[RightToMod-2021] "Right to Repair" and Bugera/Behringer/Music Group

[jeff.lawton at roadrunner.com]

To whom it may concern, 

I am the owner of a nice guitar amplifier, Bugera V55 Infinium, the parent corporation is “Music Group” 
which is owned by Eli Behringer, but right now the amplifier is defective. I’m very knowledgeable in 
electronics and have taken it apart and there are several burned resistors on the circuit board, and 
even the pilot light refuses to come on. I’m told the pilot light in this model is operated by a microcontroller 
and this little computer turned the light off because it “was complaining about something”, duh! (It SHOULD 
have flashed something like a “POST code” describing the problem but they’re TOO CHEAP to think 
that far ahead.) I’ve asked the company for a schematic of the circuit but no, they want to monopolize 
ALL repair options, the only “factory authorized” repair organization is called “Music Tribe” which is 
owned by – guess who? – in this industry traditionally small local repair shops were able to gain 
“factory authorized” repair status but Eli is out to change all that! I think one of the reasons they 
don’t want to talk about what’s on this circuit board is unlike its predecessor (for which schematic 
diagrams are readily available) this unit is MARKETED as if it were nothing more than an implementation
of 70-year-old vacuum tube technology and therefore highly reliable, whereas in truth this circuit 
board is absolutely LOADED with proprietary “CoolAudio” brand digital signal processor and CODEC 
chips for which there are NO INDUSTRY STANDARD EQUIVALENTS (and the price for small quantities 
of these for repair purposes is JACKED UP way beyond what it cost to make them, if indeed they will 
even sell these parts to a “non-factory approved” repair outfit)! What the heck is a player to do? I’m told 
on good authority getting anything fixed by Music Tribe can take MONTHS, how is someone supposed 
to play gigs in the meantime? I hope EFF can do something about this illegal “repair terrorism”!

Best regards, 
Jeff Lawton 
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