Caveat Emptor

[andrewsrea]

'Buyer beware'

I decided to share my thoughts from my repair experiences and observations lately and hear your thoughts.

The last few decades are often called the new golden age of instruments, amps and effects. To which many are coming into the used market for various reasons and I hear a lot of players I know occasionally saying 'I always wanted one and am thinking of buying it.' Well, I've had more science project repairs and 'sorry, can't be repaired' in the past two years than I had in the prior 30. Here are some findings:

- No matter what, try it before you buy it or have a guarantee for full money back return.
- if the deal is too good to be true, it most likely is.
- Vacuum tubes have become more expensive than many of the amps themselves. Assume the output tubes have life used out of them and talk with
the seller to consider that in the offer. An average decent 6L6 costs $50 and are best bought in matched pairs, and on amps which require biasing,
add in $60 I only charge $25, but that is super rare to find an experienced tech that cheap).
- No matter how collectable it may be, if it is non-operational - only be willing to pay low pennies on the dollar for it. There are many technologies
now which were designed to be disposable and are highly impracticable to work on, many with parts which have been obsolete for decades with
no substitutes. And example are compact amps from the 90's and early 2000's which use a bank of beautiful sounding, but unobtainable MOSFET
output transistors.
- Ask if you can have a tech evaluate it. On occasions, I've helped friends with Facebook video chat for their purchases. Chad, who used to be here
on AGF, often calls me in the middle of a deal and has occasionally walked away because of what he learned from my questions to the seller.

With the onset of a recession (rise of stolen gear and unscrupulous sellers), a glut of gear being produced and collected, plus the unfortunate circumstance of baby boomer's passing and their estates being sold off, I feel there will be a cornucopia of gear to buy at what appears to be a great deal. No greater time to be measured in your purchases.

[BatUtilityBelt]

That's sound advice (no pun intended). While I don't worry about work I might have to do to a guitar, the same rule does not apply for amps, and especially not for keyboards. They get progressively harder to work on over time and sometimes a modeled approximation is as good in a mix as the real thing. I keep my tube amps because I don't think there will ever come a time they can't be repaired, but diminishing returns keeps me from adding any more of them. And I've recently seen killer deals on keyboards that I had to walk away from saying "those were so great 30 years ago, but...".

[andrewsrea]

That's sound advice (no pun intended). While I don't worry about work I might have to do to a guitar, the same rule does not apply for amps, and especially not for keyboards. They get progressively harder to work on over time and sometimes a modeled approximation is as good in a mix as the real thing. I keep my tube amps because I don't think there will ever come a time they can't be repaired, but diminishing returns keeps me from adding any more of them. And I've recently seen killer deals on keyboards that I had to walk away from saying "those were so great 30 years ago, but...".

Some things, like a 1965 Fender tube amp, or a Strat, or an Ibanez Tube Screamer will be repairable for decades to come. Other more technologically advanced, not so much or perhaps not at all (like a Kemper or an Alesis keyboard, for example).

[tlarson58]

Great advice and insight.

Thanks for sharing.