Amp weirdness

[3choplex]

So last year, someone gave me a 60s gibson scout. Great little amp after some work.

A couple weeks ago, someone gave me another for xmas. While that itself is kind of funny, that's not the weird part. The person who gave it to me bought it from a very well known amp guy who "did a cap job on it right before I bought it." It works, but has a ton of buzz. When I looked inside, I found:
--a mix of radial and axial caps (where it calls for axials)
--PS caps that are wired wrong
--caps that were not soldered at all
--the power amp cathode bypass cap is backwards.

If the guy he says did the work really did, that guy is a fraud. (I will not name the person.) Shocking.

That said, very thoughtful of my friend, and will be great once I do some work on it.

[sluckey]

If the guy he says did the work really did, that guy is a fraud. (I will not name the person.) Shocking.

There could be other factors involved, but, if he's a fraud, he should be exposed as such.

[3choplex]

I forgot two other things. He replaced every cap but one! He left the death cap in place  and also left the terrible ungrounded lamp cord power cable.

As for outting the guy, I have no way of knowing if he really did the work. I can't out someone that I don't know is responsible. But whoever did this is a hack.

[silverfox]

Background information.
So I'm sitting here just prior to this post contemplating a situation I have here. It is not a situation of fraud but, a similar situation in which I need an honest answer and only the people involved can tell me.

Things may not be as they appear and you will have to ask some questions. Unfortunately it could harm what you believe to be a good relationship if what you say is true and the individual won't deal with this honestly. Perhaps the person giving you the amp did the work and messed it up and can't admit it. Perhaps the tech that did the job had a bad day or is going through something horrible in life.

If you want to clear up the mystery you will have to ask some hard questions and be ready for the answers and the reasonable inferences and conclusions absent an honest answer.

Think it through first. Perhaps write out some questions and consider the possible answers. Develop some follow up.

Most importantly- Make the people involved understand this is not about reputation but honour and friendship or camaraderie if not friendship.

Silverfox.

[3choplex]

I definitely hear where you are coming from. Since the amp was a gift, and I am up for repairing it myself, I am happy to leave the mystery a mystery. 

[John]

Not knowing anything about it, I have a hard time believing that an "amp tech", even one who's not all that good, would make all those mistakes. Heck, even *I* wouldn't make all those mistakes! 

[Platefire]

There is an old saying "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth". Just take it, fix it and enjoy! A Pix would be nice. Platefire