What are you guys paying for Tube Amp servicing?

[deytookerjaabs]

I started a thread a while back about a bit of my own spending. Two trips to a shop within two years, months without my Super Reverb. I rejected paying the "rush" fee and said no to swapping out my reverb tank. The second time was just a blown fuse, but they wouldn't sell me just the fuse and insisted on opening the amp up.

Total parts list:

5 2W FP Resistors
3 1/2W Carbon Comp Resistors
11 1/W Carbon Comp Resistors
2 HI v Coupling Caps
1 Mallory 150 Coupling Cap
1 Diode
1 Jack
4 Tubes, all cheaper brands at about double the online $$ ("China" "EHX")

All in all, a bit under $500 from Nashville Amp Service.

Not long after this I go check out a couple blackface classics at Sam Ash. Both went to another popular repair shop, British Audio. EACH bill was a bit over $500. Nothing major on the bills that I could see beyond small parts and cheap tubes. What stood out was "re-touch every solder joint." Eek, every solder joint?

Then I stumble upon this recent bill for a '69 Twin Reverb:

$450 for some TLC, nothing severe though, I hope that $42 reverb cable is audiophile grade!



Is this the new normal? Those of you who don't DIY it all, what are your bills usually like?

 

[tcadam]

I have a '76 Twin Reverb that was getting pretty noisy. The first estimate was for about $1100. Of course, I pointed out that that is more than the amp was worth. Ended up getting it fixed for about $300.

 

[Controller]

Spent $650 for month+ visits to two techs for Super Reverb refurb. Sold it on. Couldn't afford the down time or repairs. My SS amps have had $0 repair costs over 10 years and literally hundreds of rehearsals and gigs. YMMV

 

[lowatter]

Unless you can make the tube amp repairs yourself you might be better off getting a SS and use for a backup when your tube amp takes a momentary "dump"...OR...if you have the scratch to have 2 or 3 backup tube amps for gigging out, your covered.

 

[gridlock]

Depends on your repair shop and tech. Luckily, I have a good one.

 

[clydethecat]

I started a thread a while back about a bit of my own spending. Two trips to a shop within two years, months without my Super Reverb. I rejected paying the "rush" fee and said no to swapping out my reverb tank. The second time was just a blown fuse, but they wouldn't sell me just the fuse and insisted on opening the amp up.

Total parts list:



All in all, a bit under $500 from Nashville Amp Service.

Not long after this I go check out a couple blackface classics at Sam Ash. Both went to another popular repair shop, British Audio. EACH bill was a bit over $500. Nothing major on the bills that I could see beyond small parts and cheap tubes. What stood out was "re-touch every solder joint." Eek, every solder joint?

Then I stumble upon this recent bill for a '69 Twin Reverb:

$450 for some TLC, nothing severe though, I hope that $42 reverb cable is audiophile grade!



Is this the new normal? Those of you who don't DIY it all, what are your bills usually like?

A repair is more than just an inventory of the parts replaced. There's also the time involved in determining what needs to be replaced.

 

[stormsedge]

My “guy” charges $65 an hour and parts.
Last year or two…
Amp 1: $65 + ~$17 parts
Amp 2: $65 check up, no parts
Amp 3: $65 + $0.25 parts

I feel like it is worth it.

 

[deytookerjaabs]

A repair is more than just an inventory of the parts replaced. There's also the time involved in determining what needs to be replaced.

These types of posts are interesting.

Because, I never said anything to the contrary but you insinuate with your post that I think tech time is worthless.

Good for you, got a nice "gotcha" moment or whatever to feel a little bigger inside by countering an argument that was never made.

 

[deytookerjaabs]

My “guy” charges $65 an hour and parts.
Last year or two…
Amp 1: $65 + ~$17 parts
Amp 2: $65 check up, no parts
Amp 3: $65 + $0.25 parts

I feel like it is worth it.

Sounds about like another tech my friend recommended back in Nashville (Hime). Straight shooter, I have a buddy with a collection of great old gear and uses him all the time with similar receipts.

When my Super Reverb blew a fuse I tried to just buy a fuse from the shop that gave it a clean bill of health a year earlier. They insisted to bring it into benching so I figured that was cool cause they worked on it already. After sitting there for a few months untouched Sharp said it's "frying eggs" and replaced a bunch of resistors, said the reverb tank was not healthy etc. He didn't realize I took the same amp in the year previous when we talked. Then said he found nothing wrong that would cause the fuse to blow, lol...which was all I wanted to address. When I first took it in I had a box of NOS/ANOS tubes and they said "nah, can't use any of them" because of reliability then put in a "China" (not country, that was the only label) tube that failed about 6 months later. That tube was half the price online than the shop charged in the bill...same for the EHX tubes.

When I spoke to another guru fella back in Nashville he said the big shops treat it like a car dealership, they do high overhead minimums on everything that comes in along with making some money on parts.

 

[Milspec]

Each passing year, there are less and less techs out there to service tube amps. As the number decline, the price goes up. My last servicing was on a '79 Twin that they replaced caps, added a bias pot, and pseudo blackfaced it....ran $350 back about 3 years ago. Today, he tells me that same job would be almost double that, so it was good that I had it done then.

This issue does concern me as I do have a good size collection of tube amps and realize that it might become to the point where you have to be a hard core collector rather than a player to own these amps. I am actually thinking about selling my 1949 Epiphone Century amplifier just out of fear as to what it will cost to service next time or God forbid need a new speaker.

 

[MilwMark]

These types of posts are interesting.

Because, I never said anything to the contrary but you insinuate with your post that I think tech time is worthless.

Good for you, got a nice "gotcha" moment or whatever to feel a little bigger inside by countering an argument that was never made.

Then what is the point of this thread?You posted a bill that was roughly 50/50 parts and labor.

 

[deytookerjaabs]

Each passing year, there are less and less techs out there to service tube amps. As the number decline, the price goes up. My last servicing was on a '79 Twin that they replaced caps, added a bias pot, and pseudo blackfaced it....ran $350 back about 3 years ago. Today, he tells me that same job would be almost double that, so it was good that I had it done then.

This issue does concern me as I do have a good size collection of tube amps and realize that it might become to the point where you have to be a hard core collector rather than a player to own these amps. I am actually thinking about selling my 1949 Epiphone Century amplifier just out of fear as to what it will cost to service next time or God forbid need a new speaker.

I have a buddy with a nice collection and uses a great/fair tech. Even with that he said he's thinking about unloading because the upkeep is getting to be too much.

Meanwhile, some aficionados insist that with a good servicing you're good for decades. And, to that point I've had a few vintage amps that never needed tech work in my possession...and yet I have a few in cue for when I can afford the servicing, but I just don't think it's right to gouge on the details etc so I don't want to bring them to "that" kind of shop.

 

[Bob Womack]

After over twenty years my Marshall finally burned out a great original Svetlana Electron Devices EL-34 power tube which it took out a resistor and fuse as it went. I was charge a $40 bench for the diagnosis that would be applied to the final bill. With a matched set of JJ/Tesla EL-34s, the resistor, fuse, and labor, the total was $124.50. More, HERE. The burned out EL-34 is now on display on the producer's desk at the studio where I work.

Bob

 

[deytookerjaabs]

Then what is the point of this thread?You posted a bill that was roughly 50/50 parts and labor.

The bill I posted had 40 parts replaced. Yet, no sign of any major failures. How do 12 resistors crap out without something bigger happening? Just age? There are high end vintage repro reverb tank cables out there for 25 bucks, what's the 40$+ cable look like?

 

[KingKongStanley]

"The Romance of Tube Amplification" is now "The Inconvenience of Tube Amplification."

 

[corliss1]

I've mentioned my own rates and thoughts a few times, and may as well again.

As of the time of posting, I'm currently $60 per hour. It's *rare* for a normal amp (aka, anything that doesn't say Mesa) to take longer than 2 hours for a full service. Maybe 2.5 if there's major work.

I quote high just to be safe. I would tell someone for a full service, as in all e-caps all power cable and whatnot, "A Super Reverb is 2 hours plus parts, which is typically 160-220. If it needs tubes it would be on top of that." That usually give me enough slop to work in one tube without bumping the dollar amount, or maybe a reverb tank or trem bug or something.

That Super Reverb receipt in my shop would have been:

-$31 for the small parts
-Whatever the cost of "tubes" is. Power tubes right now are $35 each, or if they were preamp tubes, the ones I like are $27 each, so $108, give or take plus shipping costs.
-that gets us to $149 in parts and then 2 hours would be $269.

This doesn't look like a "full" service though. This looks like a "I found one noisy resistor so I decided to swap them all" situation, which may or may not be fine or expected by the customer. If I find one noisy plate resistor, I just swap the one. If I find 2 or 3, sure, let's do them all. Hard to judge that part of the work without more detail.

I think $500 is obscene for that work.

On that note, I'm constantly busy, people tell me I'm way too cheap all the time, and even with my workload it's RARE for someone to be longer than 2 weeks without their amp.

I'm also in the midwest so I know prices are lower than major cities - I couldn't operate in NYC at these rates, for example.

Anyway, that's my thoughts, your mileage may vary, IMHO, etc, etc.

 

[radiocaster]

How do 12 resistors crap out without something bigger happening?

They increase in value, but it is a bit suspect they would all, and above the 20% tolerance.

 

[Dr Improbable]

There are no qualified amp guys in my town. One store has a guy who is a cop and is a part time "amp tech" at night. If I had a good tube amp I'd rather drive the 3 hours to Dave's Guitar Shop.

 

[PCollen]

I started a thread a while back about a bit of my own spending. Two trips to a shop within two years, months without my Super Reverb. I rejected paying the "rush" fee and said no to swapping out my reverb tank. The second time was just a blown fuse, but they wouldn't sell me just the fuse and insisted on opening the amp up.

Total parts list:



All in all, a bit under $500 from Nashville Amp Service.

Not long after this I go check out a couple blackface classics at Sam Ash. Both went to another popular repair shop, British Audio. EACH bill was a bit over $500. Nothing major on the bills that I could see beyond small parts and cheap tubes. What stood out was "re-touch every solder joint." Eek, every solder joint?

Then I stumble upon this recent bill for a '69 Twin Reverb:

$450 for some TLC, nothing severe though, I hope that $42 reverb cable is audiophile grade!



Is this the new normal? Those of you who don't DIY it all, what are your bills usually like?

Did the Super Reverb sound better after the service ? Personally, I would have asked the tech to evaluate what the amp needed and why, and give me an estimate before performing the work, so that there would be no "surprises" when the bill was presented. Then, YOU can decide what and what not to authorize. Often, they will charge you $75-100 shop time to do that.

( Sure wish "Lord Valve " had migrated from from rmmg.alt.guitar to one of the current forums)

 

[deytookerjaabs]

I've mentioned my own rates and thoughts a few times, and may as well again.

Anyway, that's my thoughts, your mileage may vary, IMHO, etc, etc.

That sounds like sensible protocol from a sensible cat. I might need an internship in this field!

What has me wondering is that it became common to see some bills from a few places that looked minimal, small parts list, an hour of labor etc. But other spots every bill I've seen had more parts and more work, just a consistent pattern.

I had a friend who did my old band master head at my house. That thing looked like it had a fire inside the chassis, I bought it non-functional at a junk shop. Even then, it was some astrons, the dog house caps, a pot and cleaned up a little wiring. The tubes were perfect, sucker came to life!

On the opposite end, the first time I took my SR into the shop it was just for a mod (get reverb on both sides) and to get a clean bill of health but it sounded great to my ears. The shop is who then told me "it doesn't sound right so we replaced this tube, these resistors, etc." Then before the fuse blew it sounded fine on the second trip to the shop. "We can't find a cause to the blown fuse, but it doesn't sound right, so I replaced this tube and I went through these resistors." It seemed to be a pattern.