You're doing yourself a disservice if you're looking for a cheapish amp and you buy something for which the manufacturer will not provide support information to the trade.
It may be an orphan you bought on the cheap and you're not out much, but it may be something that looks good on the showroom floor but which the manufacturer does not, or more often, will not support out in the field.
When it breaks-and what amp doesn't over the course of its life?-if your technician can't access the necessary road map-errrrrrrrr, schematic and list of components-you're faced with a choice of either tossing it in the trash, selling it for salvage parts, or sending it back to the manufacturer and taking what they are ready to give you and liking it.
Yes, I know it may be under warranty, but you've still got the logistics problem and we all don't live in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, or Atlanta.
If it's not under warranty-a craigslist or ebay buy-and you can't service it locally it is just an expensive and useless piece of luggage.
Of course this rules out Blackstar, Bugera, Line 6 and probably a whole bunch of others. It rules in Fender, Peavey, and Traynor, all of whom are known for product support.
You owe it to yourself to find this out before you spend your hard earned dollars and not after the money's gone.
Ad Ampeg to the list. You can find schematics for them easily on line.
ReplyDeleteTrue for the most part, although for anything made under the aegis of Loud Technologies that is not out there already, you're going to have to provide a serial number and attest you're the owner.
ReplyDelete