Bench fees for declined estimate?

[Reticuli]

The place I took one of my cabs to is saying they want a bench fee for what sounds like was essentially turning two speakers on for a few hours and waiting until one of them started to make a ticking sound. Once it starts after an hour or two it does this continuously, so there was no elbow grease required to hear the problem except plugging them in and coming back a few hours later. If he'd opened it up afterwards, though, and pulled out the boards from the bin he could have diagnosed whatever leaking cap or damaged IC that was causing it and replaced it, but instead he just called the manufacture who said they could sell to the repair place an entire back amp tub... for more than the price I paid for BOTH OF THEM used and MORE THAN THE PRICE OF ONE NEW from an authorized dealer. They also took over two months to even get back to me. Doesn't this sound scammy?

[Mistick Krewe]

hard to find a good tech.....

I brought some old single ended tube gear to a local tech,
told the owner, just got them... unsure of operating condition.... can you put it on a variac to power it up and evaluate....

he takes it in, I get it back with a note saying the parts are NLA, etc. - excessive hum, blah blah blah....

I call another local tech who has the units perfect in a week for less than the eval. fee from the other shop...

[Reticuli]

Soooo true. I was using a guy in Oregon for a while that seemed able to fix anything I brought into him for cheap. So cheap I feel bad and if I'm ever back there I'm gonna buy him a muffin basket or something. His day job was fixing medical equipment, which I guess hospitals don't allow you to be an idiot to do and would rather not have to replace everything with new stuff just because whole replacement sections cannot just be swapped due to being discontinued.

This place I used came highly recommended by a dealer and installer company right down the street from me. I thought they had to be legit, but their repair expertise was at the same level as the guys who recommended them: just order whole part and swap it out. Anyone know someone who actually understands how to look for things like leaking caps, blown diodes/resistors and bad ICs in the Dayton Ohio area?

[jnkarrik]

+1 for the Raleigh, NC area.

I need to service my Urei 525, and am having a very difficult time finding anyone who will look at it. I think I have asked here before, but any suggestions?

[Mistick Krewe]

I would seek out a urei specialist, one that works on the studio compressors...
that or find a semi pro with a stellar rep from one of the more advanced DIY type forums....


either way, not going to be quick or easy

I found the guys I use locally by asking around when hanging out with some musicians...
I asked who used which techs, cheap busy tech? expensive, super busy techs? which techs mod extensively, etc? not every one had any kind of input... but those that did tended to rant....


I've been reading up on some older guitar pedal clones and modification...
seems like a lot of info is openly talked, maybe one of those forums super tweaks could help?

[Special.K]

I've heard of techs charging a bench fee but i've never done it as i have plenty of space so it doesn't bother me, i've had large format consoles in here for months on end waiting for parts and covered with a sheet in the corner!

Techs are becoming like panel beaters these days, they will just replace the module instead if replacing the part, Recently i had a pair of amps come in hear after a client was given a quote of $250each to replace the some module, when i opened then it took me tow seconds to replace the fuses and hand them back for the grand cost of $3..

The time people take to fix things is counter productive, you don't earn money having gear on the shelves it need to go out the door as quick as possible, there will always be gear waiting for parts but other then that or not having enough staff i can't understand why things take so long to fix some times! I like to work out what's wrong with something straight away, if it can be fixed do a quote, if it's not fixable it goes back to it's owner or in the bin asap! the only items that sit around here for months are vintage gear we are searching for parts for or the expensive large format consoles that the distributors never seem to stock parts for!