Transformer Repair Advice?

[mc2]

I recenly scored a mint, one-owner Hiwatt DR201 that nevr had any mods/work done to it. The original owner recently passed (bassist of the 70s progrock band Pavlov's Dog) and his wife was liquidating his studio and gear. A friend of mine drove 10 hours to pick up the matched pair of Hiwatts.

I sent a roeadcase and had it shipped....but the UPS goons apparently dropped it. It arrived with the power tranny torn off the chassis. It's with a great Hiwatt repair guy and apparently one of the wires was torn off of the high voltage windings just inside the paper wrap around the windings.

This leaves a few options....

1) Tear open the original paper wrap and try to reattach the wire, which the reapir guy says he may not be able to guarantee will stand up over time....plus will ruin the originality of the tranny.

2) Find a replacement tranny...eaither new aftermarket or an old spare.

3) Have the original tranny rewound/restored.

Further bad luck....I scored a same vintage "parts: Sound City 200 Plus on EBAY a couple of weeks ago, missing tubes but with the Partridge trannies still intact. But, after two weeks, it has not arrived and the seller is now not returning emails...and a close look at his Feedback shows three recent "Did Not receive The Item" entries. So, I think I got beat on that cheap solution.

So.....Advice on the best route to choose?

I have a pending UPS claim and they want to know if it is fixable and at what cost.

Pics of the torn lead/amp here"

http://s1359.photobucket.com/user/mc2NYNO/media/Guitars/TBirdPair_64n65TBirdII_zpsbe95ad86.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0#/user/mc2NYNO/media/Guitars/DR201Tranny_3_zpsfb727030.jpg.html?sort=3&o=5&_suid=1365953846138006848096534202741

[murkat]

A. find a Hiwatt forum, find "the guy", the go to guy.

or.

Nashville amp repair does everyones stuff here, and there is alot of everyone in nashville.

But, you will have to find that Hiwatt guy, and you know He is out there.

B. start a Ebay claim, paypal better yet if you used that. asap.

[Victor (Fret Friend)]

Read UPS packing guide before submitting your packaging info (to make sure you ARE covered [you will be] )

Do this to ensure you know what is what with their guidelines. I've had 1 or 2 successful claims in the past but I have had to slightly adapt my wording when making a claim (all legit of course)...

[mc2]

Yeah....It IS already with THE main Hiwatt repair expert from the Hiwatt Forum

Good advice on checking the UPS shipping guide before the claim. It was in a Hiwat sized roadcase AND that was even bubblewrapped inside a cardbaord box, mainly to make it less noticeable.

[Victor (Fret Friend)]

I received £426.00 (GBP) for a guitar I insured for £500.00 once when TNT smashed it. The guitar was bought for£160 a few weeks earlier (eBay). Extra bonus was the money I also got for selling the EMGs/Neck/Floyd (which weren't damaged). It pays to ALWAYS make sure you are covered!

[crunchee]

I've wondered in the past why the larger "stand-up" transformers in some old/vintage amps looked like the mounting brackets were bent, and the transformers themselves were leaning at odd angles. I think I found my answer here, or at least confirmed my suspicions.

Good luck with the repair and the claim!

[benjammin308]

I love my old Hiwatt, still my main amp. I can't believe that transformer can't be repaired good as new. The repairman doesn't need to be a Hiwatt expert (few and far between), but they do need to be a transformer expert. Somebody somewhere can fix that.

[mc2]

I may have just lucked out.....I filed an EBAY complaint on the seller who didn't ship me the "parts" Sound City 200+ in over two weeks and was dodging my emails. Once I had the problem, I checked his Feedback and saw he had 20 percent negatives of "Never Shipped Items," after only being a seller since FEb 2013 !!

So, over the weekend, I flooded his inbox from his other listings with "WHERE IS MY @*&&^ AMP I PAID YOU FOR TWO WEEKS AGO?!?!" type emails.

Amazingly...today I got a "shipped" email with a UPS tracking number. Hopefully it's not just a box of roadkill from WA State

Sometimes it pays to go postal on a bad seller

Hopefully the power tranny will be good if/when it arrives so I can fix the Hiwatt.

[FrankieIII]

Re: The Hiwatt -

• Make sure the recipient keeps "all" of the packing materials.
• The shipper needs to file a damage claim with the shipping company for the exact $$ amount of the purchase.
• The shipping company will likely want detailed pics of the damage sent to them and/or they will go out to inspect in person.
• If you win the claim the shipper will need a repair estimate provided by your amp repair shop. I would make sure the repair estimate includes an original OEM replacement Partridge transformer.
• The shipper will mail you a check for the amount.

[Uncle Thor's Hamer]

mc2,

Is the amp otherwise original? If so, will the value of the amp be reduced after whatever repairs are done to it? I think it is valid to put that amount into the claim also.

As to the repair, I would go with a factory replacement part unless there is an aftermarket transformer which gives you some kind of functional improvement. The amp will never be the same no matter what, even if you find a NOS part to install. It will always be "repaired". So you might as well make it as functional as possible. Thus I personally would avoid repairing the transformer if the repairman doesn't think it will be reliable. Someone else is paying for the repairs, so go ahead and get it fixed right.