02/06/2026
378 is not always joyful and flawless.
Sometimes between the days of maximum volume I have also days of complete silence. Mostly because of the 378 things in my head all at once.
Today I had a service repair of this awesome prototype of cultisT. After 1,5 year it showed one cold solder joint. Touch of hot iron fixed it. (changed the front panel and added green k***s & brackets too)
But it is not always so fast and easy.
I remember customers telling me about broken tubes at arrival (3 times), wrong bias (first 7 amps I ever did), microphonic 12AX7, lost transformers (I have to refund the customer, UPS just lost the package), wrong part (instead of 25k pot it was 250k), faulty tube socket (factory), too small capacitors (blew), faulty electrolytic capacitors (blew in my face, factory error, yes), red plating tube after half a year of usage (sent new quad), wrong color of k***s, broken pot.
And I had one return. Just because amp... was too loud for home use :)
Everything above makes me more focused and patient. Check the spreadsheets again, voltages one more time, play the amp just before packing.
I know it takes a lot of time with these. I would love to put them one by one asap. I have to say my record (this is by faaar worst) was 3,5 years of making one amp. The client had all time in the world and patience. I couldn't find the problem with the amplifier.
What was it? One pin in preamp socket was not cramped from the factory. Tube's pin wasn't touching the socket... And I did resolder this amp like 7 times :D One squeeze with pliers fixed it. The amp was working 2 years before that, I just didn't know tube sockets can be faulty too.
That's 378.
56 amplifiers out in the world.
From USA, Australia, Germany, France, Malaysia, Poland, UK, Italy and so on.
Thank you all! That was a long one.
See you all at the sunn O))) gigs, I am the stage tech/amp service there.
- Piotr
