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vancouver amp repairpeople...

Well, if it's a tube head you're looking to repair, then Mr. Ho is certainly the guru. However, I seem to recall that he is either mostly- or semi-retired these days.

You should seek out a guy by the name of Kirk Elliott. A guitarist friend of mine has dealt with him several times and he is great. Takes extremely great pride in his work.

On the other hand, if you're looking to have a solid state amp repaired, hopefully some of the other Vancouver area TBers here can chime in with some good names.

If I can come up with any others, I'll definitely post them here. Good luck with the search.
 
Backline on Francis St. Near Clark and Hastings.

Its where L&M sends there stuff. I had a bad experience with Mr. Ho and wont bring my stuff to him again. He lost ALL the screws to my amp and then denied it. He said he got it that way. Why the heck would I take all the screws off of my amp housing? Especially if I was going to leave the house with it. No sense arguing, but he wont get my business again.

Backline is very professional and they know what they are doing.
 
I just dropped off my old marshall Basstate 65 watt 1x12 combo at Ho's about two weeks ago.

I believe there was something wrong with the built-in equilizer and the compressor.

We'll see how he handles it.


Good to know about the other guys in town. Thanks guys.
 
I've had two things repaired at Ho's, and I've never had any problems with him. First was my Traynor Monoblock II, which had been blown up pretty bad. Using the schematic, he was able to find out what was wrong and fix it for a reasonable price.

Second was my Ampeg SVP-Pro. Most of the transformer leads were broken where they connected to the circuit board. The leads were broken clean at the transformer, so I figured I needed a new one at the very least. He was able to solder wires were the leads were broken, and secure the transformer so it wouldn't move around as much. Again, all of this for a good price, as I thought my SVP-Pro was screwed pretty bad.

I found him to be a nice guy and knowledgeable to boot. He even lent me a "tube" box which he built himself to try. It's a box with a preamp tube and two power amp tubes which gives a tube sound to solid state amps.

Lyle
 
Ho for tube or solid state...Backline (they moved over to Frances St. off Clark) will fix pretty well anything...Dave Vidal for tube vintage (he knows them well, besides being one of the best guitar players in town with the mucho authentic tone). Hope that helps.

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but I was hoping BassIsBoss or someone else around here (Vancouver, Canada) has Dave Vidal's phone number. He serviced my Marshall JCM800 but now I can't find his number to ask him a question!

A PM would be perfect.

Any help would be great!

Thanks!
 
Ho's is a good place but he's usually swamped - another highly recomended repair shop - especially for blown speakers (L&M usually sends all their speakers problems here) is Kinetic:
Kinetic Sound Services
4131 Fraser Street, Vancouver, BC V5V 4E9
(604) 876-7847‎ or (604) 875-8511‎

its on Fraser just south of King Edward (25th) ave..
 
Got his card somewhere...when I dig it out I'll get back to you.

Cheers,
Cameron

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but I was hoping BassIsBoss or someone else around here (Vancouver, Canada) has Dave Vidal's phone number. He serviced my Marshall JCM800 but now I can't find his number to ask him a question!

A PM would be perfect.

Any help would be great!

Thanks!
 
FWIW, the post looking for dave's number is over a year old.

I know it's a year old. Maybe I should apologize for digging up an old thread but I was looking for Dave's # myself a few days ago and couldn't find it. I had to do some serious searching and just thought I would pass the info on to save someone else the same hassle. I’ve been quoted by someone else so Dave’s contact info is here to stay as a reference. I’m sure Dave won’t mind anyway. Seems like every time I post something I get a flack! Come on fellow bass players BE NICE!

I know all the repair people mentioned in this thread and in my experience Dave is the guy to go to for vintage tube amps, Ho’s next then Backline for hybrid amps and other old gear like Hammonds and vintage synths etc. I believe Backline will also take care of Aguilar and EBS for example. Dave Vidal is the guy for the tubes though and he is also one killer blues guitar player!!! So he knows tone.

Dave also does work on basses I’ve been told. The best Vancouver guy for bass work is (or was) Ed Myronick. He’s the only guy here I would trust with a fretless. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to contact him. I know this is a little off track (please no one jump on me) but if anyone knows how to get hold of Ed please add him to the list. I’ve played basses Ed’s worked on (a 1977 fretless Music Man and a 1960 Fender Jazz) and he did an awesome job!