Roly, thanks so much for the wisdom and encouragement.
I'm really excited to be exploring this path... I have a bad habit of trying to get ahead of my personal learning curve and fly the plane before having learned how to properly sweep it, but I think that's natural for a lot of folks. Pacing is the key, as with everything else, I suppose.

@ Phatt: They have a weird design flaw where they run hot that's well known. I took off the valve cage and run an aux fan at all cimes. Tone wise, it's an absolute beast for a 112 but I'm aware of the overheating issues some units have. Per internet chatter, they seem to categorize themselves as either problem children or reliable on a unit to unit basis. We shall see how this one works. So far, it's a gem but as noted, I do run an aux fan just to be safe.

Boy, that's a heckuva informative welcome!  :dbtu: :dbtu:

Thanks so much guys!

I'm ordering the books suggested in the stickied thread. Still learning about the theoretical stuff.

My main objective is to be able to maintain my Roland JC120s in the event they ever have an issue. The new Chinese ones are very cheaply made and sound a good bit different compared to the old Japanese ones and I couldn't imagine having to try to find replacements after having these for so long.

Also, just knowing how to do basic stuff on amps, man, what a goldmine. This local craigslist ad:



Where I wound up buying a Marshall JTM 30



... for a whopping $35, just because it needed a contact cleaned

Hi everyone 

Seems like a great forum. Amps are my great weakness in the never-ending gear chase  :lmao:

I'm interested in learning more about how to do basic repairs and the like. I've arrived at the point where I can take stuff apart and clean contacts (which is a shockingly consistent way to bring a lot of discarded stuff right back to service) but would like to learn more about how to do more advanced stuff. I'm a pretty high level woodworker, have built a few acoustic and electric instruments, but the amp side of things is new to me, even though amps are really a passion.

Anyway, I've rambled enough. Thanks for the forum. Hope to learn a lot.