Desert Amplifier Repair

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If you've read my review of the Hughes and Kettner Grandmeister 36, you know that I experienced an issue with noise being generated through my speaker-out whenever I engage the power-soak. So I was preparing for a session with some local guys which would be in a very small room with a drummer and a bass-player. I wanted to sound good - that is, I needed to push my amp into its sweet-spot - but I also didn't want to be ridiculously loud.

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So, I thought I'd just buy an attenuator. I bought the bugera attenuator which I used for that session. Later that night, I was playing at home and took a break. My amp was left on with the attenuator connected, and sometime over the course of the next 45 minutes, it fried my amp.

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I spent a while looking for someone who could repair my amp, and stumbled on Mark Armentrout, owner / operator of Desert Amplifier Repair. After a few emails were exchanged, I decided to give him a try.

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Mark communicated with me and listened to me about everything I was experiencing, and not only did a fantastic job repairing my amplifier, he did it at a very reasonable price. Also, he worked with me on reducing the "fiz" I get from my higher gain channels, replacing my tubes with a lower-gain set. When I got my amp back, it was noticeably quieter, and I could dial in higher gain settings without fiz - at least a lot more gain than I could previously.

Other than the time it took for him to order the parts he needed (and once again, my experience with Hughes and Kettner's customer service wasn't great... the first set of parts they sent him were wrong and he had to re-order them, extending my downtime without the amp), he got the amp back to me in as timely a manner as was possible given the circumstances.

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I will use Mark again in the future if I ever need amplifier repair services again. I highly recommend Desert Amplifier Repair!!!