This could be the end of consumer electronic repair

[Bill R]

The letter from Loud Technologies was the final straw that made me close up the service center. No warning just out of the blue this letter comes making it sound like they were doing me a favor. They closed all the warrenty claim accounts, and closed the parts accounts. Oh they would sell me parts, but I had to prepay for them. Most of the equipment had deteriated to chinese junk anyway, and some was just not serviceable. I asked for the schematics for a small powered mixer once and they sent me 4 different schemes. None of which matched the mixer. I put it back in the box and told them to send it back to china. Fender was usually not hard to work on, but the warrenty process had gotten very picky. Parts were avaliable, but the new amps were just not very high quality. Line 6 was very easy to work with, but since I was not an official service center for them, they would not send me service manuals. They did however provide me with the tech line phone number, and would stay with me any time I had a problem with a customers amp. They always sent me any parts to complete the repair, usually no charge, even if it was out of warrenty. Around here though it was Fender, SLM, and Peavey gear that was sold the most. I did service some Yorkville gear, and their warrenty claim process was a breeze. They just said fix it and send us the bill. No fuss no muss. They always paid promptly. Warrenty work for them was rare since most of their gear was built well and serviceable. I havn't seen a lot of the new stuff, so I don't know about their quality now.

Bill R

[Ultra-Hog]

My future son in law plays in a rock band. He has an old Peavy amp that has seen many, many miles and years of use, abuse and neglect on the road as well as many coats of stale beer on the case. Some of the controls were getting noisy and one of the small control shafts was sheared off. I took it apart and cleaned the controls but I couldn't find a replacement pot for the broken one anywhere that I looked. The last resort was to call Peavy customer service. After giving the model number and serial number to the real live English speaking person that answered the phone I was told that the pot was $2.25 (if I remember correctly) and the knob was $1.00. When I asked how much shipping and handling would be she said that they don't charge their customers for S&H. I had the parts a few days later. Wow!

The only reason that I mention this is that, sadly, my experience with Peavy stands out as an extremely rare and unusual occurrence these days but there are still a few companies that still get it and understand how valuable that kind of service is. It was Made in the USA too! (It's really a sad comment that even mentioning that is noteworthy.)

[radiotvnut]

Originally Posted by Ultra-Hog

My future son in law plays in a rock band. He has an old Peavy amp that has seen many, many miles and years of use, abuse and neglect on the road as well as many coats of stale beer on the case. Some of the controls were getting noisy and one of the small control shafts was sheared off. I took it apart and cleaned the controls but I couldn't find a replacement pot for the broken one anywhere that I looked. The last resort was to call Peavy customer service. After giving the model number and serial number to the real live English speaking person that answered the phone I was told that the pot was $2.25 (if I remember correctly) and the knob was $1.00. When I asked how much shipping and handling would be she said that they don't charge their customers for S&H. I had the parts a few days later. Wow!

The only reason that I mention this is that, sadly, my experience with Peavy stands out as an extremely rare and unusual occurrence these days but there are still a few companies that still get it and understand how valuable that kind of service is. It was Made in the USA too! (It's really a sad comment that even mentioning that is noteworthy.)

I recently fixed a '70's vintage Peavey guitar amp for a friend. His used 6L6's for the outputs and the rest was SS. My friend said it had seen extensive use over the decades. All it needed was a control cleaning.

BTW, Peavey was started right here in my hometown of Meridian, MS!