stinker amp purchase? please help...

[enalnitram]

hi all, I'm wondering what I should do ... so I have come to tdpri, seeking ... things they did not teach me in college.

I'm kind of an experienced guitarist. I've been playing for over 20 years ... and in the process I have tried a little bit of everything, but I'm a master of little, especially electronics. anyhow, I recommended a peavey classic 30 to my teenaged nephew. so I bought it for him with the understanding that he would pay me back. here it is:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=280186801953

we asked the seller to ship it to my nephew. my nephew lives in Kentucky, and I live in Michigan. so kiddo has the amp, and at first he's very, very happy. and then after 2 (two) days, he reports that the amp made a loud pop, lots of static, and that he *thinks* he smelled something burning (a little bit).

I like to trust people, and I really don't yet believe the seller tried to swindle us. the ad doesn't mention anything about the item being "as is". and I won't be able to see the amp for at least another couple of weeks.

should we try to return it? swap out the preamp tubes? get it checked out by a tech?

I feel bad about how this has turned out, for my young nephew. he owes me 300 bucks for something that broke on the second day. did he screw it up? am I obligated to own it now? is it just a bad tube? was I crazy to think that a 16 year-old could seat tubes and install a DI? what does it sound like that could be wrong?

[getbent]

If the seller has lots of feedback and all positive, I'd probably conclude you did not get swindled. Was the amp received in good condition? Was the box intact? was the shipping adequate? if the answer is yes, then I'd conclude that while packed well, the amp may have been banged around a bit by the shipper... or if the amp is used... they break sometimes.

I'd have your nephew take it to a tech... I'd bet you can get a good recommendation here for a peavey amp tech and find out what the scoop is. It may be a relatively inexpensive thing... I doubt your nephew did anything to hurt it...

just my .02 cents.

EDIT: I just checked the ad... holy cow, that guy does not have very good feedback! I would not have bought anything from him... and the amp looks pretty beat too....

I guess I'd have him take it to a good tech and see what it will take to get it rockin' again....

[candh]

Oh.. I don't know?? That feedback doesn't look too bad.

The pics clearly show that the amp has some "character" so it's really a crap shoot as to the condition of the guts especially given it's all PCB based. There is no way for the seller to know the amp would take a dump after working fine for a couple days after received by the buyer. Take the amp to a tech. Get a professional opinion. Contact the seller and kindly keep him informed of the situation. Shipping kills so many things these days and I'm sure that is the case here.

Teenager,,,,hmmm,,, EL84's are novals and do fit nicely into pre-amp sockets...lol...... I'm sure it's a simple fix.

[Slow Reflexes]

Just looked at his feedback - the most recent "neutral" (which usually just means 'I'd give negative but I don't want him to hit me back') was for when he sold this same amp last time.

His feedback overall seems fine, but you never know. If you do send it back to him, you'll be out $100 in shipping anyway... maybe better to invest in repairs instead.

[Telenator]

Classic 30's are notorious for having their tubes come loose. It is entirely possible that a tube came loose in shipping and just needs to be pushed back into place.

Is it possible that the kid tried hooking up another speaker cabinet? If you mismatch the ohm ratings you will get a "pop" a puff of smoke, and then no sound.

[11 Gauge]

Shipped amps is always a bit of a crapshoot, IMO.

I had one a couple of years back that arrived DOA - I checked fuses and tubes, switched outlets, all the typical stuff - no dice. It wasn't 'til I pulled the chassis (and didn't find anything) and reinstalled it that the amp came to life. Something clearly shifted in transit - I don't know what it was to this day.

If the fuses and tubes have not been addressed, they should be, before anything else.

Did he say how the amp sounded before he powered it down, or was it a mad scramble?

Actually, a burning smell isn't always the worst thing, unless it's accompanied by a lot of smoke! It typically makes it easier to find the responsible component.

It's always a bite having to spend more $ to have a new purchase fixed right off the bat, but the C30 is typically pretty affordable when it comes to that. It also makes for a perfect situation to have everything else inspected at the same time - something that never hurts when you are buying something used.

[markophonic]

In the Q&A in the ebay ad it mentions being repaired previously...also mentions that it should work or he will refund your money??

Q: Hi, I'd like to get something cleared up on this item. I was reading through your feedback and saw you had sold this amp in Sept. but, had it returned? So, did you ship this amp, the buyer filed a claim over the speaker not being original, was awarded their money back and shipped it back to you? What kind of shape is this amp in now with all of this shipping going on? I know you talked about the JJ tubes being in good shape but, it doesn't take much for a tube to become microphonic. With all of this shipping going on, what is really the condition of the tubes and how they sound? Also, did I miss read the previous transaction or did I get it correct? Thanks! db Dec-29-07


A: I originally sold the amp earlier than that. The guy who bought it filed a paypal claim, took all the good parts of the amp, the tubes, EV speaker, and returned the amp as not working. I had it repaired by an authorized service center, replaced the tubes with Groove Tubes, and relisted the amp. I forgot to rewrite the text to reflect that the speaker was no longer an EV. So.... the new buyer filed a claim for that reason. He was offered another EV speaker, or his money back. He chose the money back. I had my tech go through the amp for any issues, and I've used it for a couple of gigs. Still works great, but I have a new Hot Rod Deluxe and don't need this amp any more. It has been very well boxed and I'll pack it well again. Hey it's not a pretty amp, but it does work as promised or your money back.

[JimiBryant]

caveat emptor, always.

that seller does not seem like he's my kind of fellow.

he "forgot" to amend his ad about the EV a previous buyer STOLE from him,
as he claimed? if somebody tried to pull that stunt with me I'd rip them a new
one!!

you'll have to decide, I guess, if it's better to try and get it fixed or return it
and eat the shipping (considering it a cheap lesson if you will, on the subject
of buying an amp sight-unseen without being able to try it out in advance)

in either case, it's a hassle.

[enalnitram]

thanks, y'all are the best for reading thru the stuff and offering opinions. I guess it's a waiting game now, until I can actually see it myself. I'll try to talk to kiddo on the phone tonight and get more clues.

still, stuff is just not adding up.

the seller said this in an answer to a question, pre-sale:

Hey it's not a pretty amp, but it does work as promised or your money back.

the seller said this to me in a PM, post-sale, after I relayed the potential problem:

I sold this amp as is and cheap because of all these issues and made sure I listed as so. I'm sure there is nothing seriously wrong with it, it just needs a little more TLC than a new amp. I would certainly seek the advise of a certified technician before replacing the tubes.

[IronJoe]

I've had amps get messed up in transit, too. If it is a problem with transit, contact UPS and get ready for a long wait before it is resolved.

I would make a point of taking it to a good tech and having him/her go through it carefully and get it running perfectly. As you know, tube amps require some maintenance. Since there's no warranty with a used amp, routine maintenance is the responsibility of the buyer.

That said, if there is something funny going on inside the amp where the previous owner had monkeyed with it and its a total loss, you can either fight the seller or just leave him terrible feedback. Fighting the seller means shipping the amp back to him, which is possibly throwing good money after bad. Question: can you contact the previous buyers of this amp and see what they know about it?

You got a great deal on this amp. Put the savings toward getting it in top shape and it will be a keeper for your nephew.

[enalnitram]

hi everyone, thanks for your input. i have an update. i finally made it down to kentucky to check out the amp. my nephew reports that he hasn't used it since just after he received it, over a month ago. i looked the amp over. the tubes appeared new. i took them all out, and put them all back in, gently but firmly. i turned all the knobs to "zero." i set the two little channel switches so that they were in the "out" position. and I turned it on and plugged in. i only turned the volume knob up a little bit. it sounded great. it worked beautifully. so i adjusted some of the other knobs, mid, treble, bass, etc. and he played it tonight for about an hour.

so does anyone have any idea what happened? would not having a tube seated properly cause it to loudly pop, and cause it to fuzz out and fade away and stuff? well, it seems to work fine now...

[boris bubbanov]

I feel kinda bad for the e-bay vendor; he seems like the hard luck kid.

Having said that, I'd have stayed well away from his kind of luck.

Glad you got this thing working all right.

[voided3]

Am I seeing things correctly, but is that DI box installed in the amp hooked up on the SPEAKER leads??? I think those are designed for line level input, not 30 watts of tube power....

[jh45gun]

Originally Posted by voided3

Am I seeing things correctly, but is that DI box installed in the amp hooked up on the SPEAKER leads??? I think those are designed for line level input, not 30 watts of tube power....

You can run a passive DI box out of a speaker jack as long as the speaker is still hooked up and running while playing the amp to give it a load. The DI is then used to run the amp signal to an other amp or mixer ect pluging into a Hi Z input.

[tele-jack]

Originally Posted by boris bubbanov

I feel kinda bad for the e-bay vendor; he seems like the hard luck kid.

Having said that, I'd have stayed well away from his kind of luck.

Glad you got this thing working all right.

How can you feel bad for the vendor? He seems rather unscrupulous to me. I would have definitely stayed away from his 97% rating especially after reading his rebuttals to negative feed back.

[enalnitram]

Originally Posted by tele-jack

How can you feel bad for the vendor? He seems rather unscrupulous to me. I would have definitely stayed away from his 97% rating especially after reading his rebuttals to negative feed back.

lesson learned.