Topic review

I've bought, sold, and serviced way more than 100 ST70 amps over the past 10 years, and wish I had a pile of photos showing how poorly some people ship their $500 amplifiers!!
If you throw an amp in a box of peanuts, there's a 99% chance it WILL be DAMAGED. If you pack it properly, their is a 99% chance it will NOT be damaged. Here are the instructions I've had posted on my web site for the past 10 years . . .
Packaging
All equipment sent to us for service must be shipped as follows:
(2) All equipment must be DOUBLE-BOXED with at least 1 inch
of cushion or foam between the inside box and the outside box, for each 25# of weight.
(if your amp weighs 35#, that's 1.5" all around each side, top, and bottom.
(3) Tubes must be removed from amplifiers and packed with the equipment wrapped in foam or bubble pack
(4) Please use "Fragile" or "Handle with Care" stickers on the box.
(5) You are responsible for providing insurance of the shipment for maximum value of your equipment.
(6) Use FedEx Ground (usually 25% less than UPS) or UPS Ground for shipment of anything weighing over 15#. It is OK to use the Post Office on lighter items (under 15#).

Exceptionally clever, Mike: one of those suggestions that is SO obvious when someone has the courtesy to mention it.

THANKS!

GP49 wrote:The other moral, of course, is to REALLY recheck your work, and not assume that you didn't make a mistake.

We all make mistakes.

The other moral, of course, is to REALLY recheck your work, and not assume that you didn't make a mistake.

We all make mistakes.

I had a customer who just could not find out why one channel did not work on his kit built amp while the other one worked great. After countless Emails I finally had him send the amp to me to determine what the issue was. As soon as the box arrived I could sense a problem because the amp was moving inside the box. I opened the box to find the amp had actually flipped on its side due to mainly poor (read that as loose) packing and probably some bad handling by UPS thrown in. As I took the amp out of the box I could see that the frame had bent near the front of the power transformer. Those transformers are heavy, have a lot of inertia, and if allowed to move around can generate a lot of force on the frame. I was able to bend the frame back fairly close to it's original shape by applying force from the inside of the frame with a wooden block and a hammer. It never got quite back to looking new. Sorry I don't have an "after" photo. It turns out that the problem with the amp was ONE connection to ONE resistor on the driver board. It HADN'T BEEN SOLDERED and was not making contact and therefore was not "in the circuit". I soldered the connection and the other channel on the amp worked fine.

The moral of the story is pack an amp tightly padded up with newspapers. DO NOT ever use styrofoam peanuts to pack an amp. They will not pack tightly enough to prevent motion of the amp inside the box. Another trick is to pack between the transformers with a BLOCK of styrofoam or newspapers packed tightly. This will stiffen up the transformer group and prevent a bent frame.

Bob