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Probably a good thing. He ruined my dual rectifier. Eventually he refunded me but "forgot" what he did so I couldn't fix it.

I ended up taking it to the rock shop who had to undo clarrys mistake and then begin anew. I'm convinced clarry is a hack.

NippleWrestler wrote:Probably a good thing. He ruined my dual rectifier. Eventually he refunded me but "forgot" what he did so I couldn't fix it.

I ended up taking it to the rock shop who had to undo clarrys mistake and then begin anew. I'm convinced clarry is a hack.

Don't think you'll get much mileage out of that, lots of people know and admire Clarry's work. I've been to him once, and he was great for the job. I'm surprised he touched your dual rec. I'm not saying it didn't happen, just most peoples experience has been the opposite.

As an aside:
Jansen did sweet fuck all to the Carvin I had which sounded like shit, and charged me 300 bucks for the privilege. It was the best amp I'd ever played for exactly one gig, then something went pop. Jansen being the carvin dealer, I presumed they could fix. They changed all the valves, charged me 300 bucks for labour, and it still sounded like shit.

so the moral of this thread is no one wants to fix tube amps anymore by the looks so buy a katana and when it shits out biff it and just buy another one?? will work out WAY cheaper in the long run

willow13 wrote:so the moral of this thread is no one wants to fix tube amps anymore by the looks so buy a bandit

Bingo

willow13 wrote:so the moral of this thread is no one wants to fix tube amps anymore by the looks so buy a katana and when it shits out biff it and just buy another one?? will work out WAY cheaper in the long run

seriously considering that Katana Head on TM now instead of a valve amp after reading this thread that I started lol the irony! I've even had a Katana head before and sold it

Then there’s me thinking of going clean as hell solid state and pedals ... then I remember I’m broke

Once Clarry packs it in, I can't see any options.

Ivan is very, very pricey, and hostile in manner. The Rock Shop's person is in my experience not very skilled. R**n is not viable.

I know the rock shop use different people depending on what Amp it is.

Don’t we have some amp guys on the forum? And what about DJW for repairs to tube amps?

In terms of reliability, I’m satisfied my tube amps will outlast me. My ‘73 Princeton has had nothing repaired in it including replacing the tubes. Sounds fantastic.

Long live the point to point. Its just the micro sized modern components that make it awkward.

So Clarry is a no-go these days? Semi-retired?
Wonder if my Splawn counts a a 'special project' ? Not that it needs work, but for down the line.

Splawns are pretty easy to work on for a PCB based amp, on the same page as a SLO or a vertical input 800 so you shouldnt have too much trouble getting any repairs done

Optical wrote:Splawns are pretty easy to work on for a PCB based amp, on the same page as a SLO or a vertical input 800 so you shouldnt have too much trouble getting any repairs done

Thought as much - I'm thinking I'd be more inclined to just have a retube/bias at any given stage given the amp is robust AF.

I can think of very few examples of tube amps that customers felt weren’t worth repairing. Whereas repairing a transistor amp can get pricey really fast and I’m seeing more and more bass amps with ‘disposable’ sections - especially SMPS units where you just chuck it and fork out $250 for a new power supply. It’s apples and oranges though- transistor amps still seem to be ‘cost-effective’ units whereas you don’t see too many entry-level or ‘practise’ tube amps. The exceptions to this are Line 6 Spyders (cheap tube amps) and Quilters (pricier transistor amps) and I suppose Katanas.

I had my amp in to see Clarry just a few months ago (around christmas), so as far as I know he's still in action. He seemed to still be taking things on and made no mention to me about packing it in... but it's not like we're close friends or anything.