Tube amp repair?

Do you know where I can get my ancient tube guitar amp fixed in London? I turned it on the other day and it made a loud humming sound, while kicking out a fierce stink. I've decided, based on some years of guitar-playing experience, that this just isn't right, and that I should probably pay someone to look at it.

Don't know if they''re still there, but Andy's amp shop (round the corner from where the guitar shop used to be) did a brilliant job on mine

last time I went down in the nebulous domdaniel that is "the basement" at Andys, where the dungeon master and guitar scratcher Graham "works" there was a load of amps piled up there for repair. I guess another bloke deals with that..

depends whereabouts you are, lots of music shops have an in-house or local repair dude

There are a coupla amp guys that used to share the basement with Phillipe, the french guitar repairer/maker guy, on Denmark Street... Same building that Angel Music is in... I haven't taken anything there, but friends that have say it's top-notch... They're proper tube-heads, fixed a friend's AC15 and AC30 no problem...

theres a skate shop/ studio/ gituar and amp maker in crystal palace. they are different things but all in the same place, called antena studios, but you want to ask for john. im not into gituars and amps but i used to skate with them. the website isnt all that, but its got contact details http://www.dickinsonamps.com/

Philippe! Bingo! If he's the same repair guy I took my old Gretsch to, that guy rules. I was hoping he was still alive. He's up on the first or second floor, right?

As for Andy's, I still have bad associations with the tossers who used to run that place; selling a guitar sale or return for me, and then giving me a bouncy cheque. Bunch of charlatans. Strange how they went under...

Thanks folks!

Philippe! Bingo! If he's the same repair guy I took my old Gretsch to, that guy rules. I was hoping he was still alive. He's up on the first or second floor, right?

As for Andy's, I still have bad associations with the tossers who used to run that place; selling a guitar sale or return for me, and then giving me a bouncy cheque. Bunch of charlatans. Strange how they went under...

Thanks folks!

Last time I was there he had the little room next to Andy Hackett's shop on the first floor, I hear Andy's gone but if you ring any of the shops on Denmark Street they're bound to have Phillipe's number... AFAIK the amp guys aren't connected to Phillipe, dunno where they've gone... Phillipe will hook you up tho'... You've reminded me I need to take my Fender Twin in for a looksy... :)

sounds like you need new valves would probaly be cheaper to take the valves out of there sockets and find out the number on the tube then buy some yourselfs, if its humming its probaly the valves in the power surply. but depends how long you've had the amp and if the vavles have ever been changed before. also if you changed all the valves it will sound sweet. find out what the valve are in the amp beause matched pairs or quads will sell for alot of money on ebay.

Might I die if I do it wrong? Read a post by a guitar geek pal on a forum years ago that involved 'power caps' and 'enough volts to kill you easily'.

Might I die if I do it wrong? Read a post by a guitar geek pal on a forum years ago that involved 'power caps' and 'enough volts to kill you easily'.

I almost did that fishing the fuse out of a 135w Twin Reverb with a screwdriver, threw me clean across the room... A Darwin moment, if ever there was one... ;)

Where was the fuse? In plug connected to mains?

Where was the fuse? In plug connected to mains?

Pur-lease! Unplugged! In the back of the amp, transformers we're fully loaded... I'm lucky to be alive, tho' twitch there were a few twitch strange side-effects...

Twas a jest! Unless I can get some decent clear instructions on how to change tubes I think I'll be taking my Mesia Zoom to a specialist. I get nervous wiring plugs...

Humming and smokey smell can often mean output transformer, dont try that one yourself. Unfortunately, its not a cheap repair. The part alone can be about 70 nicker if its anything over about 30 watts. Valves dont generally smoke when they go, they are like light bulbs, they just go. Transformers generally smoky smoky. Expect to pay round the £50 mark for the guy to do the job.
(i work in a guitar shop, but up norf so im no use to ya)

Tubes are easy to swap out, mine used to fall out all the time... BTW I haven't changed my tubes since 1985, they still sound great... Try pushing them in to make sure they're seated properly, make sure the amp's unplugged and you've turned it on and off again a few times to discharge the transformer... If you wanna be a girl about it, that is... ;p

P.S. if you fancy going on the back and having a whirl, its the cylinder shaped things that are the capacitors that make you shake and hair stand up. Never underestimate these, i put my hand in the back of an AC15 (small amp, not much power) that had not been plugged in for 20 years. I was seeing stars, and strangely feeling stars for about 2 hours.

Forgot about the smoke, smoke not good... Get a pro to look at it, blown transformers are a pain in the dick... :[

Don't do anything yourself. If you get new valves the amp depending on the design will probably need biasing.

My bet is on a power supply cap going short circuit.

what amp is it?

I have an ancient carlsbro, a very early transistor amp, that needs a look-at... thanks for this thread!

It's called a Mesia Zoom. I bought it about 6 years ago for around £200 off ebay. It's obviously a cosmetic rip-off of a Mesa Boogie, but apparently it sounds more like a Fender. I just wanted something tube, and not horribly pricey. I can never find any info on it, but it's a cream coloured combo, like the one on top here-

I only ever gigged it once or twice, and it never really got used that frequently at home. Arsecandle!

Hi. I was browsing today and came across your post relating to your Tube Amp. I don't know how far you have got with this but I have some information that you may find interesting. The Mesia amp that you own (nice cab by the way, ext cabs are rare!) is an early 80's Japanese amp -'inspired' by Boogie obviously but made in Japan. The company was only alive for a short time before falling foul of the litigation acts executed by various US manufacturers (Gibson, Fender etc.) against some extremely successful Japanese makers who were producing very accurate copies of name US equipment. Some of these makers went on to produce great guitars for themselves (Ibanez, etc), some (like Zoom) quit in advance of being sued. The MT60 and MT100 amps have a serious design fault; If you change the tubes to anything else than an exact match, the output transformer will blow. This happened to my Zoom amp and also to many amps owned by other Zoom enthusisasts. I know because I used to host a Zoom web page and I regularly recieved communicaitions from people just like you who have broken Zoom amps and are looking for a repairer. I'm currently in conversation with an amp repairer in Felixstowe who says he has repaired an MT60 last year. If you like I'll let you know how I get on.

it might be worth going back to the manufacturer they will probably still have spares

Philippe! Bingo! If he's the same repair guy I took my old Gretsch to, that guy rules. I was hoping he was still alive. He's up on the first or second floor, right?

As for Andy's, I still have bad associations with the tossers who used to run that place; selling a guitar sale or return for me, and then giving me a bouncy cheque. Bunch of charlatans. Strange how they went under...

Thanks folks!

ditto ditto and ditto. phillipe still works at angel (andy hackett's) on the first floor above music ground. i wouldn't go anywhere else. andy's sucked and i'm glad they went out of business. thieving bastards.

EDIT - just noticed this was an old post. soz. carry on. i have andy hackett's number here if anyone wants it though.