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