Anodyne Audio Service

Randy Bachman's Herzog by Garnet. The Canadian made tube fuzz behind the American Woman tone.

1964 Vibroverb. #desertislandamps

Sovtek Mig50. These were really cool amps, made in Russia with (you guessed it) Russian parts, some of which are non-standard physical sizes and footprints, and don't have drop-in replacements. The stock pots and jacks don't hold up well, but on this amp they had all been replaced with better quality parts. This time it was due for a re-cap and re-tube. It's now nice and quiet and ready to rock another 20 years.

The struggle is real...component level repairs on modern boards...this little spec is a 2mm square inductor with four terminals to be soldered.

Because science. https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=share&v=V9xUQWo4vN0

Here's something I see all too often. Someone has replaced the old two prong AC cord on an older amp with a new three prong grounded type. Looks good, safe, no risk of shock, right? Sure, IF you do it right, but usually it's wrong. You can't just clip the existing cord and stick a new one in its place. The whole AC primary circuit has to wired correctly, and on most vintage gear, it is not. What you end up with is a switch, fuse, or both on the neutral side, which is a safety issue. Here's a pic where someone put the cable in reverse polarity. If you are not sure of what you are doing, don't. Take it to a professional before you electrocute yourself or someone else.

Apparently Clive Button, the designer behind Trace Elliot and Ashdown amplifiers, is a fan of Captain Jean-Luc Picard

If you are going to work on a Saturday, it might as well be on something awesome.

Well here it is, the new "best sounding amp I've ever heard". A 1956 National/Valco Stage Star model 1280T. Looks amazing, has alt-country overdrive tone to die for, and it's very rare. It had a lot of issues, but it's all repaired and restored, ready to blow your Spurs off. If anyone is interested, it may be up for sale soon. PM me if interested.

Old electrolytic capacitors need to be replaced. They typically have a useable life of about 20 years. They can function quite some time longer, but can go off spec by over 100%, leak, and even explode. Expect any vintage amp will require a cap job. It may function, but it doesn't mean they are not bad.

Silvertone 1472 amplifier with no solder on the heater supply for the preamp tubes. Maybe this is why the sound has been fading in and out for 46 years?!

Finally ready to work in the new shop space. A lot of work went into it; new paint, floors, workbenches, and even a furnace (). Tore down the old shop space and wired the new one up today. Bigger workbench, more space and better flow. Looking forward to working in a shop that works with me, not against. Bring your broken stuff and come check it out!

Lightning in a bottle.

This is why you don't put your beer on your amp...

Here's a super cool and rare Premier model 88N. Probably the first and last I'll see. Can't wait to hear it once its been refurbished.

Rodgers organ refurb. A lot of work, but it plays like new.

Refurbishing a Yamaha keybed that was full of pet hair mixed in the key grease causing sticky action. 264 moving parts plus the chassis to remove/de-grease/clean/re-grease/reassemble, plus another 264 electronic key contact points to clean. 4 hours, a half roll of shop towels and a tube of key grease later, and it plays like new!

A pair of JBL speaker re-cones. A roll of solder makes a handy weight to hold the dust cap in place while the adhesive cures.

Tech Tip of the day: "Cleaning your mixing console; how not to."

I'm pleased to announce that Anodyne Audio is now the Canadian Authorized Warranty Service Center for Valvetrain Amplification. Valvetrain amplifiers...hand-built American tone machines...check them out! http://www.valvetrainamps.com

Here's last weeks highlight; an Ampeg Reverberocket R12R in excellent condition. It had never been serviced before, all original tubes and components. It had a number of problems; oscillation at high inaudible frequency, scratchy pots, bad speaker and the reverb was weak. Traced reverb and oscillation faults to a few bad caps, replaced the speaker, installed a new grounded AC cord and general cleanup. Client was on a budget and the original tubes all test good so they were left in. This amp sounds amazing. I'm sorry to see leave the shop.

Here's our new MaxiMatcherII tube matcher/tester, which just arrived today! It tests power tubes for short circuits, heater operation and the electrical characteristics of Plate Current (Ip) and Transconductance (Gm), at real-world operating voltages. Using the digital readout of these properties, we can test tubes in minutes for defects and see how well they are matched. Tube manufacturing nowadays is not what it used to be, and often current manufacture "matched" sets are not close enough for optimum performance, or defective right out of the box. Investment in this great piece of test gear will help us ensure all our new tube stock is up to par, and reduce repair bench time, which translates to cost savings for our customers.

One of this weeks highlights; a Lowrey Genie44 service call. Built in Dec '75. Needed some love after 38 years in the rec room. Cleaned up some heavy oxidization on the keys, pedal, and switch contacts and it's ready kick out the Napoleon Dynamite jams again!

I'm happy to announce that Anodyne Audio is now an Authorized Warranty Service Center for Blackstar amplifiers. http://www.blackstaramps.com/. , and Ashdown Engineering, http://ashdownmusic.com/