Amphead

I dropped off a tube preamp beginning of June. I reported that it had low output on the clean channel and the head room can improve. Middle of July and I had to call to find out what was going on. Instead, he tells me he replace the capacitors without my consent and when it was nothing to do with the original problem.
I should have stayed away from him when he told me he doesnot work on tube preamps such as mine.
It felt like he took the easy way out to earn a fast buck by replacing the power capacitors, as the head room and output has not changed.
Yup, feeling cheated here.

Jim does excellent work at a fair price. I am extremely happy with all the work that I have had done there.

I put a lot of wear-​and-​tear on my guitar everyday. So it’s good to know someone who can give it a good tune-​up which it needs every now and again. It’s an acoustic/​electric, so of course I want it feel as much like an electric as possible when I plug it in. Last year I had Jim lower the action so I could play higher on the neck without having to be Hercules to hold the strings down. Everyone who picks up my guitar is amazed at how close the strings are to the fretboard.
I recently brought it in again. After a great year of picking around on it, I thought that I’d played the frets out, because I was getting a little too much buzz down at the 3^rd fret of all places. He performed a bit of an adjustment for it and it’s ringing just as bright as ever. On both occasions, I felt like I’d brought home a brand new guitar, and the price was so right it felt like I’d just won the showcase showdown. Thanks again, I will be back again — in fact I got this amp that needs some work…

I took my 1964 Fender Vibro-​Champ amp to Amphead be repaired. The owner Jim was very friendly and I enjoyed speaking with him. When I dropped the amp off we agreed on a pick up date and I told Jim to let me know if that wasn’t going to work. I also stressed that since he was the first person to ever work on the amp, it was very important that he saved the original parts. When the agreed upon completion date came and went with no communication I contacted Jim and he told me he didn’t have the common capacitor he needed and that it would take another week to get one in. So another week came and went and again no proactive contact from Jim. Another email from me and got a a reply that said when it came in, he’d let me know. So basically I had to be the one to continually contact him and he missed a deadline he agreed to with no communication. When the amp was finally fixed I took it home and 2 days later realized I had left the box of original parts at his store. I contacted him and he told me he through them out. This on top of everything else left a very bad taste in my mouth and turned what was an overall mediocre experience into a fairly negative one. Jim could have taken a few seconds to call me or send me an email about the parts before he trashed them and the fact that he didn’t after I told him how important the original parts were showed a very poor level of customer service. The work done to the vibro-​champ (very simple circuit) should have taken no more than 40 – 45 minutes, tops. Replacing 3 capacitors, 1 fuse, 1 resistor and an A/​C cable. I could have done the work myself in that time. Instead Jim charged me for 2 hours labor. Fair enough. As they say, it’s not the mistake, it’s how you fix it. Jim never bothered to reply to my email expressing my disappointment that he threw the original parts away. For that, Jim’s poor communication skills and fairly steep labor charges I won’t be taking any of my other vintage amps to Amphead for repair. I am now left hoping the repair itself will hold up… time will tell.

Jim was very friendly (worth a lot of points to me), even to my 2-​year-​old (who tagged along both times I went in). He seemed very knowledgeable both on the phone when I called with my amp’s symptoms, and in person when I dropped it off. But then, I know next to nothing about amp repair. Even so, he didn’t insult my intelligence by dumbing down his descriptions of what probably needed to be fixed, etc. In other words, it was much easier than going to a typical car mechanic.
One thing though. I told him about a gig I had coming up the following weekend, and he said he’d have it done by then. (I said No biggie if you can’t, I have another amp, but I’d *like* to use this one if at all possible.) Unfortunately, he didn’t have the right parts on hand to get it done that quickly… but he didn’t call me to let me know. :(So I spent some time wondering what was up, and feeling generally uncomfortable about the whole situation.
Anyway, in the end, the amp is working great and it didn’t cost an arm nor a leg. I’d go back, since his shop is 10 blocks from my house, but if I lived on the other side of town, I’d probably look for someone closer.

Brought an 80’s Carvin combo to Jim at the recommendation of the guys at Briz Loan and Guitar. He replaced tubes, fixed an electrical problem (connection was arcing), and touched on a couple other items. All in all, good work, quick turnaround, and Jim seems like a genuinely nice guy.
When I arrived, he was turning over a repaired Les Paul to a guy who apparently really screwed it up. He fixed the headstock. It looks like nice repair job, so I brought my late 1970’s Memphis guitar there to have some connections fixed, and have the frets dressed. He recommended a change to the setup in place of the fret dress. (I like it when shops talk me out of doing extra work!) I will likely have him do a tolex replacement job on my 60’s Vega tube amp, having seen examples of his amp restorations.
From the looks of the items awaiting pickup by the owners, it looks like Jim is equally comfortable with old point to point connection amps, as well as the newer circuit board stuff, guitars and pedals, etc. I have now been to three places in PDX that are in the same business, and I think I am more comfortable leaving my equipment with Amphead.