Test before selling - a lesson learned.

[BassApprentice]

So in a follow up to my question about amp techs. 

I sold my Phil Jones to a lad in Liverpool, it hasn't been used for the best part of 2 years and has been sitting at my parents house. Shipped and received fine. Get a message later saying he turned it on, no lights. Left it plugged in for while and it came to life but not working as it should. Lucky for me he has been quite reasonable and got it in to an amp tech - capacitors gone apparently, and due to the supply situation he isn't sure when he would be able to get the parts 😑 The guy is really keen to keep it so going to take it to another tech to see if he has the parts or another idea. 

Just feel like a prize idiot for not checking it before it got shipped off, now have the headache of trying to deal with this from afar and making sure the guy who bought it eventually gets what he paid for 😕

[Beedster]

Good man for approaching it so positively. PJB are pretty good, I received replies from Phil in person, I'm sure they can help re parts?

[Lozz196]

It happens, I agreed a sale of a cab on here, dropped it off to the buyer who tested it and found it had an annoying rattle on the low B - in my defence I don’t have a 5 string bass so wouldn’t have known but it was still frustrating and more than a tad embarrassing. The buyer pulled out, luckily it turned out to be an easy fix so it got sorted and I was still able to move the cab on.

[BassApprentice]

2 hours ago, Beedster said:

Good man for approaching it so positively. PJB are pretty good, I received replies from Phil in person, I'm sure they can help re parts?

Fingers crossed its a straightforward fix. 

[Stub Mandrel]

I have an inverter drive on one of my lathes. It uses high voltage, high capacity capacitors.

The instructions make it clear that you should switch it on for fifteen minute once a year to condition the capacitors if it is generally unused.

This is because electrolytic capacitors literally use an electrolytically deposited film which is maintained by use and can degrade over time.

 

What's happened here is that the caps have partially repaired but not completely.

 

The take away is that all electronic equipment benefits from occasional use.

[BassApprentice]

Well all fixed - it was the capacitors and I now slightly down on what I sold it for but that's life 😑

 

[BassmanPaul]

It's interesting how many faults are blamed on 'Capacitors.' Many of us who do repair work seldom see faulty caps.

You have to watch them Scouse guys I tell you!! LOL

[BassmanPaul]

Just as an explanation: I'm from Liverpool!

[CameronJ]

A word of mild warning - when I got my PJB Double Four repaired back in 2018, the UK repair centre (Selectron UK Ltd) took FOREVER to get the replacement part and perform the repair. I sent it off in mid May and it wasn’t returned to me until early September. There were apologies but I was left ampless and barren for almost a full 4 months.

They said they’d only recently taken over repair centre duties for PJB in the UK and were still getting themselves fully up and running but I wasn’t informed of this until at least a couple of months into the wait. Communication was sparse at best, with me often having to send follow up emails asking for replies to messages I’d sent days prior.

The icing on the cake was that I was due to move house during month 2 of waiting, so I sent an email requesting that the amp be sent to my new address once the repair was completed. Despite this, when the amp was finally repaired they very nearly sent it to my old address - packaged it up with my old details on the label and sent me an email informing it was about to go out for shipping! Imagine my chagrin when I replied reminding them I’d already requested an address change several weeks prior. Thankfully disaster was averted and they managed to catch it and change the address on the label before it was picked up by the courier. Could have been an utter shambles though.

I should stress that I adore my PJB gear, but the repairs process was painful beyond belief. Hopefully they’ve sorted their act out by now.