Mark fixes amp and repairs skip guitar

[Arpangel]

He never ceases to amaze.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udFiqhe3vII

[zenguitar]

Please, don't just post a YouTube link with at best a meaningless one liner. This is something that has annoyed me for years, and I have been patiently biting my tongue for almost as many years having stopped complaining about it.

Tell us who the hell Mark is, why on earth I might want to discover what he is doing, and why you think it might be of interest.

Andy

[Wonks]

A Hondo like that deserves to be skipped and not rescued.

[Arpangel]

Very predictable replies.

[zenguitar]

It's not unreasonable to have concerns over being invited to click on a random link on the internet.

You won't see it because we have processes to prevent spam as much as possible. But sometimes we have to disapprove posts that consist mainly, or entirely, of a link to another web site. When we disapprove those posts we have to point out that a forum is a place to have a conversation and not a noticeboard to hold links.

With a little thought you can see how members posting links in the same way makes it that much harder for the mods.

However, your unthinking response is typically predictable on your part.

Andy

[N i g e l]

He never ceases to amaze.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udFiqhe3vII

by which you mean his fitting a strap to the guitar at ~ 19:30 ?

[Exalted Wombat]

Tell us who the hell Mark is, why on earth I might want to discover what he is doing, and why you think it might be of interest.

Andy

Haven't you come across 'Mend It Mark'? His videos are most interesting.

[zenguitar]

Tell us who the hell Mark is, why on earth I might want to discover what he is doing, and why you think it might be of interest.

Andy

Haven't you come across 'Mend It Mark'? His videos are most interesting.

Never heard of him, and I very rarely venture anywhere near YouTube. I spend enough of my time on the SOS fora as it is !!

Andy

[Eddy Deegan]

Very predictable replies.

That's unlike you Tony - I hope you're not having a bad day. As Andy said, we get a lot of would-be spammers trying to inject commercial and/or promotional material into the forum. 99+% of them don't make it through; you never get to see it, but we're all human and the relentless attempts to break through our moderation wall takes its toll on all of the moderators.

You wouldn't believe the number of hours spent behind the scenes checking and double-checking questionable posts, using various 3rd party sites to manually vet IP email and IP addresses with a view to figuring out if they're legit or not. Sometimes even if they are legit we still block them because they're breaking the 'no promotion' rule, and often it's a hard call to make.

How you guys can really help is to provide context for, say, a youtube link in order to maintain the integrity of the forum "spirit of discussion" as opposed to turning it into a noticeboard. The reason it really helps isn't because we don't trust you, rather it's because it provides a consistent quality backdrop against which we can judge bad actors.

I'm breaking the 4th wall here I know, but I completely understand where Andy is coming from and would encourage you as a friend and forum regular to help us help you and all that.

Did you get your tree sorted out, by the way? If not then I might be able to come up and do it for you this weekend coming. Let me know

[Arpangel]

However, your unthinking response is typically predictable on your part.

Andy

You’ve made your point.

[FrankF]

This is a guitar forum. Chappie posts a YT link about guitars and amps. It takes 2 seconds to check a link's provenance without even clicking it.

Just because you don't like YT (there's a first), doesn't mean you couldn't have opened the link and seen that it was someone called "Mend it Mark", someone who seems to have quite a following, yet you, with a name like Zenguitar, have never heard of him. Not very zen, in my opinion. Would it have been too much trouble for you to add the two words "mend it" to Arp's title?

[zenguitar]

It is not the role of moderators to preview or review links. And I would point out that I never said I didn't like YouTube, just that I make little use of it.

And it is not unreasonable to ask members to show a little consideration when posting a link; to do readers the courtesy of explaining what they are linking to and why it might be of interest.

Andy

[Hugh Robjohns]

I'm still trying to figure out what amazed Tony in that video?

I saw an awful lot of screws and nuts being undone and replaced ad nauseum.

The cause of the amp fault was never identified, it just miraculously mended itself.

Although there was an opportunity to explain the amp circuitry and how to work through it for fault-finding, that wasn't taken.

Discharging the HT cap was sensible, but he didn't explain how he did that, either.

Restringing the guitar was tedious, and other than bodging the nut, nothing of amazement there either.

So I'm at something of a loss as to why I should be amazed?

[N i g e l]

He never ceases to amaze.

I only skimmed it but @ ~ 0:19:30 he fits a guitar strap.
Either Ive been doing it wrong or this is an amazing new on trend fashion which we all must follow.

It didnt really inspire my confidence.

[James Perrett]

Mend It Mark always seems quite entertaining except when he's working on a piece of gear that I know something about. He's obviously a good general service engineer who knows more about domestic gear than he does about the kind of gear that we talk about here. He sometimes makes strange assumptions and basic errors that anyone who knows the gear would be able to fix straight away. Yes, it maybe makes entertaining viewing if you know nothing about the subject but he also propagates misinformation as well.

[adrian_k]

Well I have to say I’m with Zen, random links with no context are of no interest to me. And I’ve been playing guitar for 50 years and never heard of this chap.

And I’m not sure about this:

…

It takes 2 seconds to check a link's provenance without even clicking it.

…

I’m not sure how I would check the provenance of the following link on my phone. There might be a way but it’s not like being on a laptop where you can hover over it to check.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udFiqhe3vII

Warning - don’t click it unless you want to end up somewhere unpleasant (but perfectly safe).

[N i g e l]

Warning - don’t click it ...

[Sam Spoons]

I really want to click that link now

[Wonks]

It takes you to the Daily Mail.

Adrian can be a right bastard at times.

[Hugh Robjohns]

There once was a BBC engineer who had a lovely wooden box on his desk with a big red button and a small display screen.

The screen normally displayed the message "DO NOT PRESS BUTTON"

If you were foolish enough to ignore this sage advice the display changed to:

"RELEASE TO DETONATE"

[Sam Spoons]

Did he also wear a teeshirt with "I'm a bomb disposal expert, if you see me running... Try to keep up"?

[BillB]

Mark amazed me when he fixed an Elka Synthex without knowing the difference between an LFO and a DCO. Just basic electronics servicing, no idea what was in his hands apart from that it was 'valuable'.

[Random Guitarist]

I hate the way he's opening up the amp and touching the board with no comment/warning up front about lethal voltages, it seems like the back comes off and then he starts touching things. I'm sure he's qualified and capable, but not viewers will be.

[BillB]

I’m waiting for Nathan to turn up and say how much he hates his irrepressible cheerfulness

[ef37a]

Re "things on desks" Hugh, the senior engineer where I started in R&TV servicing had a big old 16uF 500V cap displayed prominently on his bench and he had soldered wire rings around it so that it was impossible to pickup without connecting to both ends. He would charge it up with a 500V megger*.

Rarely more than a few days would pass before someone would pick the cap up followed by a loud expletive and the cap hitting the ceiling!

*For you young'uns? A megger was a special type of continuity meter that used a high voltage to test insulation. The voltage was generated by winding a handle, similar to old phones. Modern meggers use a DC-DC up converter.

Dave.