. I don't know how to rectify this problem without taking a bath; I need a small combo but I think I'm basically done with this one.
Just last night, my friend Paul Spitalny, who has been doing my amp repairs lately, was out at the Jam and asked "how are the amps holding up?"
"Everything is great," I said.
Today I pulled my small amp out of its padded cover, and all three of the little throw switches on it were completely sheared off.
Let me side step a second before I go further. The (highly regarded and rightfully so) man who built this amplifier back in the 90's has a small potential of seeing me vent here, so before I go further: a lot can happen to an amp in twenty years or so, all tube amps need regular maintenance, even the best quality controlled lines can sometimes put out a lemon, and for this specific problem today: all of these "Dumble and Dumble-ish" type amplifiers feature these little tiny throw switches.
But...
This little amp that I traded a mountain of my gear to get, is an eff'n money pit. This is intolerable enough as considering I've been somewhere between "suffering artist", "indigent", and "homeless charity case" the past four years. But the real heartbreak of that realization is that two of the things I traded to get it, a Fender '65 Deluxe Reverb reissue and a Hermida Zendrive, in my hands did everything this thing can do and did it much more consistently and reliably.
The reason I'm frustrated today is that I have a fairly decent padded cover for this amp, I'm just moving it around in the back of a station wagon, not going on the tour of doom and this will be the second time that I've had broken switches on this thing. They're just three bits of metal, barely wider than a needle sticking way out from the front of the cabinet just waiting to be snapped off.
On the flip side, from my Frankenstein "Vibro" amp made from what was originally a Bandmaster Reverb head and probably the only surviving parts that are original are the chassis and the switches. Y'know the "bright" switch on the front is one of those boring rectangular slider switches but the sucker is probably older than me. It still works and it's not gonna get busted off.
Why is this a big deal? Those special little switches were an extra week or so of waiting time during the last time it was in the shop for repairs, if'n I remember correctly.
And this doesn't even get into the other breakdowns I've had. I don't know how to rectify this problem without taking a bath; I need a small combo but I think I'm basically done with this one.