I am angry with myself. Amp purchase remorse...

[BobSimpson]

I bought a Silverface bassman from a guy off Reverb.
Described as:
>>>>>>>>
About This Listing
1969 Bassman
AA864 circuit
All new caps
New filter caps
Adjustable Bias

Beautiful cleans and Breaks up when cranked
>>>>>

A couple of grainy shots of the front, a couple of grainy shot inside, with some barefoot guys feet in them.

It arrived quickly enough. Packed in foam & old Serta Copper pillows. I threw that out immediately.
I unpacked it, and checked the fuse. 2A. Transformers all Q4 1969. So far, so good... Kinda. Tubes seemed to be packed ok.
Then the problems started.
One of the screws holding the amp in was bent. PITA to get that nut off. It was, of course, the last one I tried to remove.
When I got the head out I was surprised to see the .1 bass cap had blown one end off. Wire unattached to the cap. I've never seen that happen to a 715P orange drop before. Orange epoxy all over.

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Definitely does not sync with any AA864 schematic or layout I have. AC568 or AA270 neither. Somebody had fun with this one.
There was a steel sheet metal screw running around inside the chassis. I didn't find any missing anywhere, so this is an extra.

IMG_20200613_151750513_BURST000_COVER.jpg

A stripped 1/4" piece of wire tucked beneath the lamp socket. Pretty darn close to 2 red high tension wires going to the rectifier board.
Crappy soldering, lots of burned wire insulation from an iron. Strange wire. Small diameter. Maybe Teflon. I'll see later.
The bias wire from 220k resistor to V6 pin 5 was neatly cut in the middle. V5 was not. Not sure how this would work...

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Some kind of white spooge from the old power caps everywhere. ( Doghouse had the same stuff, kind of half removed. )
The list goes on. A .1 mid cap was removed, and rerouted to a pot on the back panel. Wire to ground disconnected from chassis. Kind of hanging in space... It takes a big iron to solder to the chassis. I'm going to take the whole mess out.

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I'm going to fix this POS, but I should have requested more pictures. Or something.
I'm kind of afraid to turn it on until it's all tested and repaired as necessary. Light bulb limiter coming out of storage.
As for "Beautiful cleans and Breaks up when cranked" I'm giving the guy room for doubt, but I would be very doubtful it was in this lifetime... Should have been sold as a parts amp...

I didn't get what I expected, but it serves me right. Now I have to spend time & some more money on this.
I could send it back, but it's here, and I don't want to start looking for another one. And the prices are stupid these days.
Time to get the iron out...
Maybe I should just part it out on ebay, one vintage piece at a time....

[Phil_S]

At the very least, contact the seller and ask (nicely) for a partial refund because:
1) Amp does not operate and was represented in good operating condition.
2) List of problems found -- doesn't need to be complete.
Remember, you get more with honey than with vinegar. With vinegar, you are pretty much assured of getting nothing. So, suck it up and play nice even though you may not want to. Propose a reasonable refund amount, maybe one-third of what you paid.

I have a short very recent ebay story that is on point, but not in the dollar range of this amp. I paid about $20 for an old stock OEM toner cartrigdge that was a dud. I contacted the seller to tell him I wouldn't be leaving any feedback because the item was a dud. It was in a sealed box. The inner bubble wrap seemed in tact. There was no pull tape and the toner was all over the place, which wouldn't be the case with a new sealed unit. Anyhow, without asking, he gave me a full refund. The point is some people have ethics and others don't. You should at least find out.

And there is no reason for remorse. It happened. It's over. Look a the bright side. You have a decent project to work on. Your glass is half full!

[xtian]

Was this a person-to-person sale, or brokered by eBay or Reverb.com? Reverb, especially, is easy to work with, and very pro-buyer.

[ChopSauce]

At the very least, contact the seller and ask (nicely) for a partial refund ...

I'd do that too but I'm not afraid of restoring and I find that marks of misuse/abuse are part of the charm of these old things ...

[BobSimpson]

You are probably right.
I paid this guy $572.00 money, marbles, shipping, and chalk.
Money I can afford, kind of. Not throw away.
I'm sure I could rely on Reverb and get at least partial credit.
I would have to turn around, and take on the next opportunity.

My own fault. I've bought, sold, and traded enough to know better.

Annoying though. Starting over on a deal is a dead waste of time and money...

[BobSimpson]

Reverb.com SUCKS!

That is all...

Bob

[xtian]

Reverb.com SUCKS!

That is all...

Bob

Huh. Care to share? I've had nothing but good experiences with the staff at reverb.com.

[MakerDP]

I've never had a lick of trouble with Reverb, but i don't sell there - only buy. Bought tons of stuff, most recently a Les Paul. Most sellers are more than happy to supply additional pics or even video clips if you let them know you are very interested and will buy if it all checks out. If not, I assume they are trying to hide something and I walk away and wait for another opportunity.

In the one instance I had an issue (seller wanted to quadruple the shipping costs after the sale) Reverb staff intervened and made sure the seller understood the acceptance of my offer was a binding contract and he honored the original terms of the sale very quickly. It was for an amp that I knew wasn't operational.

But I know there are horror stories out there too. Most of them are from sellers though. As someone previously stated, they are VERY pro-buyer and I don't think I would ever sell an amp there AT ALL. It's too easy for the buyer to lie and say the OT is blown or something and demand a partial refund, which Reverb will usually side with.