Service & Repairs

Wakarusa Amplification is fully equipped to service or repair your musical instrument amplifier. In addition to full complement of test equipment (and the knowledge to use them) we stock most repair parts on hand.

A basic list of services

Things we're happy to do:
- Normal maintenance - tubes, recaps, clean & lube controls
- Repair and troubleshoot both tube and solid state amplifiers
  (though the tube amps are where all the love goes)
- Mods - Tweaks for gain, tone, dynamics, etc.
- De-mods - restore your amp to how it came from the factory
- Custom design work
Things we'll do if we like you and you ask really nicely:
- Mixers (maintenance and repair)
- Pedals and pedal boards
- Theramins (no kidding)
- Anything weird and old
- Provide a "loaner" while yours is in the shop (we have to like you a lot)
Things we won't do for love or money
- Lutherie. Go see Wendell at J. Nunis for this. If you bring it here, we'll just job it out to Wendell anyhow.

Useful things to know about having your amplifier serviced:

Almost every amplifier can be fixed. There's always a question of whether it should be fixed. Many of the bargain solid-state amplifiers simply cost more to fix than they're worth. This can also happen with vintage gear that's in really bad shape. Your best bet is to call first to discuss what you've got and what's wrong with it.
Some amplifiers are notoriously difficult to work on. Either they are constructed in a way that makes them difficult to test or in a way that makes them difficult to disassemble and reassemble. This will have a big impact on the labor costs for the job. To give you an idea of where things pan out, here's a list of amp construction styles going from easiest to work on to hardest. Hard means "costs more":
- Turret and eyelet board construction (easy access to most everything)
- Point-to-point or "flying lead" construction (easy access for testing, messy when it's time to replace things)
- Printed Circuit Board (PCB). (Almost always have to pull the entire board)
- Layered or multiple PCB. (Think Marshall JCM2000. Four boards, all in each other's way)
Some amplifiers suffer from extraordinarily poor design and/or construction. These are so cheaply made that just the act of taking the amplifier apart is likely to introduce failures that weren't there when you brought the amp in. Before working on these amps we may ask for a deposit.
Some problems can take a long time to fix. Delays include waiting for schematics and parts. We keep a pretty extensive stock on hand, but some items are either too specific (voltage regulators) or too expensive (speakers) or both (transformers) to keep laying around. Another cause for delays are intermittent failures. If your amp goes snap-crackle-pop, we can't fix it until it goes snap-crackle-pop in front of us. Sometimes (not often, but sometimes) the problem is just so weird it takes time to figure it out.
Some manufacturers and technicians have proprietary feelings about their circuits. This means that schematics are unavailable and that the amp's circuit may need to be traced out in order to understand and troubleshoot. PCB construction is harder to trace than other construction methods. Often components will be mounted or modified (or defaced) in an attempt to disguise the component value and ratings. Mods that your (or some past owner's) guru have encased in epoxy are also a lost cause. All of these can contribute to the time and labor involved to repair your amp.
Some amps are so old or so obscure that schematics are simply unavailable. Many problems can be solved without the schematic since most amp circuits are very similar, but some cannot. If a component has failed in such a way that the original value and rating markings are destroyed (burned resistors, exploded caps, etc.) then the schematic is really handy for knowing what value to replace the dead bits with. Not too much worry though -- in almost every case a reasonable substitution can be determined from the basic circuit design. If the amp is interesting we may choose to trace the circuit and generate a schematic for free (Flot-A-Tone anyone?) but this will still cause delays in getting the amp back to you.