# Amp Techs in East Toronto?



## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

My usual dude is clear across the city for me now that I've moved. I'd probably take it to him for something big, but I'm just looking for a re-tube, re-bias. I'm in the DVP and Lawrence area and don't really want to drive too far for this. What's available in North York/Scarborough???


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## parkhead (Aug 14, 2009)

seriously do it yerself ... buy tubes pop em in ..
play if it sounds, good play more 

if it sounds bad, buy a bias king or other handy device, 
read the instructions and bias that sucker 

that amps need a re bias with each toob change, was groove tubes marketing hype 

I have a 62 princeton that has had 15 sets of tubes and never been biased 
I put em in and play .. the bias is not adjustable 

in the EAST end Buzzy Burak is still king 
"meh yahhh your amp went to sleep in the corner of the shop for a while ... but she's sounding good now" 


True story: 

I had a buddy who had a JCM800 that sounded BAD... so I said 
I bet the bias is wrong bring it to me ... I was at work but we opened it up I grabbed a volt meter and we measured the bias voltage 
it was st the most negative setting maxed out... we set it to the factory -39 or whatever the number was and immediately it sounded amazing 

he looked at me and said "is it really this simple" yeah sometimes 
a lot of old school techs set marshalls up quite cold so that the tubes would last longer 

another buddy builds car motors and plays guitar, he built me a nice 2.8l Datsun motor 
after I dropped it in my car I said "how do you set the timing" 
"I drop in the distributor and when it starts I turn it till I get the maximum power and no pinging, I do it by ear" 
I have a timing light but I never use it want to borrow it ? 

I set bias in the dark 
I pop in new tubes fire up the amp, turn out the lights If I get no red plating I play then I turn the bias adjustment till I like the sound and the tubes 
do not red plate ...

On fixed bias amps like my princeton I re-tube look at the plates in the dark and play 
if it sounds bad I try different tubes if it sounds good I play more 

I don't own a bias king or anything I use my meter and my ears 

red plate = bad vs good sound = good 

This is the reason Randall Smith makes all Boogies amps FIXED BIAS with no adjuster 

he does not want some TV repairman setting the tubes to their safest and coldest bias setting 



p


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## Clean Channel (Apr 18, 2011)

If you wanna scoot south a short distance, Steve Moratto is in the Beaches area. Great guy, really knows his stuff. PM me for his phone number, or you can probably get contact info via google.


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## sambonee (Dec 20, 2007)

Parkhead has some good points. You should meet Moratto anyway. Even if you try it yourself. Ever since I met him 4 years ago, my knowledge of amps and tone has become legendary (on my own mind) AND 
Steve does house visits 
And his turn round is zupa fast. 1 (416) 561-4101

He's built me my tone bender, Custom OD, dynacomp clone, and 3 amps.


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## jb welder (Sep 14, 2010)

parkhead said:


> I set bias in the dark
> I pop in new tubes fire up the amp, turn out the lights If I get no red plating I play then I turn the bias adjustment till I like the sound and the tubes
> do not red plate ...
> 
> ...


Sorry but I'll have to disagree with some of your statements. I'm not one who believes that bias is the most super critical thing, but you are sure at the other extreme. 
Back when tubes were all built to better specs (what we now call NOS), the tubes that didn't meet tolerance were rejects and not sold. So you could build an amp with fixed bias and no adjustment and any tube of the proper type would work. This is no longer the case. That's why companies that didn't care much about bias (Fender, Ampeg for example) now include bias adjustment.
Groove tubes didn't get the whole bias thing going as marketing hype, they found a way to market tubes that were out of tolerance. Now many modern tubes are that way. 
Randall Smith insists you use ONLY mesa tubes, other wise your amp will not be biased correctly. The mesa tubes are weeded out so they are within a certain tolerance that will sound good in their amps. Also, they are biased quite cold. Many amps are biased cold. It has a major impact on the lifespan and does not necessarily sound bad. Many Fender amps are biased around 50% dissipation, some way less, and they still sound good.
A tube can be biased way hotter than it's max. dissipation before it red plates. This means biasing in the dark can result in a tube biased way too hot yet still not redplating. This could be the difference between a tube that lasts 3 months versus one that lasts 3 years. In my opinion the big myth is the idea that amps biased cooler necessarily sound bad. You can bias a tube pretty cold before you get crossover distortion. 
So I would say you want to bias as cold as you can without having a major impact on the tone. This will assure good tone and long tube life. With the way modern tubes are spec wise, you don't want to take a chance biasing without measurement.
Maybe due to many years experience you are getting away with it (biasing in the dark by ear), but I don't think it's a good recommendation to the general guitar playing public.


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

Thanks for the advice, guys!


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## Roryfan (Apr 19, 2010)

Pete Medvick in the Beaches is also good.

(416) 691-5123


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## parkhead (Aug 14, 2009)

jb welder said:


> Sorry but I'll have to disagree with some of your statements. I'm not one who believes that bias is the most super critical thing, but you are sure at the other extreme.
> Back when tubes were all built to better specs (what we now call NOS), the tubes that didn't meet tolerance were rejects and not sold. So you could build an amp with fixed bias and no adjustment and any tube of the proper type would work. This is no longer the case. That's why companies that didn't care much about bias (Fender, Ampeg for example) now include bias adjustment.
> Groove tubes didn't get the whole bias thing going as marketing hype, they found a way to market tubes that were out of tolerance. Now many modern tubes are that way.
> Randall Smith insists you use ONLY mesa tubes, other wise your amp will not be biased correctly. The mesa tubes are weeded out so they are within a certain tolerance that will sound good in their amps. Also, they are biased quite cold. Many amps are biased cold. It has a major impact on the lifespan and does not necessarily sound bad. Many Fender amps are biased around 50% dissipation, some way less, and they still sound good.
> ...


I disagree with this... completely, even though your facts are accurate 

Bias = 3 options 
leave it alone and don't worry about it 

Bias by any of the popular methods widely accepted, scope, current factory specs ect 

bias by ear, which is usually done by a person who knows all of the above methods and has some backup knowledge 

-----------------

I have heard and found many amps biased very cold by professional technicians ... they do not sound good 
these are amps that have been recently serviced, they have no issues, they are up for sale because they sound bad 
sometimes I buy them rebias them and sell them as good sounding amps, other times i measure the bias 
find that it is at max - setting put it back to a reasonable mid-range setting and have the owner shocked at my "magic powers" 
this has happened too many times 

as I realized this was often the case with bad sounding amps I looked at Randall Smith's fixed bias, and Ken Fischer' statements 
that his "your trainwreck is factory biased by a special method and should not need bias adjustments for many years... " 
in new light... trainwreck did not offer special tubes ... Ken knew that he liked a certain current draw and leaving it open for adjustment 
would allow someone to bias the amp cold 

do I have magic golden ears? I don't think so but I am often accused of this affliction 

I may be completely wrong and after all this is the internet (or info-tainment) 
I am not trying to sound like a jerk here, but this is one of the key issues that sent me down the path of figuring this stuff out myself 

the bottom line with a musical amplifier is:

if it is not adjusted to sound best to your ears, why are you adjusting it? 
I also realize that "good sound" is very subjective, at the same time "bad sound" is often surprisingly easy to spot 


p


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## Hammertone (Feb 3, 2006)

Buzzy Burak (416) 282-5088 [ed: RIP]
John Fletcher (416) 469-2966
Pete Medvick (416) 691-5123
Steve Moratto (416) 561-4101


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## Clean Channel (Apr 18, 2011)

Phew, gets complicated.

I guess I'm fortunate that I find myself drawn to cathode biased and single ended amps. Saves me going about this whole step!


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## parkhead (Aug 14, 2009)

Clean Channel said:


> Phew, get complicated.
> 
> I guess I'm fortunate that I find myself drawn to cathode biased and single ended amps. Saves me going about this whole step!



the point is, it's not complicated unless the amp sounds bad,
I treat every fixed bias amp like its cathode biased I just find a pair of tube that sound good in it, 
which is not hard at all if the bias has not been badly mucked with. 

sort of like hitting the side of barn with a baseball from 10 feet out
so I agree... its not a super critical thing ... the concept of biasing your amp has been oversold 

However, when you get an older that does not "have it"...
but has brand new tubes and looks well cared for, go to the bias trim pot, 
you will often find someone has set it to the furthest negative bias voltage setting 
re-adjusting this will solve the bad sound problem 90% of the time. 
This scenario is so common it is not accidental. 

I have a decent pile of old marshalls. I often got deals by buying the bad sounding ones 
that looked physically intact ... they invariably fit the description above 
The best old Marshall I ever purchased sounded like ZZTOP Tres Hombres ... 
the amp was mint and practically unplayed and actually turned up in a pawnshop 
I earned a lot from it 
It was biased very hot from the factory... it had no magic parts no special circuit
it was just really well set up 

P


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

I recently acquired a JCM900 Mk III and a DSL50. They were both wayyyy out of bias...I had also recently picked up a Weber Bias Rite, and it was so easy to 'fix' both amps, like 2 minutes after the chassis was out. They both sounded WAYYY better biased correctly...the 900 (starting from so cold I'm surprised the tubes worked lol) got punchier and clearer, the DSL (which was way way hot) got warmer and also clearer.

Different strokes for different folks. My old '81 Hiwatt Custom 50, as with all the old Hiwatts, had non-adjustable bias and was set up super hot. But it sounded great, wasn't eating tubes, and so after discussion with tech we just decided to leave the circuit original. On the other hand, I'm building an amp right now and adding a bias pot and ports on the back side just because it's super simple to do so why not have that ability?

I have also done it by ear, my Jet City 22 - they have a reputation as coming really cold biased. I don't have a noval tube measurement device, and hadn't done all the reading on how to measure directly from the circuit, so I just spun the adjustment wheel warmer until it sounded much better. I was also thinking 'meh, they're EL84's which don't exactly have a reputation for long life, so if I cook a set who cares?' Amp sounds great.


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## WCGill (Mar 27, 2009)

parkhead said:


> Ken Fischer' statements
> that his "your trainwreck is factory biased by a special method and should not need bias adjustments for many years... "
> in new light... trainwreck did not offer special tubes ... Ken knew that he liked a certain current draw and leaving it open for adjustment
> would allow someone to bias the amp cold


I always thought Ken was referring to the Liverpool when he made this statement, I could be wrong of course.


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## parkhead (Aug 14, 2009)

WCGill said:


> I always thought Ken was referring to the Liverpool when he made this statement, I could be wrong of course.


I'll try and find it 
I am pretty sure it appears in the trainwreck pages and in his little one page catalog he used to send out, I still have the copy he sent me years ago. somewhere. 

I will try and verify the context. 

As Keto has found getting a few basic tools and learning how to do it yourself will verify that I am not as Crazy as some of you think...

It's like the Roger Mayer quote about Hendrix mods, for years I was puzzled (I am paraphrasing) it was from a 1985 guitar mag interview 
" it's mostly about impedance and getting things to work together" as I did more reading about impedance, bridging and matching 
the dim bulb inside my head lit up ... and I realized he was only being cryptic to people who didn't understand basic electronics 


update 
He was in fact referring to the express which was a fixed negative bias amp capable of using el34's or 6v6 tubes. He recommends setting it to -30 and not touching it. 
the trainwreck pages are here and always worth another review 

http://www.blueguitar.org/new/schem/trainwreck/the_trainwreck_pages.pdf

there are two points to him saying this 
#1 the amp was built to use two tube types so at -30 both tube types would work...if you moved the bias too much both sets might not work 
#2 he was probably indicating that many techs would be tempted to adjust the bias colder and should not be messing with his amp 

Ken was one of the most strident advocates of using the current method of amp biasing... at the time most techs used the scope method which yields a colder bias setting (he famously wrote, read what everyone else says, then just do it my way) 


P


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