Re: Which tube expert can do custom works?



"Tynan AgviÐr" wrote:

And I will die 1,000 death's defending your right to free speach,
but if I disagree with you its not a big deal, eh?

Of course not, Mr. Turner. I do want you to see where I am coming from,
though.

xists!

Something like what you want is much more complex than a normal
preamp, and its a one-off, so expect the price to be several times
whatever range of
preamp prices you see, so maybe between $1,000 and $5,000.

Yes, sir. I realize that. I knew it wouldnt be for peanuts. Nothing I
have that is any good was not created cheap.


.

But what if you end up having a lot of us argue about the best way to
do it
for a month and you have only $500 to spend?


Sir, I guess there have been a lot of people that have taken advantage of
certain people's kindness here, and I realize that this tendency to be
guarded/defensive is not without reason... Let me state this, I dont want
anything done for cheap, and I certainly didnt want anyone to argue.

I have never been knighted by the Queen, even though she's the official
head of state
for the Commonwealth of Australia.

So there's no need to call me "Sir", although I don't mind.

I am just a bloke, right?

I
had hoped that someone would mention a name of a contact with whom I
could work. That is how I normally get steered to service type people..I
guess not here. This trolling nonsense..I dont understand.

Trolling and time wasting and off topic bickering bitching occupies 95%
of the content
of most public non moderated news groups. For an extreme example of
crapological communications,
subscribe to soc.men, or soc.women.

All the axes used by nearly all posters have blood dripping off them.

This place is good compared to curmudgeon dominated other groups where
mainly grumpy old fartarses obscure meaning to life.




What am I
stealing by asking for names? I dont want schematics. I dont want build
advice, I know exactly what I want(well I guess Graham and Rudy helped me
clear up a couple of issues with terminology, etc). I wanted a referral
name or perhaps someone from these ranks to say they could work with me
(for payment).
What's in it for any of us?

Well, money is the most obvious answer. But satisfaction of helping
another human being is a collateral benefit. I realize in these trying
times that simply helping others doesnt account for ***. How many folks
get a buzz out of extending a helping hand/no strings attached? I know I
do, but perhaps that is a subconscious need for me to somehow make up for
the lives I ruined in the mideast/southeast asia/africa..and not any
indicator of the type of person I am..anyway.

I don't know anyone who could help you other than Tim DeParavicini, Andy
Grove,
and other well know designers. Give these guys an email and ask who else
would do it if you think Tim's or Andy's hourly rate a bit too high...
!

Ive never done business that way, and
dont intend on ever doing it that way.

I think everyone here would realise that you would negotiate privately
about the actual agreed sum if you wanted to.

(Yes, I would..I still hope to work with someone here)

I had hoped someone would contact
me(and they have) , do a little brain storming with those expert
brains of theirs, get back to me with a figure and some scenario of
what they could do, yadda yadda. And lets work it out.. as for the
things you said.. *ive* never known any expert do do business in
that manner.

To prepare a prospective schematic neatly drawn up in MS paint is a
full day or two's work,
but I ain't got time now.


Sir, I dont expect a schematic. I dont want one. I just wanted a name of
someone who does this sort of thing so that I could make a phone call. If
such a person is here, that would be nice too. I do enjoy all the
discussion here though(infighting aside)

Maybe someone else has the time and will go all public about the
design to give the
whole world something, not just have you being the sole beneficiary of
the work.

You may not actually end up buying anything. Many people are saying
thay want this or that
and want to pay for it but after lots of discussion they get nothin.
Shop assistants call them tyre kickers.


I understand that skepticism..but I certainly will buy something.if I
dont find someone here or out and about I will have to buy used or mass
produced(which I dont want, but a man has to have tools to work with). I
have been multi-tracking for years, but I want to go back to how I worked
when I first began, ie mixing down to 2 in real time. Sounds better that
way in my opinion.

You have an admirable ambition, to be sure.

But I though Manley Labs would about make what you want.

Who cares if you ain't their only customer and they mass produce?

Just imagine what a Mercedes Benz would cost if only one a year was
made!



Well let's see if you get your design fully fleshed out for nothing.


I dont want to fucking flesh a design out. I want to tell someone what I
want and have them build it!

But unless a design is thought about, proposed, schematicked up, then
argued about for awhile
until all get sick of it, then it hasn't been designed here, because
here
is where a lot of brainy ppl hang out along with the usual crop of
trolls, nit pickers and BS artists.


What is this "nothing" bull***?? I will pay for fucks sake. So lets stop
talking about getting work for nothing, eh? Ive said over and over and
over and over what I want, why are some not hearing??

Because its mainly a diy group whose existance is sustained by technical
talk about tube operated sound equipment.

I am not a true diyer because I sell what I make after doing much as
possible myself,
and I share that experience as I go along.

Very Very FEW other tradesmen like myself have enough facility with
english to
explain all as they proceed, and even fewer actuually want to talk about
their work
or anything complex at all to anyone.

I could say i was a professional, but a true pro has letters after his
name from doing a uni course,
and operates a proper established business with employees and makes both
a wage and profit.
They often like to charge what a tradesman will charge, then add an
extra nought to the fee.
Dentists for example dig holes and fill them in again but charge a pile
more than I do.

Anyway, I have chosen to convert a hobby and interest and passion into
what I consider a trade.
Winding OPT is a trade, not a profession, ditto chassis metalwork and
finishing.
However, when I design something, out comes the calculator, and on goes
the
engineer's hat, and I become the brains person; maybe that makes me a
pro by de-facto means...



I want someone to work with me. I want to pay them....Is that clear
enough?

Tell me, Mr. Turner. What is the correct way to approach this? I am
anxious to know.

You have asked who could design AND build something, and drawn a blank.

The few ppl out of many who stay here solely for the sake of tube craft
are not prolific makers of gear; its mainly a hobby for most of them.
Pros or tradesmen tend to stay well clear of the likelyhood of
being roundly attacked by trolls or charlatans were they to turn up here
to take part, hence her is where you will never see the boss of ARC,
Conrad Johnson, Manely Labs,
Quad, VAC, McIntosh, and many othes.

Email these companies and outline your design aims.
Ask them under what conditions and price would they make something for
you.

They design and manufacture tubed audio gear, and although I said I
didn't know anyone,
I meant that I didn't know anyone personally.
Well, maybe there's one exceptio; I have had pleasant email exchanges
with Eve-Anna Manley, the boss
os Manley Labs who helped me service some of her designs purchased by
locals here in Canberra.


Meanwhile I have real work to perform or I starve.

as do I. Ive got a toddler , a wife, a mortgage, a farm, and my own grad
degree to cover.

If I had a young family, a wife to keep and a loan to repay after
getting a degree,
and mortgage on a property, there is NO WAY I could be doodling along
like I am in my
late middle age designing and building custom masterpiece amplifiers and
repairing every man's broken tube gear.

I am getting by on less than USD $6,000 taxable per annum.
I'm not married, the house is all paid for, and have no loans to repay.
People like what I make a lot, but they want to pay less than half the
price
for the equivalent item they see in the shops or on the Net.
Because what I make is one-of-a-kind and special, I should get at least
twice the
ARC or Conrad Johnson price, or about 4 times what I get now.
But if I charged a higher price there'd be even fewer customers.
Most customers i do have come to me out of desperation because there is
nowhere else to go
for a decent repair by someone who is a real guru.
Then they realize what i can do when they hear music through their
re-engineered amp
or the repaired amp, and they wonder what else I could sew together for
them...
Some abuse the personal trust/friendship they try to establish by
expecting me to
work for almost nothing.
Last year a guy I'd known for 7 years and who i did regard as a friend
told me to get lost when I sounded him out about a 1958 all tubed Harmon
Kardon
receiver he left here for repair and rebuilding. Its a major amount of
work to
re-engineer something like this and a minimum is usually $500, and I
might take a fortnight
to do the work, including re-design of crummy circuit techniques that
were routinely used by most famous shitmakers of 1958.
I said he only wanted to pay $200, and then he said the friendship was
over.
It is unbecoming of a bloke when he acts like a bitch, but its the real
world!
Good riddance to him because I have other many friends who can mix
friendship
and business without expecting to rip me off.
The HK receiver gathers dust in my shed and I don't care a hoot about
it.
I have to shop for the best payers or I starve.


So during the last 14 years of survival without much income
I concluded that the guy who told me I'd really do well commercially
with a website
was a complete BS artist, and that building a business on a niche market
product everyone loves but hates to pay for
meant financial suicide, and so I have stayed single, and so frugal of
habit it'd be impossible
to expect anyone to share a life with me. But I actually like frugality,
and transport for fun by bicycle, and don't want or need most of the
junk forsale in the shops....

I also concluded that if I couldn't be rich, I'd be be the one to know
more about most
tube audio related matters and so I gradually put together my website
for the betterment of
anyone wanting to visit the site.
I removed product prices I initially had, thus forcing anyone to talk to
me if they wanted prices.
I don't like dealing with anyone with whom I cannot get on with
personally
or financially.
There are fuctards who expect I work for lower prices than what are the
lowest priced Chinese crap...

So you see where I come from, not from Planet X, but from
Mother Earth, whose sons and daughters are a vexatious fuckin lot to be
sure.

Patrick Turner.
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