Ritchie’s Guitar & Amps repairs

02/05/2024

When they tell you not to open amps up to try and repair them if you’re not qualified…..the switches ( top left) are connected directly to the mains (230V) with no insulation on the contacts, straight out of the factory for prying fingers to touch!!!
Quite ‘shocking’ really…😂😂😂I’ll get my coat….

21/03/2024

Ever dropped the contents of a lava lamp in your amp? No me either… vodka yes😂😂😂, anyway, thankfully the oil wasn’t corrosive, so a good clean with some solvent got it all off the pcb and sorted it out👍

21/03/2024

A Mesa Boogie mkiv with a broken push pull pot!! Not complicated at all😂😂, its some piece of engineering to get all this into such a small space! The pot is obsolete (obvs) and its a miniature type squeezed into a tiny space in front of the pcb. A standard one wont fit, so had to move an existing pot, and replace that one with the standard size one. Works fine tho.
Probably thd heaviest 1x12 combo I’ve ever picked up, 100W and LOUD!!!
Check out the size of the magnet on the speaker😎😎

31/01/2024

Studiomaster monitor that doesn’t power up… dry joints on the main transformer feed in the voltage select switch!

09/01/2024

10/05/2023

Fender DeVille in for new output valves, these things are LOUD!!!
More headroom than St Pauls….
Someone has been here before tho😎

14/04/2023

Fender Blues Jr…. I’ve had a few of these in all with the same problem…the output valves get loose in the cheap crappy sockets and lose contact!!

10/03/2023

Looks like I’ve become the unofficial Marshal repair centre in Portsmouth….😎😎

13/06/2022

The Bootleg Dumble….finished and extremely loud!!! All hand wired, all valve (tube) in a fetching purple box😂😂
This is a little taster( recorded on an iphone so not exactly hifi but you can still hear what it can do😀 ) all controls apart from gains & volume at 12 o’clock, the overdrive is switched in halfway through, OD level controlled on the guitar vol. from dirty to filth. Lots more gain if you need it, loads of switches for different tones, too many to play with, so many more sounds if you want them.
It’s for sale ( not from me so no idea how much, Jonboy Walton had started it before he died, and I built it as a favour to his wife Gina) so I’ll put up contact details later when I have them.

13/10/2021

Pt 2 of Jonboys’ Dumble….transformers & valve bases in, just a bit of wiring to do😂😂😂😂😂

22/09/2021

A Fender Blues Jr in a cool shade of surf green…on of tbe output valves had blown and taken out a part ( screen grid resistor for you tech nerds….😂) new outputs and replaced resistor and good to go! Lovely little amps these 👍👍