Possibly relocating.

[tekbow]

No Am not selling stuff.

But I am thinking ahead, where I'm going to be living will be in the north of Romania, small regional capital, talking a town smaller than edinburgh.

Beautiful clean, modern place, but the cost of living is much lower, therefore people get paid a lot less, so accordingly, certain luxury goods are unavailable, and as a consequence, support for those goods is harder to obtain.

Basically, no high end guitar shops, or guitar shops with high end stuff in them. I found one decent one that had a second hand Jem 7V, but everything else was Chinese Squires (nothing wrong with them) and Tranny amps.

Am thinking i may have to be more self sufficient in terms of my guitars and amps, and am trying to think of ways to do this.

I've never done my own setups, this is the first thing i want to learn. I have an old japanese squire that i can practice on. Not a problem. I have a copy of this:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Books,_plans/Building_and_repair:_Guitar,_electric/Guitar_Player_Repair_Guide.html

And i also saw Stew Mac do this:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Measuring_tools/Basic_Setup_Kit.html?actn=100101&xst=4&xsr=1

Does anyone know of a UK equivalent of stew mac that might sell something similar?

Also, thinking on maintaining the amp, I can either drive to austria and hope someone knows their way around a Soldano, or, i was thinking of having this installed

http://www.musicradar.com/gear/guitars/amplification/amplification-accessories/tubesync-divo-ov4-400267

which should take the stress out of tube changes.

Any other materials i can get online and sent down, it's the actual physical maintenance of everything I'm trying to get a grip on and be self sufficient in. Anyone else have any ideas/suggestions on things i should learn, or think about?

[Slartibartfarst42]

I've also been looking at becoming a little more self-sufficient in terms of guitar maintainance so I'm also interested in some ideas for tools and references. It's always seemed to me that there's more ability and knowledge on this forum than any other forum I've ever been associated with so I'm hopeful we can get some good suggestions. Feline Guitars might have some good ideas. So far, all I can add is that You Tube can provide some decent videos on setting up a guitar and a quick search on Ebay for luthier tools brought up a range of equipment, much of which may not be needed if you know what you're doing. There was a latin guy on You Tube (Mexico I think) who had some good videos on different aspects of setting up a guitar and there was a guy on Ebay selling a set of tools that came with what looked like a very detailed guide. Unfortunately, I'm at work at the moment and don't have access to Ebay so I can't give you links but it was easy enough to find.

I hope someone pitches in with more help as I'd also like to learn this.

[Kiichi]

Man, those setup kits look helpful indeed. Gotta see to get one of those myself. I do my own setups but all I use are screwdrivers, allen wrenches and a small piece of paper with a millimeter graph paper. Works out too, but I can really see those tools making it easier. Most of it ends up being less scientific and more moving things around until they feel nice anyhow for me (which has not yet gotten me complaints from friends I did a setup / clean / restring for).^^ Yet I always strive to improve and those might help.

[Dmoney]

Regarding biasing and such... I think you might just be better off with a bias tester like the one from weber or a bias probe attachment for a good multimeter. A good multimeter is always handy.

If you have something like that then biasing is easy and you'll get used to opening up your amp and seeing inside while being relatively safe. While I'm sure the Divo works, amps have been around for a long time without that device and working in what I would say are reasonably reliable ways. I wouldn't get that fitted to a soldano. At the MOST i'd get the Orange valve tester so I could test my own valves on the occasion I feel they may be suspect.

Non of this is hard, but having the correct tools to make you feel comfortable will make you safe. No point getting an expensive multimeter and jumping in at the deep end touching probes on 500V points if you're going to shake like a leaf while you do it (like I did when I did that stuff for the first time!)

Most stuff I know about amps now, stems from not being able to afford to go to a tech and having to learn how to maintain my own kit... and I'm a idiot... so it can be done!

[tekbow]

Thanks for the replies guys, Dmoney, you've hit on a point I'm particularly concerned by. The reason I'm looking at the Divo is it's non invasive (no holes, no permanent changes) I don't have to worry about matched pairs or anything like that, AND i can try different power valves out without having to modify the amp, at least, so the reading of theiir literature would have me believe. I think that others fitting say EL34's to soldano's have had to make resistor changes and mods that I'm just not competent to.

I'm also concerned about sticking my hands into a tube amp with power supplied to it.. I'm really not qualified in anyway to do things like that.

I read about some issues with the bias rite recently, are there other similar instruments that perform the same function?

[Dmoney]

the bias rite measures the current drawn at the cathode of the valve. All it's doing is inserting a 1ohm resistor between the valves cathode and ground and by measuring the voltage across that resistor you get the idle current. The 1ohm resistor makes it so 1mV equals 1mA so the maths is simple. That resistor needs to be rated adequately. I never had an issue with mine.

Tube town sell ready made probes that plug into a multimeter to do the same thing. You just need to set the multimeter to read volts. These only measure the idle current though and not the plate voltage, which is the other half of the bias equation. The Weber things give you both.

When you mentioned the Divo I thought you meant getting the tubesync thing transplanted into the amp (very invasive) rather than the external bias engine. My concerns about the divo would be if the height of the extra sockets between your valves and the top of your amps chassis leave enough clearance to get the valves in and out... remember the valve pins have to get in there too before you seat them in the socket. I wouldn't be into removing the chassis because I don't have the clearance to install the valves with the chassis in place. Also when it comes to swapping in "any" valve, I believe you'd still have to think about current draw on the filaments, maximum plate voltage a valve my like, and space available between valves.

[Slartibartfarst42]

Home now so here are the links to some of the things I found on Ebay. It may be of help to you and I'd be grateful if anyone could equally tell me if any of it is a better buy or a waste of money  :D

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/170747038907?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/130890216986?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/140907329240?var=440098318178&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181130747349?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181131780139?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

Hope that helps.