AER Repair and Service in the States

Jim Kaznosky

It has been a minute since I've posted here. My AER took a cup of expresso to the top right before a gig. While I was able to get through a few gigs with it, i am definitely hearing it slowly lose power and need some service. I've reached out to AER in Europe but have heard nothing. Does anyone know anywhere in the States that services these? East coast would be great but i'll send it anywhere within reason.

Thanks in advance.

Twang

Maybe try calling a local dealer with an account with AER. My guess is they will know who to contact.

Jim Kaznosky

Yep. There is dealer that owns this forum, hence me posting here. I'll call Michael tomorrow, but I'm posting to see if there are other suggestions.

Jim Kaznosky

AER responded to me. Doug (info below) set me up with someone nearby who will likely be able to help me out.

Contact is:

Douglas E. Nestler

CEO – Music Ship LLC

phone:  215-272-5198 

website:  www.musicship.com

email:  [email protected]  

Doug responded very quickly. 

murrayatuptowngaller

I'm curious how this worked out.

A friend dropped his Compact 60/3 or a foreign object collided with it.

Two broken-off pots (shafts lost with the knobs, too...probably in the band-mobile) & one wobbly pot. Still works, sounds good, but not the same. I think the wobbly pot is the problem. Offered to take a look for him. E-mailed AER to ask if there was US service, or parts availability. Got a reply in less than an hour, being late evening in my time zone.

They didn't answer the question about US service but said they still had spare preamp boards & it was relatively easy to replace (knobs, hardware, disconnect cables, swap board, reverse steps).

About 3 more weeks to re-establish communication and get an 'offer' (quote/invoice).

No e-commerce; only bank transfers. (no PayPal, etc.) $75 fee at my local bank but they looked terrified like they had never done such a thing. PayPal's Xoom looked like a cheaper possibility, but they reported they are unable to do business, commercial or fundraiser (I think that was the word they used) internationally. What's left? Just personal-personal?

Second larger bank branch knew to send me to the silver-back boss with his own office. He started to suggest Western Union would be cheaper. I said if the bank could do it, let's just do it. No gambling with the knowledge of whatever employee is at the grocery store that offers Western Union services. I've spent more time figuring out how to get the board and pay for it than the repair will probably take.

USD:EU already dropped along with the stock market this week. That cost an extra US$30. Remains to be seen how Customs goes. I have NEVER had any problems with Customs other than incalculable delay. But if AER uses DHL it should be simple (fingers and eyes crossed).

Could there be anything else wrong? Yeah, but I doubt it. He plays with it 3-4 nights a week still. It just sounds different. Anything broken on the preamp board related to the controls would not be a surprising cause.

Hopefully, I can repair the old board as a spare. The wobbly pot could be a broken pot or damaged PCB. I have repaired PCB's on irreplaceable industrial equipment where there was no other option. I won't know until I look/try.

AER tells you where you can PURCHASE their product in your region, and they have a US website, but service support is only at the German email address. That seems to support the appearance of no US service option.

Charlie Castelluzzo

Lane Sparber in NYC is amazing. He fixed mine, granted I needed to order a part. Find him on Facebook and reach out. He charges very little and enjoys taking things apart. He may be slightly backed up at the moment but I'm not sure.

murrayatuptowngaller

I ordered the preamp circuit board and 2 replacement knobs from AER.

I replaced it and it works fine. That was a good idea because the amp was continuously on the road and the pots were actually all 'wobbly'. The pot shaft bushing 'frames' crimp around the insulated portion of the pots and those were looser than the new board's.

On the old board (2015) I saw no 'brand' name on the 12mm pots but figured out they were probably Bourns. They are not the same physical construction as 'conventional'. They have 4 and 6 PCB solder terminals plus right-angle solder brackets to support the solder terminals against physical stress. Some have a center detent the pot stops at ('0' center). The threaded pot bushings are not utilized...no nuts. So the pots are the Achilles Heel for long-term road use in a soft shoulder bag. The new board (2018) had a mix of the same kind and Alps-Alpine. This was helpful to know there were two suppliers of slightly-exotic (until identified) pots.

You can't substitute conventional pots since the right angle solder brackets are the only strain relief. I have only seen the 4 and 6 pin PCB pots a couple times in my random experience with Japanese A/V gear, but I did mostly industrial work. So those pots are just weird to me. The rotary FX switch is the only one with a metal shaft. Luckily that's not worn out.

I almost gave up on my idea I could replace the bad pots on the damaged board (for a spare). Other than the pots, switches and connectors, the board is otherwise surface mount components.

Finding the pot datasheets allowed me to identify the pot tapers. The first supplier I found the info on had almost no stock of that physical type of pot...most had a 1000 piece minimum order. The pots come in different shaft lengths and full-round or half-round (not split/splined) shaft types. That makes them essentially 'custom' because all the options and variations have to be defined to order It's still a game of chance that I will be able to define the full ordering part number for each pot and find a stocking distributor. The 2nd distributor seems to have stock of all the types I glanced at in the body style & size. It's not at all uncommon for spec-ordered components like pots to ONLY have the full spec/ordering part number on the box or paperwork. There isn't room on the pot body for 10-15 extra characters.

So I almost abandoned the idea of refurbishing the old board again, but my friend thought the new board sounded 'too clean'. I rolled my eyes & said 'AER-The Acoustic People'. We (regulars who come out to hear them weekly) had been marveling at the tone of his guitar with a recently-acquired original vintage Stimer S51. It had a more aggressive, or assertive, tone than the previous Kleio 47. Or so we thought. Apparently the old preamp board in its state of health with broken off pot shafts and loose wobbly pot brackets is a little distorted, in a good way. (Best attempt at describing its 'accent'.)

So he misses that tone (@#%^@&). He wants to know if I can fix the old board so he can have the edgy tone back. I said there's no guarantee I can order the parts (not ordering small-Euro stuff directly again because of the USD75.00 international fee) and we don't know why the preamp sounds different...is it deteriorating? If you didn't pick up on the previously-stated fact that AER factory doesn't do e-commerce, only bank transfer, that is inconvenient and more costly. & who knows about exchange rates & tariffs next time. USD-EU exchange rate dropped significantly one week while figuring this out.

He also didn't remember all his pot & switch settings (including FX and mic/line level pushbutton switch). So did get settled with it and is happy he has an acoustic-sounding AER...like it's supposed to be.

I don't like getting my butt kicked by an inanimate object. I am stubbornly going to try to identify the ordering number for every one of the pots and replace them all, if I can find them. I'm actually feeling more confident now I'm close. If I can, then we'll have to swap the preamp boards again to know if they sound the same. To either keep as a service spare, or somebody else drops a case of beer on their Compact 60/3. It's not for 60, 60/2, 60/4, etc.

Now you have an idea why some people sometimes don't work on some things...especially if they have to keep track of the labor. To me, it's kind of like staying up all night working on a puzzle...don't want to know how many hours went into it.

It took less time to do the repair, including some epoxy for a broken spot-welded threaded standoff and hot-glue AER used to secure cables, snap-in-modules, etc., than figuring out how to order it.

Now you know why it takes me so long to get anything done.

AER was very helpful. They made sure the model and s/n of the amplifier was something they had the correct preamp board for. It takes a while for transit. But I can only imagine if he had to ship the amp both ways to/from Germany, also pay a service fee, and figure out how to pay them.

But it was a success...maybe part suck-excess.

Total cost was $320, and I got paid back. That was 165.xx Euros for the new PCB, 10 Euros for the pair of matching knobs, 35 Euros shipping. The currency exchange rate and USD75 international transfer fee were on this side. Also discovered PayPal's Xoom international currency transfer service is prohibited from several categories of international transactions, including commercial, charitable and another I forgot. What good is it? Personal-personal money exchange.