Repairs that got more expensive than planned?

[kiat]

A few months back soon after taking my main bass combo** to a pub jam, though it not had much use, the unit failed. No sound, though the headphones worked.

 

Long story short, it eventually got mended and it cost me £230 in repair costs alone. There were considerable transport costs on top of that.

 

Have relatively expensive repairs happened to you?  What were the realistic choices open to you - was conversion a possibility?

 

It was a lot more than I'd bargained for, given these are selling on UK eBay for £300,  though the engineer told me the likely costs at each stage. 

 

I've decided to turn this into a combo/cab at the  earliest opportunity. 

 

Details: 

* The engineer, Rowan at Keld Ampworks, Newark

* motherboard too complex to diagnose (labour costs would have soared)

* The engineer Yamaha provided a mobo for £170

* Charged labour £70

* Rowan could not get the headphone working independently from the main speaker, as it was when I took it in.

** Ampeg BA210v2 - 7 years old, but had a 6 year hiatus when I wasn't playing bass.

[Owen]

Ouch. But the costs look fair. Hourly rates are not what they used to be. 

 

My personal experience was with a Double Bass and a luthier. It hit almost 4 figures. It is never a great moment. 

[LeftyJ]

I recently had a guitar valve amp repaired and hit just over €200. It's a cathode-bias amp, so the bias of the power tubes is regulated "automatically" - until the cathodes fail. So the power tubes were running way too hot, and several parts controlling the power regulation towards the power tubes were replaced. Luckily I still had a spare set of EL84 power tubes or it would have been a lot more. Tubes are expensive these days! 

[Woodinblack]

The guitarist in my band has been having a trouble with his fender amp - he has had it 'repaired' 3 times (the last one he specifically said he didn't want anything replaced) and it still isnt working right.

 

[edstraker123]

I bought a strat off here and it was fret buzzy when I picked it up. I was going to get a set up done on it but the luthier said there was no adjustment left on the truss rod and I ended up having to have the neck steamed to straighten it - cost a lot more than a set up. Only time I'd ever been asked to sign a receipt to say I'd checked the guitar and there was nothing wrong with it. It opened my eyes to how careful you need to be when buying a used instrument. Hopefully karma paid the seller a visit.

[BogeyBass]

Ironic Now

This is exactly what I told people to expect 4 to 7 years.

Those now older ClassD Ampegs have a rather strong reputation. Probably what ruined the company.

They Sold to Yamaha. Clock is ticking to see what Yamaha has done with the new line.

Labor time seems quick, by design really. Whole board out, new board in.

Edited January 12 by BogeyBass

[ossyrocks]

Hmm, I bought a '73 Fender Bassman 50 for what I thought was a cheap price, with the full knowledge that it had been badly modded and worked on over the years.

I took it to Martin Garton (Gartone Amps), who is one of the best in the business, and makes superb amplifiers. I asked him to service it, "un-mod it" and then rework it to be more suitable for bass. After much investigation and head scratching, Martin told me that it would be better to blast off and nuke it from space, just to be sure. So I said yes. He gutted the amp entirely and rebuilt it from scratch, with new everything except cab, chassis and a couple of transformers (one was replaced). In the end, the rebuild cost more than I paid for the amp! But it is very nice.

 

Rob