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Expecting German quality and good customer service?
Forget it.
Recently had a TAD replacement mains transformer fail, so emailed them for support. There answer was to say that, because the amp had had a mains transformer fail before (fairly obviously) that the failure must have been caused by an amp fault, so they wouldn't consider a warranty claim.
When I pointed out this circular logic, sent pic of the amp and transformer, and discussed what tests and inspections I had carried out, what other tests they would suggest, and whether or not I should return the PT for their examination, their response was to ignore me.
Their attitude seems to start at the point that their product is perfect, so the customer must be wrong. I thought we'd moved past that sort of thing?
Reminds me of the time I complained to Thomann that a gig bag had holes in it, and they stated that it was because the guitar was "the wrong size". At that point, they didn't know what kind of guitar had been in it.
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I cannot think of a fault condition OTTOMH that would cause mains transformer failure in an amplifier that had been properly designed and intelligently fused?
I only had a handful of PTs fail. One was because the punter kept feeding it fuses all night as the GZ34 kept flashing over. One had a rattly internal lamm' and a third had a bias winding short one end to frame in a pre prod chassis, never had it again.
Shits!
Dave.
Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder
My trading feedback - I'm a good egg
It's a Peavey Classic 30, and is fused on both secondaries, and the primary. None of those blew. No other symptoms, apart from clearly melted gunk oozing out of the PT windings.
They are known for eating their PTs....I've changed several.
I specifically got the TAD one believing that it had been designed and built to be superior to the original, and indeed the stack size is bigger, so they've obviously not just slavishly copied the original design.
I should add in fairness that the PT was a couple of weeks outside a 12 month warranty period, but my customer had only used it 3 or 4 times since the repair, as it's a back-up. (He's a pro player and has a lot of gear). If they'd said: "Sorry mate, the warranty is only 12 months" I'd have still complained, as you'd expect a big company to stand behind their products a bit more than the bare minimum.
Yep. I've emailed the MD, and done the Twitter thing too. Let's see what that does.Sorry, crossed posts! It's a Peavey Classic 30.
Yes, I have informed them that I build and repair amps for a living (without giving it the big "Do you know who I am?" ) and I've got pretty technical with the information I've given them, so it's disappointing that they've replied to me as if I have no knowledge of the subject.
I too have changed mains transformers on many amps which have failed spontaneously, but the guy I was emailing pretty much insisted that there must be an external fault to make the TAD PT fail
I will say that I too have replaced 6 stock PTs on Classic 30s with the same fault, all completed melted and all had one blown EL84.
All of the ones I worked on, only two of the 4 x EL84s had 100r g2 resistors and the other two didn't. I suspect that when one of the 'unprotected' (if I can call them that) valves shorted, the current draw increased enough to slowly melt a PT but not blow a fuse. Of course, I've yet to absolutely confirm this but it's my best theory so far and haven't had a C30 in for a while to do further testing.
I fitted 470r screen resistors to all four valves, added a bias pot and they've not blown a PT since.
Rift Amplification
Brackley, Northamptonshire
www.riftamps.co.uk
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Well, I've emailed them 3 times with no reply, the last titled "Complaint - for the attention of Andreas Hecke" (The MD).
(I'd also emailed them with replies 2 or 3 times before that)
I tweeted again this morning (which of course gets an instant reply) but they are claiming to have replied to my emails. I've had no reply since 31/3, nearly 3 weeks ago, apart from an automated reply to a contact from submission. I have no spam filtering on my email account, so it isn't that.
:x Fuming.
https://twitter.com/mjwamps/status/722366225490276352
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
It gets worse.
After initially claiming they had replied, now they're saying they deliberately didn't reply because I threatened to 'talk bad about them'.
I assume that means 'tell the truth'.
Way to go.
https://twitter.com/tubeampdoctor/status/722377007959580674
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Rift Amplification
Brackley, Northamptonshire
www.riftamps.co.uk
The latest development is an offer to bury the hatchet (yes, in my head, that's what I thought ) and a request that I send the PT back, which I am, and have always been, happy to do.
At NO point did I say I wouldn't send the PT back, and in fact requested instructions to do so. I was hoping not to have to, but there you go. I'm not convinced they can learn much from it anyway.
I appreciate that English isn't their first language, but can't help but feel that after a certain point they haven't even read my emails.
You can see from Twitter what their attitude was like, but it makes even less sense when you see the email chain leading up to it. It's like they went off and sulked!
And bear in mind, through all this, their first response was "unlucky mate, not our problem" and it's only through all this grief I've got to this point, as far as that may get me.