Does anyone know a place that repairs blown amps?

[Gene Pool]

I have a Samson Servo 240 amp. One day several parts accidentally lost
their smoke (smoke is what makes electronics work). Is there a place
that fixes amps (and replaces the smoke) that is reasonable and
reliable?
I have had much bad luck with local fix-it shops that actually charge
you even though they can't fix it. Locally Daddy's Junky Music will
fix it...their estimate was about $30 over the price of a used Samson
260 on Ebay.
Samson will not fix the amp. It has been discontinued.
Lets here your recommendations (besides throwing the unit out).

Thanks

[jazzman]

I'm guessing you are in New England. There's a guy in Lawrence, MA who
might be able to help. I think he's called Pro Tech Services. The owner is
Bob Doucette. I've never used him, but he does have a good reputation.

If you are closer to NYC, try DBM pro audio http://www.dbmproaudio.com I
have used them quite a bit.

You've got to figure a minimum or $50/hour labor with at least 1 hour, plus
parts. $80-100/hour is not uncommon. So what is that unit worth?

If you use 50% of replacement cost as your max figure for repair costs,
you'll probably conclude that anything retailing for under $300 bucks is
disposable.

Jim


"Gene Pool" <me@you.net> wrote in message
news:7rd8kv804jkcdu5scpdovfdo7o0esj71vd@4ax.com...
> I have a Samson Servo 240 amp. One day several parts accidentally lost
> their smoke (smoke is what makes electronics work). Is there a place
> that fixes amps (and replaces the smoke) that is reasonable and
> reliable?
> I have had much bad luck with local fix-it shops that actually charge
> you even though they can't fix it. Locally Daddy's Junky Music will
> fix it...their estimate was about $30 over the price of a used Samson
> 260 on Ebay.
> Samson will not fix the amp. It has been discontinued.
> Lets here your recommendations (besides throwing the unit out).
>
> Thanks
>

[Justin Ulysses Morse]

Sorry, but throwing it out is probably your best option. I guess you
could sell it "as is" on ebay and take whatever you get for it. Samson
is a long way from serious professional gear, and it doesn't exactly
blaze with resale value. On top of that, it's cheap imported crap
that's sure to be rather monolithic in construction, which will make it
very difficult to troubleshoot and repair. Parts crammed together and
a general unavailability of documentation will exacerbate these
problems. This kind of gear is basically disposable, so when it runs
out of smoke it's time to get a new one. Think of it as a large Bic.

I fix a lot of equipment for people. I wouldn't even take this amp to
fix because I know it would take me longer to find the problem than the
amp is worth. That's why your local repair huts want cash on the dash
even if they don't end up fixing it. They don't want to spend 3 hours
troubleshooting it and then have you "forget" to come and pick it up
when they tell you the repair will cost $400.

You can get a Hafler P1500 or P3000 very cheap nowadaze. I saw an ad
in a consumer mag advertising refurbished P3000s for $350. That's a
really great amp and a really good price. And when the Hafler breaks,
they'll fix it.

ulysses


In article <7rd8kv804jkcdu5scpdovfdo7o0esj71vd@4ax.com>, Gene Pool
<me@you.net> wrote:

> I have a Samson Servo 240 amp. One day several parts accidentally lost
> their smoke (smoke is what makes electronics work). Is there a place
> that fixes amps (and replaces the smoke) that is reasonable and
> reliable?
> I have had much bad luck with local fix-it shops that actually charge
> you even though they can't fix it. Locally Daddy's Junky Music will
> fix it...their estimate was about $30 over the price of a used Samson
> 260 on Ebay.
> Samson will not fix the amp. It has been discontinued.
> Lets here your recommendations (besides throwing the unit out).
>
> Thanks
>

[William Sommerwerck]

> Samson will not fix the amp. It has been discontinued.

I believe their refusal to fix it is illegal. They are, at the very least,
required to provide service parts for a specified number of years.

[Mike Rivers]

In article <7rd8kv804jkcdu5scpdovfdo7o0esj71vd@4ax.com> me@you.net writes:

> I have had much bad luck with local fix-it shops that actually charge
> you even though they can't fix it. Locally Daddy's Junky Music will
> fix it...their estimate was about $30 over the price of a used Samson
> 260 on Ebay.

> Samson will not fix the amp. It has been discontinued.

That's the story with today's disposable equipment. It costs less to
build initially than to disassemble and troubleshoot. There may be
a problem getting parts on a discontinued product, so even though the
labor to diagnose the problem has been expended (and should be paid
for) it may not be possible or practical to repair.

If you had bought a Bryston, you could, and would get it fixed because
it would cost much more than the repair cost to replace it.

I have a TEAC DA-P20 DAT that needs repair and the only person who's
been recommended to work on it is nearly 1000 miles away (no problem)
and charges $100 for just taking a look, and says that typical repairs
run $300-$400. This is a tough decision for me as there really isn't a
good replacement for it right now (yeah, I have my Jukebox 3, but
where do I plug in the mics with the XLR connectors, and will the plug
stay in if something moves?) but I doubt that I'll get $400 more use
out of it before it's really time to retire it and replace it with
something that costs $2,000 (about twice the initial cost of the DAT).

Sometimes you're just stuck between a bank and a hard place.



--
I'm really Mike Rivers - (mrivers@d-and-d.com)

[Scott Dorsey]

Gene Pool <me@you.net> wrote:
>I have a Samson Servo 240 amp. One day several parts accidentally lost
>their smoke (smoke is what makes electronics work). Is there a place
>that fixes amps (and replaces the smoke) that is reasonable and
>reliable?

Not really. Those amps basically aren't worth the time to work on them.
Any good tech should be able to fix them, but it's going to take a lot
of time. Everything inside is just so underrated that if anything on
the output stage goes, it takes everything else out. Really really cheap
design.

>I have had much bad luck with local fix-it shops that actually charge
>you even though they can't fix it. Locally Daddy's Junky Music will
>fix it...their estimate was about $30 over the price of a used Samson
>260 on Ebay.

Yup, that sounds about right.

>Samson will not fix the amp. It has been discontinued.
>Lets here your recommendations (besides throwing the unit out).

Buy a cheap Adcom or Hafler. It'll cost less money than fixing that
Samson, and you'll be amazed at the improvement in sound quality too.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Rob Adelman]

What they said!

Samson amps really are junk. If you want to get by really cheap, buy an
old consumer amp on eBay. I can't think of any that would be worse than
the Samson and most would be better. Or spend a little more and get a
Hafler, can't go wrong there. I have 2 consumer line Carver amps in my
studio that I am very happy with. -Rob

[Analogeezer]

Gene Pool <me@you.net> wrote in message news:<7rd8kv804jkcdu5scpdovfdo7o0esj71vd@4ax.com>...
> I have a Samson Servo 240 amp. One day several parts accidentally lost
> their smoke (smoke is what makes electronics work). Is there a place
> that fixes amps (and replaces the smoke) that is reasonable and
> reliable?
> I have had much bad luck with local fix-it shops that actually charge
> you even though they can't fix it. Locally Daddy's Junky Music will
> fix it...their estimate was about $30 over the price of a used Samson
> 260 on Ebay.
> Samson will not fix the amp. It has been discontinued.
> Lets here your recommendations (besides throwing the unit out).
>
> Thanks

Samson gear is junk and the company totally sucks ass...I wouldn't buy
a paperclip from them at this point.

Many years ago (1997) I bought a 1602 rack mixer for submixing
keyboards, only to find out that the aux sends are both PRE-FADER, not
post fader.

This was before the era when companies posted their manuals on the
web, but if you go to the Samson site they are still really vague
about the aux sends, they don't really say they are pre.

So I decide that I want to mod the thing, or get it modded. What
followed was a series of phone calls over the next two years, trying
to get a schematic. It took me four phone calls just to get the number
of the service department, and then another six calls to actually talk
to someone. I never did get back a single call that I was promised.

The guy on the phone said they "did not endorse such mods and could
not tell me how to do this". He did send me a schematic for free so at
least they did that.

I take a look at the thing and realize I'd need a desoldering station
to work on it so I take it to a shop, with the schematic. They refused
to work on it, saying the mod would not be possible (maybe the Samson
guy was right).

Anyway I wind up loaning/giving it to my keyboard player and a couple
of years later, with light gig use it now has four of the 8 channels
either crackling or not working in one channel.

It's in the shop now, no word on if they will be able to fix it or
not.

So just light a bonfire and burn the sucker, you'll be much better
off.

I've got 20+ year old Peavey CS400's that still work, the fact your
Samson died after a few years is pretty indicative that it's a cheap
and crappy amp.

Good luck.

Analogeezer

p.s. Oh yeah, I wound up buying a used Roland M-120 line mixer a
couple of years back...paid about 40% of what the Samson cost. It was
like taking a blanket off the speakers, the keyboards sounded SO MUCH
better it was unreal.

[Cerion]

If anyone has any amps that need to be blown up, let me know... I've got
that down. :-)

Skler



Gene Pool <me@you.net> wrote in message
news:7rd8kv804jkcdu5scpdovfdo7o0esj71vd@4ax.com...
> I have a Samson Servo 240 amp. One day several parts accidentally lost
> their smoke (smoke is what makes electronics work). Is there a place
> that fixes amps (and replaces the smoke) that is reasonable and
> reliable?
> I have had much bad luck with local fix-it shops that actually charge
> you even though they can't fix it. Locally Daddy's Junky Music will
> fix it...their estimate was about $30 over the price of a used Samson
> 260 on Ebay.
> Samson will not fix the amp. It has been discontinued.
> Lets here your recommendations (besides throwing the unit out).
>
> Thanks
>

[Analogeezer]

"Cerion" <eeeeek@notmail.com> wrote in message news:<biamml$r50$1@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu>...
> If anyone has any amps that need to be blown up, let me know... I've got
> that down. :-)
>
> Skler
>

I think the worst guy I have ever played with that pays no mind to if
anything is going to blow up is my keyboard player...he's pretty
friggin loud.

But to this guy, the red lights don't seem to mean anything.

One time we were trying to do a mix, and I let him start to put his
spin on it. He proceeded to turn up everything, one channel at a time,
then he started adding low end EQ. Then he turns to me and says "there
doesn't that sound a lot better?".

I said yeah, it sound crunchy as hell...

EVERY SINGLE GROUP was pegging out and the stereo bus was flatlined.

I'm loaning him my Mackie LM-3204/Lexicon MPX-1 in a rack for the last
few weeks while his keyboard rack mixer is in the shop. At practice
last Saturday I kept looking over and most of the channels he was
going in were clipping, and the Lexi (used on only one or two things
in his rig) was flatlining.

I've been telling him to watch for that stuff the last month or so
he's been using it but he's totally oblivious, he'll look right at a
clipping meter and not even give it a second thought.

Great player but not the greatest ears...maybe he's color blind too,
the green and red LED's look the same to him?

Analogeezer

[P Stamler]

I remember working with a live-sound dude one time in the 70s at a festival;
his inputs were clipping like hell (on acoustic guitars with SM-57s, no less).
I went over and gently suggested he turn the channel gain down a notch (this
was a late-60s board with switched gain, not continuously variable). It got a
lot better. Encouraged, I suggested one more notch. Suddenly, it was clean. The
guy looked at me open-mouthed -- "I never knew it could sound like that!" Yeah.

Peace,
Paul

[Analogeezer]

pstamler@aol.com (P Stamler) wrote in message news:<20030825122905.15796.00000732@mb-m12.aol.com>...
> I remember working with a live-sound dude one time in the 70s at a festival;
> his inputs were clipping like hell (on acoustic guitars with SM-57s, no less).
> I went over and gently suggested he turn the channel gain down a notch (this
> was a late-60s board with switched gain, not continuously variable). It got a
> lot better. Encouraged, I suggested one more notch. Suddenly, it was clean. The
> guy looked at me open-mouthed -- "I never knew it could sound like that!" Yeah.
>
> Peace,
> Paul

Are you sure he wasn't running modified brain cells at the time? The
70's were like that IIRC...

Analogeezer

[Cerion]

Some folks like those red lights, man. :-p

The more lights, the better, right?



What amazes me is how some people can't hear the distortion, even when it's
crunching as you described. Worse case is no doubt the typical car stereo
these days. One note sub-woofers and distortion across the spectrum. I'd
rather not listen to music at all than to have that much distortion... :-o

I like having fun with guitarists who have had bad and expensive experiences
frying speakers and are scared of blowing up their speakers with 60 & 120
cycle hum from open cables. I play bass, so the low end is not as much of a
potential hazard; bass rigs are made for bass, right? And a guitar rig,
well, it's not intended to pass much at around 60 cycles... My rig uses a
speaker that handles a lot more power than my amp can deliver under normal
conditions. I'm pretty familiar with the rig and know from experience that I
can play wide open pretty much indefinitely without damaging anything. So a
lot of times when I'm setting up I just let cords dangle or lie around, even
tap the ends with my fingers and just let the hum rip, sort of for the fun
of it. What happened is that after doing that a few times, I noticed that it
makes some guitarists just totally freak, jump out of their shoes and
generally cringe, expecting the cone to just leap out of the cabinet, but of
course it never does, so I get a bit of a laugh from warping their minds and
bending ears back. :-p

Skler




> I think the worst guy I have ever played with that pays no mind to if
> anything is going to blow up is my keyboard player...he's pretty
> friggin loud.
>
> But to this guy, the red lights don't seem to mean anything.
>
> One time we were trying to do a mix, and I let him start to put his
> spin on it. He proceeded to turn up everything, one channel at a time,
> then he started adding low end EQ. Then he turns to me and says "there
> doesn't that sound a lot better?".
>
> I said yeah, it sound crunchy as hell...
>
> EVERY SINGLE GROUP was pegging out and the stereo bus was flatlined.
>
> I'm loaning him my Mackie LM-3204/Lexicon MPX-1 in a rack for the last
> few weeks while his keyboard rack mixer is in the shop. At practice
> last Saturday I kept looking over and most of the channels he was
> going in were clipping, and the Lexi (used on only one or two things
> in his rig) was flatlining.
>
> I've been telling him to watch for that stuff the last month or so
> he's been using it but he's totally oblivious, he'll look right at a
> clipping meter and not even give it a second thought.
>
> Great player but not the greatest ears...maybe he's color blind too,
> the green and red LED's look the same to him?
>
> Analogeezer