so i wanna go to school for electronics

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maybe you guys can help me...i stumbled upon this website and joined in hopes of obtaining some useful information.....
i live in virginia and have been thinking about going to school to learn how to repair amplifiers, guitars, effects pedals and such....
and well just wondering if anyone knew a good school near here, and what it would acctually be called....... just basic electronics or something different, i really have no idea..........


hopefully someone can help!
 
Junior colleges often have basic electronic courses where you can learn audio repair without having to go through all the courses for an electronics degree. You will probably need to learn some vacuum tube theory too, not sure where you will find that.
 
I'd second that idea (actually, these days they're called "community colleges", at least in the U.S., and they offer an amazing breadth of courses that most people have no idea about). Check your local colleges.
 
I would caution you to avoid any of the "distance learning" schools. They offer a bunch of books and no real hands on trouble shooting or training. I have learned as much or more from the all about circuits site by simply following their e-book and doing the experiments. It is a great addition to any training you might find. Also the US Navy has a book available called the NEETS program and it is the most complete text I have ever seen, and it too is free.
Bob
 

Back when I was at technical college (in the UK) we were given a US Navy book to teach fault finding skills, basically each section asked you something, then gave a list of different sections to go to dependng on your answer - you didn't just go through page by page, in fact if you turned to page two it pointed you that no where in the book were you sent to that section. It was pretty interesting, and assuming you answered correctly you soon whizzed through the complete book.
 
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thanks....yeah central virginia community college may have some courses about that... i'll look into it...
my dream is to one day own my own store that does audio repairs, sells intruments, give lesson's, and then play in my band part time.
but i think if i could learn enough about electronic schematics and wiring, i could make a decent living.....youd be surprised at the market for repairs on audio equipment...
but as far as that goes, maybe someone would like to enlighten me to the job market for a full electronics technichian..... i mean the possibility's for employment......
i know audio repair specialists charge anywhere from 30 to 75 dollars an hour
 

It's a dying trade, new equipment is so cheap that repairs are rarely viable, musical instrument electronics is probably still a reasonable bet though - but I imagine it's also suffering from cheaper prices.

A distant friend of mine lives near a music store, and he empties their bins a number of times a week - it's amazing the decent stuff that is just thrown out, often with nothing much wrong with it. I took an all day trip a few years back and went and fetched a load off of him.
 
damn how bout that huh, yea fortunatly audio repair is always a neccesity... people always wand new pickups in their guitars and modification chips in the pedals.....
and of course when a amp breaks down your have to get it repaired..... a good tube amp is anywhere from 500 to 3,500 dollars so you can imagine the need for repair...
i had a peavey couple years back that quit working and i took it to lynchburg music... they had to ship it to charlottesville to get the schematics rerouted and it cost me a couple hundred bucks by the time i got it back, charlottesville music store charges 75 dollars an hour for repairs... 2 hours their and 50 bucks to lynchburg music....
i mean it is some money in audio repair....i just gotta learn how to do it!
 
There has always been a nitch so to speak in valve (vacuum tube) amplifiers. Though I don't do it for a living I have repaired my share. I am surrounded daily by a large number of young engineers, many of whom play musical instruments and are involved in bands as a hobby. They were amazed when they discovered I could actually trouble shoot tube amplifiers to the component level on hand crafted and wired chassis. They also in short order managed to deplete my super secret stash of 6L6 tubes.

My fees vary but generally like home computers for family and friends revolves around a 12 pack of Stella Artois. Plus parts!

Anyway, from an electrical / electronic standpoint there is a good nitch to be had in that area. Additionally theater and stage lighting. My brother who teaches theater at the university level was forever bringing me projects and broken equipment.

Personally beyond family and friends I avoid it as my real job keeps me quite busy and as I slow down and start to ease into lighter work towards retirement I enjoy doing more of what I enjoy doing.

Just some food for thought....

Ron
 
What are your existing electronic skills?.

The vast majority of engineers come in to the trade from it been their hobby, usually from childhood.

Trying to enter college and learn electronics from scratch is pretty daunting, and those I've seen that have managed it have never been very great at it.

It's like deciding to go to college to learn music as a complete beginner, everyone there will already be an accomplished musician, and you probably wouldn't even get on the course (certainly over here you have to audition to enter music college, as well as have existing qualifications).
 

Hmmm, that's not the way I've seen it play out. At engineering college back in the 70's, the students who have been electronics buffs for years struggled, & the students totally "fresh" at electronics did quite well. There were exceptions, but that was the general trend. Maybe for tech school it's the opposite. That seems to be logical.

Frankly, I would recommend any high school student wishing to become a full engineer (as opposed to tech), that they go in "fresh". Trying to learn electronics on one's own results in many bad beliefs & misconceptions that are hard to shake. A fresh unbiased mind can learn the theory the right way, & not have to deal w/ preconceptions. Just my advice. BR.

Claude
 
Trying to enter college and learn electronics from scratch is pretty daunting [...]

And keep in mind also that learning electronics properly is going to require knowing or learning M-A-T-H. No easy way around that. Definitely algebra, and really calculus too if you ever hope to have a chance of really understanding how things work. It's a lot more than just knowing part numbers, being able to read schematics, etc.
 

yeah that makes good sense nigel, by the way i like your chinese symbol.. um i really have little to no electronic knowlede, i used to help ruff in houses, good with cd players/car audio systems, decent with a soldering iron.... but other than that i'm greenhorn
but if there are basic courses offered for audio repair then i can learn...i am a fast learner, and at this point in my life school is the next step....anything i choose to study will be brand new to me, i just wanna brodden my field of knowledge with music...in this case music repair

but like you said reloadron tube amplifier repair is difficult(more or less in those words) so i' guess ima just see what courses are available..

[QUOTEThey were amazed when they discovered I could actually trouble shoot tube amplifiers to the component level on hand crafted and wired chassis. They also in short order managed to deplete my super secret stash of 6L6 tubes.
][/QUOTE]........................hahahah i bet they did
 
I learned on my own for tube stuff, but I was probably 10 when I started.

The most dangerous system I worked on used a 15 kV. 1 amp shunt transistor/tube hybrid
Regulator. It was, in esscence a CRT with a 30 kW 3 phase power supply. The other
System had 3 e-beams instead of 1. Somebody snipped all the wires and management
Didn't think I would get it to work.
 
Oh no, we need to fix this.

but like you said reloadron tube amplifier repair is difficult(more or less in those words) so i' guess ima just see what courses are available..

It is not difficult, not at all. It simply requires an understanding of how tubes work. I grew up with tubes so I started with tubes. As a kid electronics of the day were a hobby for me. Transistors were just being developed and coming into play and there were no ICs.

Now Claude brings up an interesting point:


Overall I agree with Nigel to a point but also see (quite literally) what Claude is saying. I work in NE Ohio in Claude's neighborhood on a global basis. I currently work for a very large company and have for many years. I am surrounded by new and old engineers including some real old guys. I seem to fall into the latter group.

One engineer I interface with daily never saw electronics before he went to school for it at Cleveland State University. He was a machinist before going to college. The guy is great! He can actually apply what he learned and knows his stuff. He is about 20 years my junior but took to electronics like a fish to water. He has that analytical mind for the stuff. Now interesting enough he has two brothers in technology and electronics who pursued it as kids. The one brother was a co founder of ISD (In- formation Storage Devices, now Nuvo- ton), built on the digital floating-gate ... after a great development career at Intel. It's like the gene was there. Go figure?

I have other young engineers that are EE but their electronic theory and skills suck. However, in the suck is pure gold. They can program and this is great since my programming skills suck (or worse). They hold an EE but their forte is programming. They retained enough EE stuff to get through school but it ended there.

My forte? I understand how things work. No magic there. That has put beanies and weenies on the table for years.

Just My Take
Ron
 
I also agree with Ron. I was the kid who was doing electronics and failed miserably as an EE in the 70's, but did manage an Associate's degree in Electronics Technology with a 4.0 GPA. Go figure. I also got a BAS degree in Engineering Technology and Technical Management. Unlike Ron, I also have substantial machine shop skills.

I have small engine skills because dad said, "You ran the mower without oil, your rebuilding it. I was probably 10-12 years old. I have car repair skills because my first car cost me $25 and it had run into a tree.

I have HVAC skills and now certified for automobile because I applied work skills (Hi vacuum vacuum systems) with my mechanical skills plus some schooling in thermo, building design etc. and put my AC in my car from a box. 14 hrs labor. It failed every 8 years with two blown hoses. Not a single leak otherwise. My parent's had a car in which oak leaves got into the evaporator and corroded the evaporator. I wasn't licenced then, but it was required to handle R-12. The service guy said it will cost you way too much money (about 8 hours labor) for him to fix it. We worked out a deal. He recycled the R-12 and I did the install and I made sure it held vacuum. He verified, charged the system and we had no problems.

I've repointed a chimney as my first brick project. I do plumbing too. Soldering skills I learned from Dad and then from machinists. I could silver solder better than anyone,
I had a short stint at glass blowing too, primarily quartz and sealing tubes under vacuum with a Hydrogen/Oxygen torch I then taught that skill to a new-hire. If I haven't done it in a while, I have to practice at least once to get the feel back.

As for learning how to repair amps, I recommend building this one: Leach Amp Plans - Part 1 I did it in the early 80's. I accidently made a mirror image of the board. I can now repair high power amps in my sleep.
It's a really nice High Fidelity amp. I made some changes to the published design.

My first tube amp was a 50 Watt mono Fisher model 50A and I was probably 10-12 years old. I had to fix the thing without the proper equipment.

I had Heathkit and Eico for teachers. You built your own test equipment because you could not afford new stuff.

I was asked to fix a Mcintosh tube amp where someone connected the output of one to the input of another in an attempt to make it louder. It nonetheless, didn't work.

Douglas Self is an author of a few very good transistor amplifier design book. They are good reads.

You can get some decent tube servicing/design info from the net (particularly military) and even ebay.

Minimum amplifier servicing stuff is an Variable AC isolation transformer, oscillloscope, voltmeter, dummy loads.

When servicing, you need to be aware of types of resistors and types of capacitors and their application.

Finding a mentor that can help when your stuck can make all the difference.
 
I ran an electronics magazine for 25 years and the only real way to learn electronics is by building circuits (projects). I would start by building 100 - 250 projects then come back to us. Projects such as amplifiers, effects and digital would be a starting-point.
 
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