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Replacing 140a Amp - Good Idea or Bad

Started by Stelmerfudd, December 10, 2024, 05:59:21 PM

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Stelmerfudd

Hi,

Thank you for your reply. Much appreciated.

I have a 140a amp that wasn't working. Sent it to https://www.tropicalfishvintage.com/ to have it repaired or rebuilt. They told me that they couldn't get new varisters and it was too delicate of an operation to unsolder them from a good board into another board, too delicate of a solder.

Long story short he sent me an amp that doesn't look anything like what I sent him. I was expecting to get back a repaired Vintage amp to keep in step with the vintage nature of the piano. A working vintage amp that looks like the original amp that it came with.

The marking on the amp says 140, not 140a or b.

Am I being unreasonable, unrealistic? I'm wondering if this amp that he sent will devalue the piano?

Thanks for your thoughts. Unsure what to do here.

Thanks,
Richard

pianotuner steveo

If it works, how can it devalue the piano? It's still a vintage amp...

 A non working amp devalues it IMHO.
1960 Wurlitzer model 700 EP
1968 Gibson G101 Combo organ
1975 Rhodes Piano Bass
1979 Wurlitzer 206A EP
2009 73A Rhodes Mark 7
2009 Korg SV-1 73
2017 Yamaha P255
2020 Kawai CA99
....and a few guitars...

Stelmerfudd

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. I know I'm a little late here. I thought I had set up my post to be notified by email of the reply but must have missed.

I sent my Wurly amp to https://vintagetropicalfishripoff.net/ to have it repaired. Jon Borducci from there notified me that the varistors were damaged and it wouldn't be possible to get it working unless I was willing to wait indefinitely for the rebuild. He said he had a good working amp and would send that to me for the same price as rebuilding mine which was $700. I put the amp in the piano and it was so noisy I didn't think I could use the piano for anything except to look at it. The internal speaker didn't work either. When I asked him to return the amp, he ended up hanging up the phone on me. Then I asked my amp back and he said since he had started rebuilding it that I couldn't get that back either without sending him another amp as a core, like what they do for auto parts.

I ended up sending that amp to Vintage Vibe. They found quite a few other issues with the amp including having to replacement the power supply. They also put a line out in the piano too which I wanted in the first place. They are total pros and super nice. They charged me $600.00 but I'm sure everything will be working as planned.

Vintage Tropical fish is a total RIPOFF.

Thanks,
Richard