Amp repair classes

[hawaiibill]

Aloha
  I'm now here but work in a small but very busy guitar repair shop in Hawaii and I want to take some amp specific amp repair classes. I dont want to go back to school for electronics and I dont need all that I just want to focus on amps.  I've looked around and can't find any in person classes that seem to be anything more that pay us and we will walk you through building your own tube amp. I would rather focus on what a customer might have like "my amp just buzzes and no guitar sounds come out and the tubes are good" that is the trouble shooting I want to learn about.

HawaiiBill

[shooter]

but work in a small but very busy guitar repair shop

find your alter-ego of guitar amps, stop by, ask questions, explain what you want to learn, come to terms.


this sport is best learned from those that have hands on, not academic credentials

[hawaiibill]

yes that's what I was getting at but here on island we have really none, the best guy is an actual electrician with a full time electricians job and he does amp repairs on the side so I can't really just hope he's working on the amps when I have time. Because of my job in the military dealt with electronics I do have a working knowledge but that was for IED's and not amps 

[shooter]

well then, it's teach yourself time.  Most here are self taught.  My Uncle taught me Radars, I still spent many hours reading about tubes
This site is a great resource to get started


 How to design valve guitar amplifiers (valvewizard.co.uk)
this one is for those insomnia nights, very technical and deep


White Papers (aikenamps.com)

[rake]

Lots of big helpful brains here.
There's a few guys on youtube that are informative too.
Uncle Doug, D-Lab and Brad the Guitarlogist are 3 that come to mind.

[RadioComm]

Lots of big helpful brains here.

Disclaimer (lol). Just read your second post. You do know about electronics. Thanks for your service. Please skip the rest of this post. I'll just keep it here for reference.

This forum is awesome! Unfortunately you have to be able to help them in order for them to help you. I don't know from your original post how much you know, but very basic electronics is a must. Such as:
    * Reading a voltage
    * Knowing which component you are measuring from a schematic
    * Giving them enough detail so that they can have an idea of what may be going on
    * Most of all a lot of patience, whether in a class or self taught, learning is always incremental

Similar to shooter, I learned from my Father and my Grandpa (RIP Love you guys!) about tools, cars, motorbikes, electronics, woodwork, etc. Started guitar amps pre-internet, didn't have a knowledgeable buddy, so books were it starting with Jack Darr's book. With the internet now, sources are almost infinite.

The experts on this forum are *very* helpful, and *very* quick to identify a problem. I've seen them hit a home run on the first throw.

Take care. ttfn.