vintage guitar amp repair in LA?

[hollywood_steve]

I have an Ampeg SB12, the smallest of the "flip-top" portaflex bass amps from the early - mid sixties. I got lucky 20 years ago and bought it in un-used condition from a shop that had it on consignment. The back story was that it was purchased as an accordian (!) amp for a kid who took about 2 lessons and never used the amp again. So I got a brand new 20 year old amp in 1984 and have used it on every studio session I have played since then. And on several dozen coffee shop type "acoustic" gigs and countless low volume rehearsals. (It only has something like 18 watts....)

It's a super cool looking, absolutely incredible sounding little bass amp. And if I had another one, I'd offer it for sale as one of the best sounding guitar amps of all time; but I only have one, so you guitar players will have to take my word for it. Anyway, the AC cord comes through the chassis without any obvious strain relief and I can tell that the cord is finally starting to show it's age. And I foolishly touched the guitar player's strings today, and the shock almost landed me on my ass; so it's time to repair the AC cord AND put on a proper grounded cable.

But this amp isn't like a Fender that anybody can do basic work on; replacing the cord will require some high quality fit and finish work and I want it to look like it came from the factory with the new grounded cable. So who does really nice amp work in LA? (I was not impressed with work I had done a few years ago at the place at the corner of Woodman and Ventura; I'm looking for the guy that freaky collectors use to care for their amps) Suggestions?

[Geoff_T]

Hi

I don't know if this will help, locationwise, but a Goggle search produced...

http://www.webervst.com/techreg/californ.htm

[seriousfun]

I've had good luck with Billy Yates:

>>Venice Amplifier Co. - n6yw@verizon.net
437 Sherman Canal
Venice, CA 90291
Phone: 310 821 4663
Accepts: Please Call
Rates: Shop charge is $45.00 dollars an hour. My charge on parts is at cost plus shipping and taxes paid. Full restoration projects are priced on an individual basis. <<

[eh91311]

http://rockandrolldoctor.com/mainFrameset2.html

I don't know how well versed he is on "vintage" amps, but I've taken a bunch of amps to him over the past few years that weren't "new" and I have zero complaints. He used to be a tech for Aerosmith. I've seen amps belonging to Ed Van Halen, Queens of the Stone Age, Frank Black, the Muffs, & Megadeth there, so I think that he's a guy I can trust with my stuff if THEY do. He's reasonably priced and he'll repair stuff as quickly as you need him to.

I agree with you about wanting the work done to be as original looking as possible. LA's a big city but the number of good, affordable amp and guitar techs are small.

[RoundBadge]

Originally Posted by eh91311

http://rockandrolldoctor.com/mainFrameset2.html

I don't know how well versed he is on "vintage" amps, but I've taken a bunch of amps to him over the past few years that weren't "new" and I have zero complaints. He used to be a tech for Aerosmith. I've seen amps belonging to Ed Van Halen, Queens of the Stone Age, Frank Black, the Muffs, & Mega there, so I think that he's a guy I can trust with my stuff if THEY do. He's reasonably priced and he'll repair stuff as quickly as you need him to.

I agree with you about wanting the work done to be as original looking as possible. LA's a big city but the number of good, affordable amp and guitar techs are small.

Yeah.. Steve Dikun,he's good ..Rebuilt my silvertone twin twelve,less than 250 bucks..now it's the best sounding rock recording amp I have...He's Fast too
super cool guy.Knows his stuff

[hollywood_steve]

re: RockandRollDoctor.........


D'oh! Not only is he not far from my studio, I've had work done by him before, maybe 6 or 7 years ago. I just completely forgot about him; thanks!

[RoundBadge]

The cool thing about Steve[The RokDoc] is he's very flexible ...
I had a session with my silvertone Amp on a Saturday morning,had it set up ,miced the night before... and it blew 15 minutes into the session
I ran down to his shop at like 11am saturday morning...
He stopped working on Frank blacks amps, opened it up ,showed me the problem and fixed it right on the spot .a cap blew or something..
I had it back and running at the studio within an hour.