VHT amp

[Deleted]

OK here is a story of an VHT amp that I just got... So I see this VHT 12/20 tube amp on CL. So I went over to the guys house and tried it out.

These amps new sell form 600 to 700 dollars on eBay. It has 3 6L6gt power tubes and 4 83's in it.

Well I played on it and it sounded good to me. so I gave the guy the money and brought it home. I started to play on it and right out of the gate it started to act up... Hum...

So I pulled the back cover off to find that one of the 6V6's was broken. I emailed the guy I got it from. He told me "you have to believe Ed, I didn't know anything was wrong with." He went on to tell me he had just taken it in to this (so called shop) in town and told him they had found the bad tube and had put in a new one. I told him no way, did they do such a thing... all the tubes in the amp are the ones that came in the amp. They all are the same (China) brand with the date 2012 on them. No sir they did not replace any tubes that I could see.

So he told me where he took it to. Some of you know that I have posted before about this place in town. These people say they do work on stuff, and for the people that really don't know much, they pull one over on them. I see time after time. People bring me guitars and amps from them a lot. I have redone at lest 12 to 20 guitars now that they have worked on or said they worked on it.

This kind of thing really makes me mad! How can people sleep at night knowing they had taken advantage of someone? If I get one more Item from someone, that got it, or had work done by these guys, I will be calling someone to report this kind thing. It's not fair to the people that bring them stuff to be worked on. I will not tell anyone to even buy parts off of them.


It's times like this I wish I could have my own shop. There is a big need here where I am at for a good upright place so people won't feel like they are victims of bad business.

There is just too much of this stuff going on in today's world. It needs to stop!!!
don't get me started on on line stuff!
EB

[GuitarAttack Forum]

Eddie - I could write pages on dealings like this one which have happened to me!

Thanks for posting the story.
John

[hoz]

Sounds like you have your own shop Eddie! haha.

Word of mouth is all you need. Business cards wouldn't hurt.

[Deleted]

Hoz... that is what the wife keeps telling me. Oh I do have some cards I had my wife make at the print shop for me. People seem to change a little when I hand them one. LOL!

Well, bad news on the VHT amp... Something happened to it, that I can't fix, because I just don't have the electronic tools to find out what went wrong. I did look it over with a fine tooth comb, but could not find out anything.

So I took in to one of the shops to have it fixed. I only hope the guy that does the work will do a good job on it and not try and take me on it. I will be asking him for the proof of whats wrong. Took it in last Friday. so far I have not heard anything. So I'll give it until then before I call the music store to find out if the guy even picked it up. I have this feeling I should have taken down to Phoenix to a guy down there that has a good rep. But he is about an hour and a half away from me, one way.

EB

[Deleted]

Well, the VHT amp has now turned into a money pit. costing a lot more to fix than I planed on. By the time it's all said and done. I could have bought a brand new one. Oh well.... I only hope now the tech can keep it at the price he told me. We will see.

I really think the guy I got it from, knew it had issues.He did tell me after I bought it, he had taken it to an amp repair guy to have it looked over before selling. Hum..

EB

[Deleted]

OK, I got the VHT back today. He replaced some caps, and did some other things. so he says. won't really know until the head comes out of the cab again. But at least he got it back up and going.
It's a fun amp to mess around with so far. This has a 9volt out on the back for pedals, I thought that was cool! I haven't tried it yet, but I'll get there.
I was out int he shop when the amp guy called and said he get all up and going. I played in it for quite sometime so I got nothing done on the EB Hawk.
I did put new TAD tubes in this amp before it went south on me. He told me the tubes are some of the best tubes out there. Should last a long time. The tubes I replaced were the Power tubes.Still need to do the rest of them. But I may sell the amp and use the money for something else. LOL!

EB

[antares]

Result! Hope it didn't cost too much?

e&oe...

[Deleted]

Apr 22, 2016 0:23:59 GMT -6 antares said:

Result! Hope it didn't cost too much?

e&oe...

I do think the guy priced gouged me on it. One of the other things I don't like about sending things out to be worked. It's the techs word on what is wrong. He did give me some of the parts he replaced. But if I had a way of testing deeper into an amp I could had fixed it for a lot less. I know what I could have gotten the parts for. He charged me 3 to 4 times more for the parts than what I could have bought them for.

By the time I paid to have it fixed, the cost of the NEW Power tubes, and the cost of the amp, I could have bought a new one. Just looked at a new one today. The new one with warranty was just under 800 dollars. So I hope that shows you how much I have into this amp... LOL!

EB

[hoz]

This post reminds me, I have a solid state Ampeg guitar head that is dead. Totally not worth getting repaired, but I'm going to get it repaired anyways and probably just use it as a shop amp. I would lose money to resell.

Interesting on the parts markup Eddie. The guy that repairs my tube amps does the same thing. Marks up everything even though I remind him I use the same suppliers, ha! But, I figure it supports his line of work. I tend to only mark up materials 10 - 20% to my guitar customers to cover shipping, but make sure I get paid for all my time and labor.