NTechD - Starlogic

lukedlb

I just had the pleasure to meet and deliver two amps, a Marshall Artiste and an old Italian El84 combo (think Binson), a leslie control pedal, and a noisy overdrive pedal to a tech recommended by a friend.
Before you all get excited about a new amp/pedal tech, he's only local to me... in Bologna... in Italy.
Mr Rambaldi will be my fourth tech after having suffered some unfortunate repair experiences with the others. This gentlemen, who was hard at work inside an Italian amp with an onboard analogue echo unit, was welcoming, happy to let me try out one of his own amps and finally lent me a blues breaker type pedal of his own make to try out at home. His workshop was divided into two spaces with all the equipment any decent amp builder should possess. He left me a receipt for the goods and made it clear that he would maintain the amp without any sign of a glue gun.
These are his amps:
https://www.rambaldiamplificatori.com
and this is his repair shop:
http://www.starlogic.it/indexnocookie.html

I'll keep you posted on any developments. A quick try on the blues breaker pedal before my family warned me to keep the noise down was indeed excellent. I'll give it a proper go at some volume far from family later today.

lukedlb

A long summer with an overworked tech meant that I’ll be seeing the artiste again soon. The bias circuit fried the power tubes so replacements and fixing the problem will mean a couple of hundred euros. 

lukedlb

Output transformer fried on the italian 1x12 combo. The tech is going to try and re-wind it.

Winny_Pooh

The amps look nice

lukedlb

Winny_Pooh said:

The amps look nice

Judging by how busy he is, he must be getting orders. I’ll take my strat next time to properly try his amps. The quick play I had with his telecaster sounded lovely, especially the trem and reverb. 

lukedlb

Both amps are home. The tech did a good job on the Artiste. My god, it's loud. I've only ever used earlier p2p models. The printed circuit boards have a different volume control: the sweep is all at the beginning and goes from loud to very loud in the space of 4; the rest is just open. Another major difference is the second channel: it's much more marshall voiced, plus it doesn't allow bridging of the channels. Whereas the p2p models have a full volume control sweep and allow channel bridging. This is helpful as the 2nd channel is very dark, however much bass you omit.
The big surprise is just how amazing pedals work with it. So much headroom. Drive sounds incredible. Tube screamer stays open. Incredible stuff.
The Italian combo is home too. In the end, the transformer couldn't be rewound, so the tech put one of his to-spec transformers from his amp line inside. He was very generous with asking only cost price and no labour. 
I put the alnico 12 speaker back inside and it plays as he described: very much of the 60s with a little too many highs. Plugged into the instrument jack instead of the guitar jack, the bass and mids are restored, yet the high attack remains. However, once the tremolo is activated, the acidic attack is less. Any my does that tremolo sing. Such a simple circuit and really beautiful. Sounds almost harmonic in its vocality. Easily the strength of the amp. The 15 watt is loud and goes into distortion as it passes the mid point on the volume dial. Here the acidity punishes the drive. Reducing the tone helps. I might have to experiment. Perhaps a darker speaker. Its tolex on the cabinet has been painted over grey and in daylight doesn't really look pretty. So I could remove the tolex and varnish the wood. Who knows what it'll look like. 
Although the wait was a little longer than I had hoped for, it's good to know there is a real amp tech in town. I asked if he teaches amp building like Rift amps and he told me January 2020. We shall see.