Hughes & Kettner Attax 80

It has a half closed back, which makes the sound much darker and "bigger" for such a small combo compared to an open back one like the Marshall. And playing it you can definitely tell.

It came in with reports of fuzzing out after playin it a while. Our first thought was filter caps, but they test out OK. I used to be very adamant about changing the electrolytic caps that were over 15 years old, now I'm not so sure.

Anyway, without testing it, we took it apart (there's really not that much to them) and tested the caps, which were fine, then looked at the PCB. It had that familiar old finish companies used to waterproof the boards. Works great, until they age, then the covering become conductive and creates shorts. We scrubbed as much as the lacquer off that we could and tried it out. After playing it for hours (which was a blast, BTW) we find no issues with it. One thing we will need to make in the very near future, is a "sound cage" so we can turn up the volume. In my older days, folks five houses down used to be able to hear me play. I'm a tad more empathetic these days.

Status: Will take back to Guitarma Saturday (8 April) and let the owner take another test drive. If no issues, only the bench fee will be charged. If it still fuzzes out, we'll take another look and not charge anything further unless we find & can fix the issue.