To Rich Koerner
Trace - Voodoo Amps
posted on 03-21-03
Rich;
I sent you an email this morning (03-21-03 around 8:30AM). I also
tried to call your shop since 10:00AM but the line has been busy all
day and it's now 2:13PM (dial up I assume?) Here is the email I sent
to you....
Hello Rich, my name is Trace and I'm with Voodoo Amps here in Ithaca
NY. I do not think we've spoken before but we have many of the same
tech friends in the net world. A tech sent me an email alterting me to
the alt.guitar.amps posting as well as the postings on you website.
The amp you are working on belongs to Michael Singer from CT. We did
work for him back in early Jan of this year. Let me preface this by
saying we would *never* epoxy anyone's amplifier without making 100%
certain they were aware we were going to do this. In this make the
owner of this amp (Michael Singer) was here at the shop (in person)
when we were modding his amp. He did in fact have full knowledge that
we were going to epoxy the circuit and he said if he ever wanted to
have it changed he would simply have a Hoffman plexi point to point
board installed. He further stated that he was a tech, worked on amps
himself, had 500-1000 schematics he
purchased off from Ebay, etc. We were very honest and up front with
him on this issue and there was never any gray area regarding this. He
also emailed us recently and asked about a repacement board and we
provided the website to Hoffman Amps, who last I was aware carried the
plexi boards.
We only epoxy amps that we load our custom circuits into (that being
the Voodoo Hex or the Witchdoctor). We do *not* epoxy all other
modifications. This circuit took me over two years to develope and we
have had circuits taken from us in the past, posted on websites, etc.
which is why we had to resort to covering our own designs/circuits.
Rich I will give you a call to fill you on what actually transpired
when the customer was here, etc. so you are have all the facts. I've
actually referred several people to Time Electronics in the past
couple years for repairs as I've been told by customers that you do
great work. I'll give you call at 9:00AM my EST (I'm in NY and it's
8:33AM) so we can talk more in depth. Please be aware that the
customer knew about the epoxy and agreed to it so it was not something
we did without his consent. Our shop line is 607-256-0465 in cause you
read this before you get into your shop. Have a great day and I hope
to talk with you soon. Take good care Rich I hope this email finds you
safe-n-sound!!
Trace
C/O Voodoo Amps
Michael Singer
That's it! I've had enough of this little girl bullshit. I'm the
original customer of the hacked up '71 Marshall in question and now it
is time to set the record straight as this moron has sent me and Rich an
email, copied to his attorney, indicating we have slandered him. Hey
dumbshit...ever heard of free speech??? Especially when it's the
truth?.Nobody used your name....You did that all by yourself!
I took the amp to Voodoo Amps on the promise that it will sound "thicker
and more articulate" with their hex mod. Trace also talked me into
swapping out the original output tranny (which he has done
before..http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/Data/Voodoo_Amps/Soldano_Hot_Rod_50__XL_Mod-01.html
to other unsuspecting souls) with one from OEI. Bottom line, I got the
amp back and it sounded like shit...NO BALLS...100w superlead..NO BALLS
and as you turned up the volume, it had a wah effect..louder you went,
all high end and bite waned.The volume peaked and mudded out at around 4
on the pot, and only mudded worse with no volume change thereafter. I
advised Trace of this and he didn't offer any help other than "it was
fine when it left here" and if you need some more brightness, solder a
resistor between the left and sweep on the master pot. UNSATISFIED
CUSTOMER. All confidence in this guy fell to zero and I attempted to
find Rich from Time to see if he could unfuck this. I've known Rich
since the seventies and we lost touch but he did a mod for me in the
late seventies on the same model amp that absolutely crushed the stock
sound and I was 100% satisfied. Now Rich will fix this right I'm certain.
Interestingly enough, with all the pictures and posts on this, NOBODY
EVER MENTIONED Voodoo amps or Trace Allen! HE CAME FORWARD AND CLAIMED
RESPONSIBILITY HIMSELF!!!! And now crying that his name is being dragged
through the mud.
If you look at all the reviews on Harmony Central ( I know...I know),
they all let you know what a genuinly nice guy Trace is....Well Trace,
all your epigrams like "take very good care" and "hope this finds you
safe-n-sound" and whatever else you deem necessary to emotionally
babysit, doesn't change the fact that this vintage amp is chopped and
snotted all over and sounds like shit.
Oh, BTW Trace, I told you I was a techie..a software engineer, not an
amp tech.....For if I were an amp tech, this all wouldn't be taking
place genius!
I sincerely hope that this doesn't happen to anyone else...and lesson
learned "DON'T FIX WHAT AIN'T BROKE"
Michael Singer
That's it! I've had enough of this little girl bullshit. I'm the
original customer of the hacked up '71 Marshall in question and now it
is time to set the record straight as this moron has sent me and Rich an
email, copied to his attorney, indicating we have slandered him. Hey
dumbshit...ever heard of free speech??? Especially when it's the
truth?.Nobody used your name....You did that all by yourself!
I took the amp to Voodoo Amps on the promise that it will sound "thicker
and more articulate" with their hex mod. Trace also talked me into
swapping out the original output tranny (which he has done before..
http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/Data/Voodoo_Amps/Soldano_Hot_Rod_50__XL_Mod-01.html
to other unsuspecting souls) with one from OEI. Bottom line, I got the
amp back and it sounded like shit...NO BALLS...100w superlead..NO BALLS
and as you turned up the volume, it had a wah effect..louder you went,
all high end and bite waned.The volume peaked and mudded out at around 4
on the pot, and only mudded worse with no volume change thereafter. I
advised Trace of this and he didn't offer any help other than "it was
fine when it left here" and if you need some more brightness, solder a
resistor between the left and sweep on the master pot. UNSATISFIED
CUSTOMER. All confidence in this guy fell to zero and I attempted to
find Rich from Time to see if he could unfuck this. I've known Rich
since the seventies and we lost touch but he did a mod for me in the
late seventies on the same model amp that absolutely crushed the stock
sound and I was 100% satisfied. Now Rich will fix this right I'm
certain. Trace goes on about how he indicated "up front" about the epoxy
etc....So fucking what!!?? That's an excuse for this type of hack
job??? That's an obvious feeble attempt to divert attention from the
true issue of horrid workmanship....if it can even be called "workmanship".
PMG
Oops, looks like he got you there Trace!
And btw, once those posts go to the Usenet servers, it's damn near
impossible to delete them, so nobody deleted your posts. And this
isn't a moderated newsgroup.
Pete
--
You don't have to go home,
but you can't stay here.
Spike
You sure about that? You mean once you post on a Usenet site like this
ALL the Usenet Servers get the message?
Does that have anything to do with Deja News?
Where people and retreive postings from long ago
and from the Usenet servers?
Wow,
Regards,
Spike
On Sun, 23 Mar 2003 19:50:02 GMT, PMG <avo...@attbi.com> wrote:
<big snippage>Oops, looks like he got you there Trace!
PMG
wrote:
>Pete,
>
>You sure about that?
Pretty much. But I don't know how moderated newsgroups work, because
they do exist. Not that I can tell you specifically how normal
newsgroups work other than having a general idea.
>You mean once you post on a Usenet site like this
>ALL the Usenet Servers get the message?
This isn't a site. If this was a website somewhere, then it would be
easy for some person (in charge) to delete posts. But your ISP
probably has it's own news server, and mine does, an many more, all
across the world, and they're all connected. Once a post goes out
there, it's out there. Trace's server might not be all that good.
Mine is working rather well at the moment, but there have been times
when I've made posts, and they never showed up on my own server! But
then I'd see my posts getting quoted!! And boy that'd piss me off
too. Something like that must be happening to Trace. It's not fun
when it happens.
>
>Does that have anything to do with Deja News?
>
>Where people and retreive postings from long ago
>and from the Usenet servers?
Deja/Google isn't really involved (that I know of) other than being
someone who archives everything (which is very cool). But when Deja
died a year or two ago, Usenet continued without them. I hope Google
survives. I'd sure hate to see the archives vanish (even if there
were a lot of things in there that I shouldn't have said).
But if you do make a post from Google, I'm pretty sure that it's
possible to delete your own post if you can do it before it goes into
the system. Or at least you could back in Deja days.
Pete
Miles O'Neal
Trace - Voodoo Amps wrote:
> posted on 03-21-03
Why do you think it was deleted? If you are
using a standard newsreader (as opposed to
google) to read news, a post doesn't show up
once you read it. But since you wer already
embroiled in the mess from the first post,
you should know it was there...
-Miles
Miles O'Neal
>>You mean once you post on a Usenet site like this
>>ALL the Usenet Servers get the message?
>
> This isn't a site.
He might post from one. There are anumber of website
interfaces to news.
> If this was a website somewhere, then it would be
> easy for some person (in charge) to delete posts. But your ISP
> probably has it's own news server, and mine does, an many more, all
> across the world, and they're all connected. Once a post goes out
> there, it's out there.
Otherwise, Pete has it right *except*...
You can cancel your own post. Certain powers that
be (I mean besides the Cabal (TINC), who of course
can do anything at all) can also cancel your post.
BUT... It's up to each news server admin to decide
the policy for their site[s]. A site might ignore
cancels, accept cancels only from the original poster,
or whatever.
SO, you can cancel a post.
Maybe.
But some folks might still be able to see it. And
if it hits google, I don't know whether they honor
cancel requests.
And some folks might have seen it before it was
canceled. And even replie dto it, which your
cancel would not affect. So a cancel might not
do much unless it happened hot on the heels of the
post.
-Miles
fishhead
I know of a case where a financial statement
was posted as an attachment (FWIW, back when
Deja was Deja...not that that matters in the
context)...quite accidentally.
She had a couple of years of usenet under her
belt...say, in 1995 or so...got the msg
cancelled, and we checked various servers
and Deja and you could not get the msg.
However, during the time it was posted,
it could have been saved off. It was up
less than 24 hrs FWIW...Deja used to
do a nightly crawl, IIRC.
Trace - Voodoo Amps
it
is time to set the record straight as this moron has sent me and Rich
an
email, copied to his attorney, indicating we have slandered him. Hey
dumbshit...ever heard of free speech???
@@@ I am stating the facts and nothing more. I'm not resorting to name
calling, cursing, etc. as I feel it would be disrespectful to the
forum as well as to the AGA members. If you recall correctly you sent
me an email threatening me (which I have and can post) simply because
I stated you were the owner of the amp here in the AGA forum. You knew
about the epoxy well before hand and apparently told Rich you had no
idea that we were going to epoxy your amp, which is the stance he has
been posting here on AGA, he was reverse engineering it and was
planning to post a schematic. I have all the emails and two other
techs were present at the same time.
~~~ Trace also talked me into swapping out the original output tranny
(which he has done before..
@@@ You asked me my opinion on several occasions and I simply stated
that I preferred the OEI 100 Watt OT (just my own personal
preferences). You stated you wanted to leave the original OT in place
and we did that. You came to the shop and played on a JCM800 which had
the OEI OT and the Hex circuit and said you wanted the Hex circuit
because it sounded more like the plexi you had that Rich at Time
Electronics modded some 10 years or so. At that time you still wanted
to keep the original OT and we did that. You called us a few hours
later from your hotel room and asked us to install the OEI OT so we
did that. I honestly have no idea how you are twisting this all
around.
~~~ I advised Trace of this and he didn't offer any help other than
"it was
fine when it left here" and if you need some more brightness, solder
a
resistor between the left and sweep on the master pot. UNSATISFIED
CUSTOMER.
@@@ This is the furthest thing from the truth and I have phone records
of you calling numerous times, me calling you back several times as
well as countless emails offering numerous things for you to try as
you said the amp was not bright enough for you (although you said it
was fine when you first got it back). The very first thing I stated
when you said you were not happy was that you could send it back or
drive down and we would work on it for free until you were happy (I
still have those emails as well). You can read tones of the Harmony
Central reviews and we go way out of our *way* to help our customers.
If someone was not happy we worked in it until they were happy, which
we extended the very same thing to you. I can also post the email I
sent to you (as well as your reply back) listing the days events when
you were here, which would allow everyone so see a much clearer
picture of your character. To bottom line here is you are not telling
truth which is the same thing a lying.
~~~ Trace goes on about how he indicated "up front" about the epoxy
etc....So fucking what!!?? That's an excuse for this type of hack
job??? That's an obvious feeble attempt to divert attention from the
true issue of horrid workmanship....if it can even be called
"workmanship".
Interestingly enough, with all the pictures and posts on this, NOBODY
EVER MENTIONED Voodoo amps or Trace Allen! HE CAME FORWARD AND
CLAIMED RESPONSIBILITY HIMSELF!!!! And now crying that his name is
being dragged through the mud.
@@@ Why did I come forward? That is very easy to answer; the amp was
being reverse engineered, a schematic was going to be posted and Rich
was stating we covered the circuit in epoxy *without* your knowledge.
When I stated I had proof that you knew about the epoxy you have
suddenly changed your tune. I have proof and I am sticking to the
facts while you seem content to continue to twist the facts around to
what ever suits you. You stated in an email to me that Rich was your
friend (and while you were here at the shop you stated Rich modded an
amp for you a while ago) and I can respect that but I'm not sure why
you would lie to your friend about your having prior knowledge of the
epoxy as well as having seen photos? If you didn't lie to your friend
about the epoxy then this means Rich was lying in the posts he's made
which state your amp was covered without your knowledge. Rich has a
good reputation and I've talked on the phone with a few other techs
over the weekend and the general consensus is that you were dishonest
with Rich on this fact.
~~~ If you look at all the reviews on Harmony Central ( I know...I
know),
they all let you know what a genuinly nice guy Trace is....Well
Trace,
all your epigrams like "take very good care" and "hope this finds you
safe-n-sound" and whatever else you deem necessary to emotionally
babysit, doesn't change the fact that this vintage amp is chopped and
snotted all over and sounds like shit.
@@@ You admitted that you knew about the epoxy (although that is not
what you told Rich). You threaten me in an email and say we'll part
company quietly a long as I do not use your name as being the owner of
the amp. I don't know what your agenda was but I'm not going to sit by
while you lie and have our circuit reverse engineered so a schematic
can be posted.
~~~ Oh, BTW Trace, I told you I was a techie..a software engineer, not
an amp tech.....For if I were an amp tech, this all wouldn't be taking
place genius!
@@@ Not according to what you stated while you were here at the shop
and there were two other techs present at that time. When you got the
amp back; You also said you worked on amps and wanted me to send you
several things to try verses coming back down to the shop or shipping
your amp to us. You also asked me to send you information on biasing
the amp, which I sent to you and I still have all the emails proving
this. I'm stating the facts and nothing more. I'm not resorting to
name calling, cursing, etc. My main concern here is the reverse
engineering and the schematic being posted. If this continues I will
make the emails and phone records available to who ever would like to
see them, as the truth is very clear to see.
You played on the exact same circuit (the Hex which was loaded into a
JCM800) when you were here at the shop (see prior posts), which is
when you decided you wanted the Hex circuit installed. I have no
problems if someone does not care for the circuit and I realize you
cannot please everyone but you did play on the same circuit and you
made the choice to have it installed. Having the amp put back to stock
and reverse engineering it to post a schematic are two very different
things. We are very busy and as I said in the email, if you continue
to lie about this and a schematic is posted/passed around I will
simply let my attorney deal with this. I have furnished him will all
the emails, phone records, telephone messages, etc and the facts/truth
clearly speaks volumes. I made no attempt to hide that from you when I
sent you that email as I even included his address and contact info. I
also have no problems with people contacting me directly at the shop
if they have questions or would like to speak with me directly about
this. Our shop line is 607-256-0465. I have nothing to hide and I
would be more than happy to answer any and all questions.
Trace
Voodoo Amps
Trace - Voodoo Amps
be easy for some person (in charge) to delete posts. But your ISP
probably has it's own news server, and mine does, an many more, all
across the world, and they're all connected. Once a post goes out
there, it's out there. Trace's server might not be all that good.
Mine is working rather well at the moment, but there have been times
when I've made posts, and they never showed up on my own server! But
then I'd see my posts getting quoted!! And boy that'd piss me off
too. Something like that must be happening to Trace. It's not fun
when it happens.
@@@ I'm not sure if the post was deleted of is perhaps there was a
glitch some where. Michael sent me an email with the post attached to
it (that someone had sent to him). His email: "Trace- This posting was
mailed to me. I care not what you say or do as it relates to
anything...but post my name to a message board again, I assure you you
wish you hadn't.- Michael"
I went back to AGA to see if anything else was posted but I could not
find my post anywhere. I simply posted the same thing I had originally
posted to let people know there were facts that were missing and
hopefully to . I'm not really sure what happened to the post but since
Michael sent it to me via email then it was posted up at some point. I
am a member through Google.
~~~ But if you do make a post from Google, I'm pretty sure that it's
possible to delete your own post if you can do it before it goes into
the system. Or at least you could back in Deja days.
@@@ I am a member through Google but I didn't delete my own post. I
actually have no idea how you would delete your own post as I'm not
all that computer savvy as they say (ha, ha). Again, I simply posted
the same thing again so it was there.
Have a good day everyone!
Trace