In a car shop, they can look up in a book: replace water pump on 2004 Lexus E300....X hours labor plus part. There is no such look-up for guitar amps. I will give anyone my 5 minute assessment for free. Right in front of them. You want an actual estimate? You pay for that. To know what it really will take to fix an amp, I have to essentially do all the work except putting it back together. It might take me an hour and a half. I can't afford to give that away. I am not greedy. If I gave out four estimates for free in one day, I'd take in no revenue that day.
Once I overhauled a large mixer for a church system. I counted. To get into it I had to remove over 900 knobs, and keep track of which color went where. There were over 250 jack nots on the 1/4" A hundred and some small screws holding XLR jacks. Oh and those nuts had over 250 flat washers with them. And under each knob, a not on each pot bushing. Plus boo-coo screws holding the whole she-bang together. I had several hours labor just taking it apart and then putting it back together.
Once I overhauled a large mixer for a church system. I counted. To get into it I had to remove over 900 knobs, and keep track of which color went where. There were over 250 jack nots on the 1/4" A hundred and some small screws holding XLR jacks. Oh and those nuts had over 250 flat washers with them. And under each knob, a not on each pot bushing. Plus boo-coo screws holding the whole she-bang together. I had several hours labor just taking it apart and then putting it back together.
Ya. Not quite the free estimate I'm referring to... Sony used to give free estimates in their service centre here.
Auto shops used to commonly do free estimates, too.
Now most of them charge a "diagnostic fee" that is roughtly equal to ⅓ hour labour.
Auto shops used to commonly do free estimates, too.
Now most of them charge a "diagnostic fee" that is roughtly equal to ⅓ hour labour.
When we first opened the shop in 1989, and for about 7 years after, we didn't charge an estimate fee.
This was in order to attract business since we were "new" in the area, and had several nearby shops as competition.
Our ads featured "Free Estimates!"
But then we had no choice but to charge fees, if we were to stay in business.
We didn't like it any better than the customers, but the choice was obvious.
Rising overhead costs, parts cost increases, etc..
As for my seperate "Vintage Restorations" there, I didn't charge estimate fees, because each vintage piece naturally needed complete work, and usually had "surprises" that arose during the restoration, influencing final costs.
I made this clear to the customer intitially, and told them Final costs could/would be costly one-time Investments.
There's no way to service/restore a 1939 floor console radio, with sometimes had a 78RPM record changer in it, and give an "up front" estimate, when halfway through it you come across some problem that costs more time and money to fix.
Or have to custom-make a part no longer available.
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It's funny though. With a tube amp, I can usually diagnose it over the phone at least if I built it anyway...
"I plugged it in and turned it on and the fuse blew immediately."
Caps in the PSU failed short and made the diodes into wires effectively making the secondary load a short. New caps and diodes and it was fixed. Took 20 minutes and cost 10$ 🙂
Except when it's just too stupid? The other day I gave my dad back his amplifier with a new PSU board in it. He said there was no sound from it... The next dayt I visit him to find out he didn't connect the RCA cable LOL
"I plugged it in and turned it on and the fuse blew immediately."
Caps in the PSU failed short and made the diodes into wires effectively making the secondary load a short. New caps and diodes and it was fixed. Took 20 minutes and cost 10$ 🙂
Except when it's just too stupid? The other day I gave my dad back his amplifier with a new PSU board in it. He said there was no sound from it... The next dayt I visit him to find out he didn't connect the RCA cable LOL
On occasion, thankfully rarely, an irate customer comes along.
One guy with an accent, brings in a 46" flat screen Samsung set.
It appeared to have previous involvement from a DIY'er. 🙄
The set was trash... way too much involved to service.
I called the guy and discussed it, and the agreement was to recycle the set.
4 days later, the guys from Mexico came by to pick up junked sets.
They pay me a few bucks a set, pin money.
That samsung was one of them.
Two days later, the guy calls me and wants his set back, and was irate/threatening when I told him it was long gone.
He knew our policy, he knew the set was trash.... yet....
He contacts the Better Business Bureau to report me. - and wants half the cost for a new set to replace the trashed one. (which he agreed to let me recycle it)
They contact me, and I let them know I had phone conversation proof and video w/audio at the front counter security camera. - and that they were invited to come look and hear anything they wanted.
Well, they finally turned down the guys complaint.
The guy had a trashed set, and tried to screw me out of $1000 to buy a new set?
I don't think so!
One guy with an accent, brings in a 46" flat screen Samsung set.
It appeared to have previous involvement from a DIY'er. 🙄
The set was trash... way too much involved to service.
I called the guy and discussed it, and the agreement was to recycle the set.
4 days later, the guys from Mexico came by to pick up junked sets.
They pay me a few bucks a set, pin money.
That samsung was one of them.
Two days later, the guy calls me and wants his set back, and was irate/threatening when I told him it was long gone.
He knew our policy, he knew the set was trash.... yet....
He contacts the Better Business Bureau to report me. - and wants half the cost for a new set to replace the trashed one. (which he agreed to let me recycle it)
They contact me, and I let them know I had phone conversation proof and video w/audio at the front counter security camera. - and that they were invited to come look and hear anything they wanted.
Well, they finally turned down the guys complaint.
The guy had a trashed set, and tried to screw me out of $1000 to buy a new set?
I don't think so!
I had a small sign by my counter: "NO TVs NO VCRs"
And we had a specific policy for CD and DVD players. I will clean your laser. If that fixes it, you owe me something, if not, no charge, take it somewhere else.
And no, I won't explain why it still would cost you $75 (an hour labor at the time) for me to fix your $49 DVD thingie.
And we had a specific policy for CD and DVD players. I will clean your laser. If that fixes it, you owe me something, if not, no charge, take it somewhere else.
And no, I won't explain why it still would cost you $75 (an hour labor at the time) for me to fix your $49 DVD thingie.
How charming!
However, our "diversity" kept us going for decades, and made us secure, and a popular place to bring your broken equipment to.
When you realize the set's tuner has a mechanically connected DC motor, driven by vacuum tubes, whose analog computer seeks for the next "maximum in signal strength" as the motor moves the tuning frequency up or down the dial, according to which push button gets pressed.
"Uh, I replaced a couple caps so it plays without hum now...not sure if I can get that auto-tuning working though!"
I have fully restored several "auto-tune" and very complex old radios, notably the 1937 RCA Victor 816K, and the european 1963 era SABA "Automatic" models with both volume AND tuning motors.
Both types of sets require a specific and careful alignment, and substantial and delicate restoration.
The customers were pleased, the SABA owner brought me in yet another to restore.
Extremely time-consuming, but those brought me nice money.
By the way, those sets used AC motors, not DC, rotation direction is controlled by phase reversal.
There's some wonderful pics of one 816K here; https://www.greenhillsgf.com/Project_RCA_816K.htm.
It looks vaguely familiar. I think I may have worked on one for my boss at the time, some 30 years ago!
Lovin' the paragraph on the backboard of the speaker cabinet 👍
It looks vaguely familiar. I think I may have worked on one for my boss at the time, some 30 years ago!
Lovin' the paragraph on the backboard of the speaker cabinet 👍
Yes, I restored 2 of those 816K's, one even had the original "armchair remote" which was neat, although I had to replace the cord to it with 25 feet of a multi-conductor computer cord.
I dare anyone today to work on one of those heavy beasts!
Thank god I'm retired!