TECHVIEWS
R.G. KEEN
Why is a Good Amp Tech So Hard to Find?
There seem to be two major questions flowing, like, “Did you hear a hissing sound
about amp repair: why is amp repair so when it quit?” and from there take a few
expensive that we don’t dare have an amp measurements and get to the real problem
break? And why are good amp techs so – “Ah-ha! A burned screen resistor!” – in a
hard to find? hurry. The actual repair is often anticlimactic, as it can only take so long to replace a
burned-out component.
business enough to stay in what is a
fairly low paying job for a person with
good electronics skills.
I’ve had the good fortune to associate
with, receive wisdom from, and (rarely!)
provide some bit of technical assistance
to some superb techs. These are the guys
who service amps for the hot music talent in the Austin area. They can tell what’s
wrong with an amp by how it smells or by
sensing its aura.
The real amp wizards love this. They
delight in knowing what’s happening
inside an amp by the way the power indicator light flickers and investigatingother
Sherlock Holmes-ian clues.
Did I say low-paying? Yes. In spite of
what seem like steep bench rates, a tech
can’t simply raise his rates until he makes
enough money. There are those pseudo-techs out there who get the work and his
income drops to about zero. You’d think the
customers would be right back when they
see what’s been done to their amps, but
by that time the tech’s mortgage could be
in foreclosure.
I also know a few of what I call pseudo-techs. These misguided souls think they
know how to fix amps, but deep inside
they are certain that they know how to
mod your amp so it sounds like the songs
of angels, or devils, depending on your
musical taste. They generally end up doing
some non-standard things to amplifiers
that make for laughter and extra income
for the real techs.
But I noticed something about the amp
wizards. In spite of the conventional wisdom that it costs a fortune to fix an amp,
these guys are not driving luxury cars and
they don’t wear designer clothes. In many
cases they have a really hard time keeping
up with a mortgage and doing the things
that other adults like to do, like supporting
a family, a house, a car and a dog all at the
same time. The pseudo-techs, on the other
hand, don’t have too much trouble with
supporting themselves. What’s going on?
Solving the little technical mysteries of
defective amps is a talent. You have to be
able to take a cryptic, “It sounds like there’s
a mouse in the tone control,” or an incomplete, “It just quit on me!” description of
the amp’s problem, then translate that
into some questions to try to get a dialog
In spite of what seem like
steep bench rages, a tech can’t
raist his rates until he makes
enough money.
And here’s the issue: that same kind of
technical insight, electronics savvy and
detective’s eye for what electrons are
doing makes them really valuable for
other things, too. So valuable that Industry
– with a capital I – hunts down kids with
this kind of talent and recruits them to
keep IC fabs going and to keep electronics development and design on top. The
kids who could develop into good amp
techs are usually lured into higher-tech
jobs that pay a lot more.
We’re in the middle of an amp tech gen-erational change. Many of the amp wizards are middle-aged and have done it
forever. They got into amp-teching before
that set of skills was hunted down. The
good techs I know of are also good
musicians and have a band or two going
at any given time. They love the music
Also, a tech doesn’t get to keep all of the
repair payment. He’s paying rent, insurance, utilities, supplies, and all of that
self-employment stuff. Or he’s working in
a shop for a fraction of the take, which is
steady but smaller.
Then there are the non-paying customers, the check bouncers, and they guys
who just never come back. Or come back
weeks after their fixed-but-not-paid-for
stuff got sold to someone else, like it says
on the repair ticket they signed when they
first brought it in.
So, when you do find a good amp tech, be
nice to him. Be one of the customers he
remembers as a nice guy and for whom
he’d be willing to do a favor. It not only
gets your amp fixed sooner, but also may
lighten the day of a guy who does his profession for love, not money.
R.G. Keen – Chief Engineer
Visual Sound
visualsound.net
