I had built a Fender Deluxe Reverb clone from the Hoffman design. It was my first build. When I finished, it wasn’t working. After checking and rechecking every joint, I knew I needed to find an amp tech. I’d spent a year slowly putting this thing together from scratch, and the last thing I wanted was to hand it off to someone who would take less than the utmost care with my project.

After going through a list of L.A. techs and reading reviews and interviews, I decided to go with Blackie Pagano. In reading a couple of interviews on his website, I noticed his sensibilities seemed to match mine. And I could tell his passion was amplifiers, plain and simple. It wasn’t just a job, it was his lifestyle.

I called Blackie and he was immediately confident that he could find the problem in short order. He spent a good amount of time walking me through potential issues. When I brought the amp in to his shop, he spent more time with me going over the circuit I’d built. Leaving the amp with Blackie on a Friday, I felt completely confident that I had found the right person for the job. On Monday, I got a call letting me know the amp was fixed. He’d found the blown capacitor and fixed some wiring issues. What a relief. All that time spent building the amp wasn’t wasted, and I would finally have a great hand-wired amp to use! Blackie even took the extra care to clean up some of the earliest work I’d been a little sloppy with. His rate and his bench time were both completely reasonable, even more so if you consider his consultations and burn-in time aren’t billed.

I know I’ve found my amp tech. You’re in good hands.

Chris C.
Santa Clarita, CA