Andy's Amps in Winkie, South Australia, Australia | Local service

Andy's Amps

Locality: Winkie, South Australia, Australia

Phone: +61 488 778 154

Address: 198 Winkie rd Winkie, Po Box 989 5343 Winkie, SA, Australia

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25.01.2022 Something Special... At Andy's Amps, I have been entrusted with this piece of Australian Music History. A customer has asked me to look at his 1962/1963 Goldentone 7/40...stay tuned for updates as I evaluate and repair this rare girl. This most likely started life as a combo with a 15" Wharefdale speaker, but somewhere along its 55 year history it has ( unfortunately ) been put into a crude head shell. There is very little information on the internet regarding this particular model Goldentone.

21.01.2022 Need an Guitar Amp built to your specs? I can do a bespoke amplifier built just the way you like! Here is a hand wired M-Style JTM 45/JCM 800 build on tag-board under construction...

20.01.2022 *Guitar day* 920D Custom T7W-C 7way Switching going in a Nashville Tele...

20.01.2022 '85 Marshall model 2204 50 Watt Master Volume MkII Lead has come in for surgery, power transformer is blown. The Primary winding lights up my lightbulb limiter like a Xmas tree! ...It's non original, and whoever replaced it left all the leads super long without trimming...it's also had some kind of boost mod, and an extra 12AX7 that has filaments wired but nothing else...weird! Time to make it right...

15.01.2022 I saw a not working VOX Valvetronic VT100 going for $100 on a Facebook sale group so I nabbed it! I picked it up when I was in Adelaide for a concert and wasted... no time in popping the covers when I got home. For those not familiar with these amps, they are a "modelling" amplifier that uses digital modelling to simulate various famous preamps from well known classic amps, and a 12AX7 in push pull driving a simulated output transformer load. The output from this is then fed to a 100Watt hybrid chip Amp ( STK404-130S) driving a pair of 12" speakers. They even switch the bias on the push pull stage between class AB and Class A, depending on the model of amp selected! It also has built in effects like chorus , reverb, delay, compression, tremolo, pitch shift blah blah. I downloaded the circuit and studied it a fair bit last week before I picked it up. I must say the the output stage is very clever. Especially the transformer simulation and the continuously variable output power from .1 to 100 watts. ( Earlier versions of this amp actually used a small output transformer). The problem turned out to be a very poor previous repair of the soldering of the output chip hybrid IC. I remade and resoldered all the connections and refitted the heatsink for the chip, and she fired up! I'm blown away by how good this thing sounds, especially on more gainy amp models and settings. The AC50 model is worth the price of admission alone, it's pure raunch, and very touch sensitive. I'm gonna take it to band practice!!! If your interested, the VT50 service manual is readily available on line, and has the full schematic. I reckon it would be pretty easy to put an amp together using this technique. See more

14.01.2022 Off topic, but interesting nonetheless... https://rrc.org.au//and-now-for-something-completely-diff/

06.01.2022 On the bench...Ashton BSK158 buskers amp...dead battery and service. This little amp came to me on the coat-tails of another repair from one of our local Bards. The faults being that it no longer was working on battery and that it was very noisy... The noise turned out to be input jacks and control potentiometers, so a squirt with my can of cleaner/lube sorted those quick smart. The battery turned out to be completely dead, barely a volt across the terminals. Luckily it is a ...commonly available 12V 3.4A Sealed Lead Acid type. I sourced a replacement quite easily and was pleasantly surprised at the very reasonable replacement cost. This was duly fitted and restored the amp back to working. Incredibly, this Amp has absolutely NO battery management whatsoever, so if you're not careful you will kill the battery dead if you leave it switched on! No low voltage cut out or low battery warning. Nil. Zip. To add insult to injury there is no battery charging system at all, it relys on you plugging in the charger and remembering to switch it off before you cook the battery. I would have expected better as they cost north of $200 when new. And oh, if you've ever heard the expression "sounds like ass?" Then whatever is being referred to as sounding like said "ass", is comparing it against this gold standard! Next! See more

01.01.2022 Cooked power transformer from a Marshall JCM800. Once the black smoke comes out, that's it! We fitted a replacement, ready for tonight's gig, R.O.C.K!!!