Chicagoland Area Amp repair

[tonymustang302]

Alright chicagoland guys.

My other guitarist was telling me about a guitar and amp repair center that is ABOVE par to any other place in chicagoland. The place is chicago guitar and amp repair.

chicagoguitarandamplifier.com

I'm trying him out with my RM100 head (putting KT88's in position 1 and 4), and led lighting on the head, plus just checking it out.

If you want someone that knows their **** and will put the quality and exceptional service into your gear you need to check them out. It's a small shop that is owned by 2 guys that are super cool. The amp tech was talking to me on how people have no clue on what it takes to make an amp perfectly biased.....showed me the frequency wave that is perfect and what other peoples are like (making their amps sound like crap). I didn't believe him til the guitarist turned on his 5150 that has work done there. Just the basic, retubed with 6l6's, and different pre-amp tubes and it blew me away. My Randall combined with his tone was awesome. His amp sounded like the most disgustingly heavy thing you can think of, and HE WASNT BOOSTING IT.

Now for the Luthier at the shop. I played the guitarist Edwards LES PAUL custom (which was turned into a custom) and it played like a dream. All the luthier did was a fret dress, set-up. I;m telling you this guitar played like a $30,000 les paul.

I gave them my RM100 and my ESP horizon and will let you know what you how it went, but just from what i've seen on other peoples gear...I will not ever take my **** anywhere but there.

I already have custom stuff I want to do to my ESP Horizon when it gets back and have 3 other guitars waiting for him.

The prices are awesome so check them out if you want your guitar set-up....if you want a full out custom guitar, or you need your amp worked on/diag'd, or just modded.

Tony H.

P.S. This isn't an endorsment, i'm just rec. to you guy's thebest thing for your rigs....

 

[kbause]

I used to practice over there and had considered going there, but I never really needed to, thanks for the heads up I'll keep them in mind.

 

[Julia]

Tony, did the 5150 guy have the bias mod done on it? Just curious.

 

[tonymustang302]

Tony, did the 5150 guy have the bias mod done on it? Just curious.

No his 5150 is just biased hotter alla the amp repair place. They REALLY know their ****. I'm telling you, this thing lays down the law at only level 8 on the gain setting without a boost with a OD. I have my gain at noon on but I boost it with a custom OD pedal ( drive at 0, level at half ) and he's almost as gainy as me....but, thats with a Pete modded recto which is gainier then my ultra. I'll see how he does with my amp, but i'm sure it will sound amazing just from what he told me on how he checks the frequency wav over all the tubes to make sure it's perfect.

 

[Julia]

I've been thinking about picking up an old oscilloscope to do that with as well. Check his bias when you get the amp home. Write down the numbers. I've found tubes like to drift a bit for a few days. That way you can tweak back to them.

My Peavey has a fixed bias. There's an easy bias mod an amp tech may do if the owner wants it biased hotter, otherwise you just pop in a new set of tubes. My tech at Sound West in Tacoma does this "trick" with the 5150s and told me to bring mine in anytime I wanted it done.

 

[tonymustang302]

Alright, I got my guitar and RM100 back. Quite honestly, i'm absolutely dumbfounded at the amazing job the luthier did with my guitar. I've never in my life had a guitar set-up so perfectly. The thing is amazing. They're quality and craftsmanship is amazing and botht he owners are cool as hell, felt like I was hanging out with my buddies. I played the guitar for about 30minutes trying to play something but my mind blanked at how crazy my horizon played.

Seriously guys, I payed less then $150 for a fret dress, complete set-up by a luthier, new strings, and sand down the back of the neck and believe me....i've had other guitar's setup for way more then couldn't even come close to this one. We talked about a complete custom from scratch guitar, custom inlay's, custom paint job, for really really good price. I priced the exact guitar out on ESP and they wanted $7,000.

The rm100 sounds disgusting with the KT88's in Position 1 and position 4. And it really livens up the low-end. The way he biased it totally changed my whole amp. It's just sound's so much better.

You guy's well never find anyone that can match their quality and prices ANYWHERE in chicago. I'm still in awe about how they turned a $550 guitar into a slaying machine with 13-62 gauge strings in Drop B

Tony H.