Why bother asking!

[Davy]

I still get em' today, do you?
Picture valves gone, sound valves gone,  it's just a fuse or it wants a new resistor, I've heard that a time or two, and now the public has caught on...... the bulbs gone inside!

Another one for ya, many years ago I repaired a Sonab hi-fi, the speaker looks like a stool with the grill at the top, distorted and rattles on one channel the man said.......  Not surprised, a dead mouse was wedged between the bass driver cone and it's casing.  The chap said he thought he saw the cat chase something but wasn't sure, it'd entered via the bottom where the port opening is underneath.

Dave

[downunder]

Don't you just love the ones who bring in their TV, explain their fault and then tell you "I've researched this on the internet. It's only a capacitor".

Too bad that it's a relatively new Samsung LED TV and they've got data that applies to a 12 year old Samsung LCD.                      Bruce

[bonesy]

Hi Dave,yes my current little favorite is half term,phone rings off the hook for broken screens,but a lot aren't totally broken it's just the inside bit,can't you glue it?Your Sonab speakers are collectors Items today,in good condition can fetch close to £1k,the base drivers were made by Philips & the foam surrounds break up,but you can buy modern rubber replacements.The units do produce a very nice sound,you'll see them regularly on e-bay in various states.Old British speakers Tannoy's very old Wharfdales,Goodmans,Leak,can fetch good money. 

[bonesy]

Hi Bruce,yep good old internet,plus of course on "you tube" the Americans film their 8yr old fixing the TV just to show how cheap & easy TV repairs are.

[bonesy]

Not TV related,but yesterday a couple of old folks came in, bright red HP laptop,screens just white she said. Ok lets have a look,powered up went white,went dead,no power left in battery.So ejected battery on counter,walked towards work bench,she said to her other half"whats he doing,he's took battery out,hows it gonna work,does he know what he's doing?
I plugged in DC power unit,pressed power switch away it went,worked perfect,plugged battery back in started charging.Then they always ask,WHY?I always say "Who knows,who cares,but 9 times out of 10 it cures odd faults,they give you that doubting look followed by"how much you charging me for that"
I'm sometimes tempted to say at least £100,but never do,just say your welcome we are here to help,The satisfaction is knowing that although I don't know what I'm doing I know a hell of a lot more than they do.

[Davy]

@bonesy

Funny you mentioned speakers foam surround.... I've had that too leaving the cone loose, in fact one or two in my speaker spares succumbed, they were perfect when I packed them.

Seen loads of cassette and video belts turn to gulp leaving a black sticky mess all over the show, now that is real fun to clean up, you just can't shift the devil.

Dave

[bonesy]

I repaired a nice JVC turntable,a while back for a mate,nice bt of kit for a Japanese turntable,but the belt had turned to toffee on the rim of T/T & motor pulley took lots of scrubbing to get it off.

[Davy]

We did do JVC's but can't remember models, the place were I worked we were Philips, Sony and Sanyo agents.

One of the atrocious units were Amstrad, remember when their 'separates' hi-fi came out, they were made in glorified biscuit tins.... very wobbly the dials had four or five festoon lamps in I was forever changing as well as the TIP41/42 output pair.... they did a lethal telly think it was a 18" in a galvanised steel 'wrapper' with some kind of brown painted veneer,  now that was wobbly as hell .... this was when Alan Suger ventured into hi-fi.

Philips turntables were a pain in the rear, nothing but thin springs as levers, car 8 tracks with their endless tape were the 'in thing' that always wanted the graphite cleaning up.

Davy

[bonesy]

Hi Davy,AVS1600 & AVS2000 I'll never ever forget them,I worked for the CO-OP group,we sold thousands of them,we repaired thousands of them.The install man use to have so many faulty out the box,even the turntables could be faulty from new.

[Davy]

AVS1600 & AVS2000 were Fidelity, yes Co-op sold a lot of Fidelity tackle I worked there for a while, they sold loads of Rad series of radio's, Rad 15, Rad 28 etc, come think Bush was another good seller.

It was at the Co-op where the telly came flying out the van.

Dave

[bonesy]

hi Davy,just remembered,in the loft I got an Amstrad hifi  separates amp a 2000mk II think.Sound wise,not bad,but every switch / control crackles or thumps.Wonder if it still works.Was a hand me down from my best mate,he upgraded to a Pioneer or Marrantz  jobby & I had his old Amstrad.He was earning around £90 a week I was apprenticed on £25,Still am some weeks lol.

[Davy]

I've worked on Marrantz, I wasn't impressed, maybe the build I dunno, I also thought, 'No, not another one', nothing wrong with the sound mind, Pioneer & JVC made some good equipment including turntables, I enjoyed working on them.

Just trying think of that BW Decca telly in my training day,  I seemed think it was the EHT reccy, it had a big metal domed anode cap, so did the line come think and a metal chassis..... Geez, you instigated the smallest of arc round there and let fly fast, it was like ferocious greased lightening  taking over, only way to stop it was to yank the plug..... the first time it happened to me I didn't know what the hell to do,  it put the fear of God in mi', it put the fear of God in  everyone, goading one another to set it off, after second or third attempt I was promoted...... to the chief settarofferra - No elf n safety in them day's.

Transistor tellies wouldn't have taken that punishment, this devil would arc, arc and arc and still work producing a nice crisp picture for it's day.

Dave

[bonesy]

My first colour TV ,when I left home was a Decca Bradford,valve,transistor TV ran it for around three years,made it out of lots of scrap ones,had a slightly green tinge to the picture due to old tube,never went wrong.When I was the apprentice,one of my jobs was keeping our workshop clean & tidy.One day
I was sweeping the floor,behind me on the soak test bench was a Bush B&W set,that had just had a new LOPTX fitted,it was running minus it's metal covers,I bent over to sweep out under the bench behind,both valve top caps bit my bum & burnt two very deep holes in my bum,bloody sore for weeks.
Oh & never discharge EHT with screw drivers,if the sets still on!Never did that again one long Philips screw driver went through workshop ceiling,got a proper beating with  rolled up Daily Mirror,but no burns to hands or feet,very odd.Best of it was,the engineer in charge of me said "Jonesy,your a bloody liability,your never survive,let alone make an engineer"
A few day's later boss asks him to go up the shop & extend the main lead on the bosses electric fire,
chatting away,Big John,fits a 13 amp plug on one end of a reel of three core mains lead,the reel of cable he's got his arm through the middle,like a doughnut,yep he then preceded to put the plug in the 13 amp socket,the boss said he shot up the corridor like a rocket,pulling out off the wall the 13 amp socket,the other ends of the cable were neatly through the metal center of the reel.
I repeated word for word what he said to me about survival,which made everyone laugh,followed by another beating,with a daily newspaper.