Late 80's Peavey Stereo Chorus 400 conundrum
Posted: 28 Apr 2018, 01:19
This is my first and (until recently) only guitar amp. Served me well gigging every weekend in a decently popular working band, but its too big and loud for what I do now- bedroom playing and home recording.
It also started acting up a while back- scratchy pots, and intermittent feedback on the distortion channel. Local music shop sends them away to an electronics repair shop, which charges $80 to diagnose the problem, then $80 and hour (minimum 1 hour charge) plus parts to fix it.
I was looking at minimum of $160 to rebuild an amp that in all honesty isn't worth much more than that.
So I bought what was IMO a better amp for me- Bugera V5 Infinium. 5, 1 and 0.1 watt, 8" speaker, single channel (gain, tone, volume, reverb- not spring but does the job) and weighs about 20 pounds. Spent not much more than getting the Peavey repaired, which even if it was working perfectly was still not meeting my needs.
My question is, should I (or can I) teach myself to repair SS amps? I have a basic multi-meter and a Weller 40 watt soldering station. A solder sucker, and the general knowledge of how to work on PCB.
Should I try and sell it for what I could get out of it?
Or (and my mom thinks this is what I should do), throw it away/recycle it?
The last 2 I don't really feel totally comfortable with, since to me it does have some intrinsic value. As well as sentimental.
If I did manage to repair it, what would I do with it then? I wouldn't play it, and it feels like a disservice to keep it in storage gathering dust when it could be screaming and crying.
My rule with guitars is if I don't play them, I don't keep them. Not sure how that could apply here.
It also started acting up a while back- scratchy pots, and intermittent feedback on the distortion channel. Local music shop sends them away to an electronics repair shop, which charges $80 to diagnose the problem, then $80 and hour (minimum 1 hour charge) plus parts to fix it.
I was looking at minimum of $160 to rebuild an amp that in all honesty isn't worth much more than that.
So I bought what was IMO a better amp for me- Bugera V5 Infinium. 5, 1 and 0.1 watt, 8" speaker, single channel (gain, tone, volume, reverb- not spring but does the job) and weighs about 20 pounds. Spent not much more than getting the Peavey repaired, which even if it was working perfectly was still not meeting my needs.
My question is, should I (or can I) teach myself to repair SS amps? I have a basic multi-meter and a Weller 40 watt soldering station. A solder sucker, and the general knowledge of how to work on PCB.
Should I try and sell it for what I could get out of it?
Or (and my mom thinks this is what I should do), throw it away/recycle it?
The last 2 I don't really feel totally comfortable with, since to me it does have some intrinsic value. As well as sentimental.
If I did manage to repair it, what would I do with it then? I wouldn't play it, and it feels like a disservice to keep it in storage gathering dust when it could be screaming and crying.
My rule with guitars is if I don't play them, I don't keep them. Not sure how that could apply here.