TH500 Head and Aguilar tech support

[conttador]

I emailed Aguilar about a replacement faceplate for a DB-750 about a month ago and they were quick to respond(2-3 days). I got a response from Dale Titus. I checked the email, unfortunately there isn’t a direct number or email address.

I thought some of the Aguilar folks are TB members. Maybe someone can point to who they are.

Best of luck!

V

 

[ZonieBass]

Geez, these wimpy modern amps, in the olden days lots of guys would just cram some tin foil into the fuse receptacles of their Marshalls LOL.

Seriously I knew people who actually did this and it worked.

But yeah it sounds like not a good thing to just keep replacing the fuse.

Analogeezer

We used to call that a no blow fuse......

 

[hennessybass]

I wonder if anyone else had any luck contacting the tech support team.

I've contacted them twice... once about a funky tweeter in a cab I got off ebay (years ago), and once just to ask a ton of questions about the TH DI pedal.
Both times I got a fast and helpful reply.

I would give them a couple days to reply.

 

[jastacey]

Ya know, AgedHorse, has gotta be the best salesperson, goes out of his was to help someone, who has a competitors product, if the competitor drops the ball, in dealing with customer service, betcha, the memory effect, comes into play, when it's time to purchase a new amp, it's the little things, that make the most difference

 

[Alper Yilmaz]

Well, it looks like the east coast is going through some serious snow storm, so the Aguilar folks might have been caught unprepared. Back in the day, Aguilar customer service was terrific; but this is just the weekend with some difficult weather, so I would wait for another few days.

And, of course, kudos to @agedhorse who is a true gentleman who goes out of his way to help a fellow competitor!

 

[agedhorse]

Yes, I understand that the snow storm is impacting a LOT of folks and forgot that people living and working in those areas were asked to stay home.

 

[Brujonica]

Thanks for all the helpful answers, this is a great community!

 

[StayLow]

As was said by an expert, it’s almost certainly the power section.

IF it’s an easy DIY drop-in re&re, and IF the part is available, it’s probably less costly in both time & money, and safer, to buy a similar amp used in good working order.

IF not an easy DIY re&re and/or if the part is not readily available, it is almost certainly less costly, safer & sure, to buy a brand new amp.

Good luck!

 

[agedhorse]

As was said by an expert, it’s almost certainly the power section.

IF it’s an easy DIY drop-in re&re, and IF the part is available, it’s probably less costly in both time & money, and safer, to buy a similar amp used in good working order.

IF not an easy DIY re&re and/or if the part is not readily available, it is almost certainly less costly, safer & sure, to buy a brand new amp.

Good luck!

It could be more than one thing, that’s why proper troubleshooting is an important part of diagnostics. That way the amp gets repaired properly and the wrong parts don’t get purchased.

 

[Brujonica]

Well, it has been almost two weeks with no replies from them. They keep posting on social networks but give no answer whatsoever (they didn't answer to the distributors either)

Keep that in mind before buying Aguilar products again.

 

[frankie5string]

Well, it has been almost two weeks with no replies from them. They keep posting on social networks but give no answer whatsoever (they didn't answer to the distributors either)

Keep that in mind before buying Aguilar products again.

Wow.... they must have let someone important go for that to happen...

 

[Brujonica]

UPDATE: I contacted Artist Relations and got a quick response from Dale (no news from the tech support email, that sucks)
They seem to have problems getting icepower boards so he derived me to a dealer located in Brazil, so that's what I'll do next.
Thank you too for your suggestions, specially to Aged Horse.

 

[Analogeezer]

When did Aguilar get bought out? Maybe this is a contributing factor.

After all, when it comes to corporate greed the first thing to go are "superfluous functions" like tech support.

Apparently the guy who used to design amps for Ampeg (when they were SLM) is now repairing amps in the St. Louis area for a living.

Got canned when Loud bought them and moved Ampeg out of St. Louis.

Analogeezer

p.s. Reminds me of a car dealer parts department I used to buy stuff from a lot. Run by this brilliant, really motivated guy. They had incredible online resources for researching/ordering parts and this guy would email you to verify it was the part you actually wanted/needed.

Here is an example of what a stand up dude he was, I contacted him about getting another set of OEM seat covers, this is for a car they only made 5,500 of over a two year period and these particular seats were only installed in the first production year. So only 2,000 cars were made with these seats (they are two tone cloth, the higher trim model got black leather).

He gets back to me and since there are two seats and they differ from side to side, it's actually four separate items. He finds one bottom in Chicago at a dealer, the other bottom at another dealer. Finds the pax side upper cover at another place, then tells me it looks like there are some in Japan for the driver's side......the bit that gets replaced the most. But it might take two months to get them.

In the end I told him thanks for the research, he understood I only wanted a full set as they were rather expensive.

So the dealer gets bought out but he is still there and doing a great job. I just found out two months ago; new management came in and he decided to leave, he offered to stay and train the remaining staff but they said no thanks.

The extensive online ordering system (with all the exploded parts diagrams and parts numbers) is gone, replaced by a request form you send them and they get back to you.

Thank god I bought the one part that is like unobtainium (a turbo oil drainline) before he left. There were only like 8 of these in the entire country and he had several. The part is prone to breaking if you have to remove it (due to the heat cycling) and there is no aftermarket alternative.

It's guys like this guy who makes our lives better.....

 

[davepack]

Just last week I emailed Aguilar support with a question at around 10:00 PM EST and received a response the following morning at around 11:00 AM EST.
Over the years they've always been responsive in my experience, both before and after the acquisition.

 

[mike buzzetti]

Are you sure you dont have a shorted cable ?? I dont know if these amps have overload protection besides a fuse ? could be way off base here not a class D guy for troubleshooting

 

[Jeff Scott]

Aguilar's tech support has been upgraded, particularly regarding a software related issue (I never realized there were software in these amps before!)

Here is a photo of the new tech support team:

 

[hennessybass]

Strange... I wonder if the tech support email account has some strange filter that is preventing them from getting your email and the emails from distributors? Maybe somebody set up a spam filter on that account for emails originating in foreign countries?

It's just too weird. Especially considering their reputation AND the experience of @davepack who seems to have had no problem getting a fast response. The fact that they replied to dave so fast makes me think that tech support has not been shut down due to them being bought by Korg.

 

[The Funk]

I had a superb response from Aguilar tech support in August 2021, from a guy called Dale Titus, about an old, used preamp they stopped making years and years ago. He replied in less than 24 hours with step-by-step instructions for my problem which solved everything in minutes.

A couple of days ago, I emailed again about their old tube power amp which I’d just acquired used. I got a generic response back from Korg telling me to contact the national distributor for my country. Very sad development. I’d been singing Aguilar’s praises since 2021 for their top class tech support. They’re not rude or unhelpful now, they’re just nothing special, which is a shame. I hope Dale Titus got a good job somewhere if he was let go by Korg!