QUALIFICATIONS
- Ten years classical piano. (Hated it mostly, but don’t tell anybody).
- Now play keyboards, guitar, bass, drums, trumpet, harmonica. but mostly guitar.
- Took my first electronics course in 1965.
- 14 years mechanic and engine builder.
- 15 years aerospace tech specializing in electronics.
- Flight Simulator designer with patents.
- Over 50 years pro-sound and amp repair.
- Over 1000 hours training in recording engineering, including training from grammy winning mixers.
- Most recently, several years of ongoing study of the design and theory of the best tube guitar amp designs, including Dumble, Trainwreck, Soldano, Zinky, Early Fender, Mesa, Rivera, Bogner.
VIDEO AND AUDIO FROM STUDIO TESTS OF NEW AMP COMING. BE PATIENT
~~~ANNOUNCEMENT~~~
HELLO EVERYONE, If you did, or did not, see the announcement in the blog window at the beginning of this website, here is some important information. My amp repair and building business is separate from Gerhart Guitars. Sherlin Gerhart was gracious enough to allow me to have my own pages on his website in exchange for building the website. I am moving more into the custom amp business, and Gerhart Guitars is fully booked with guitar business. This means they will no longer be taking in amp repairs at this location. I will be doing repairs for repeat customers and referrals. My phone number is posted in the contact page. PLEASE DO NOT CALL THE GERHART GUITARS NUMBER ABOUT AMPLIFIERS. Thank you all for trusting Sherlin Gerhart for your guitar needs and me for you amplifier and electronic needs.
REPAIR, RESTORATION, TUNING AND MODIFICATION OF GUITAR AMPLIFIERS.
~~~Specializing in tube amplifiers. We repair vintage and new tube amplifiers and can do a variety of mods for tone and touch sensitivity.
NEWS
Check out the craziest guitar wiring below. One volume, one tone, one blend pot for pickups 1 and 3, plus a six-way freeway switch for pickup selection. I had to route out the guitar for fat 8 conductor sheilded cable. I made the custom terminal strip, and the polished stainless cover plates.
HOVER FOR INFO. CLICK FOR LARGE IMAGES
SOME THOUGHTS FROM THE GEEK ZONE
I love what I do and I never stop learning. I am always searching for better tone in electric guitars and amps. I included my musical background in my qualifications because I know what it’s like to have a repair tech say the guitar or amp is fixed, but it does not play or sound like it should. If the tech does not play guitar at a fairly high level, and have some kind of ear training, he may not understand what you are asking.
So my search has been to understand the relationship between the player and the guitar and amp. If you are a sloppy player, then a cheap guitar and amp may seem fine for you, because it will blur over mistakes and make everything sound the same, but it will also limit your progress in playing better.
If you have been playing a few years, or are pursuing a high level of skill in your playing, then you will appreciate guitars and amps that are sensitive to touch and dynamics. You will appreciate being able to make the guitar talk, and growl, and scream just by your playing technique. To get the best of this, you will need good pickups set up correctly, a good tube amp, and not a lot of foot pedals.
I just saw a 2018 article about Joe Bonamassa. He has gotten rid of almost all his foot pedals and uses 2 Dumble amps and 2 tweed Fender twin amps. It’s a big sweet tone, very touch sensitive. If you, like most of us, can’t afford a Dumble amp, there are many old vintage tube amps that sound really good, and can be purchased for less than some of the new amps. They need some maintenance maybe every ten years or so and they will last a lifetime.
Having said all that, I can fix most anything in electronics, with the catch being, some things are not cost effective to fix. What I hope I can do for you is help you get the most out of what you have, or help you decide if you should upgrade. I can even build an extremely high quality tube amp from scratch, tuned to your playing style. That last option is very expensive, very time consuming, and not for everyone.
But on the other end of that scale are some of the newer amplifiers that are so poorly built that they can’t be repaired. Some are even made so they can’t be disassembled with out damaging critical parts. This has led famous repair techs in Los Angeles, New York, and Nashville to have a “no fix list” of amps they will not work on. Sadly, I must agree with this, since these amps either can’t be fixed economically, or will soon break and need repair again.
We will be happy to take a look at anything, and either fix it better than it ever was, or advise you if it’s not wise to spend any money on.