about

Electronics experience and education...some the hard way

In high school I went to Vo-tech to be an electrician.  But, the economy was a bit tight when I finished, had trouble getting started as an electrician.  Did a few side jobs as an electrician...  Then I went to electronics tech school for 2 years learning the nuts and bolts of being an electronic bench tech.  Good stuff and did some work on an old Dec PDP-8 computer!  Oh, yea, and made a 3W tube transmitter! ...pretty cool.  Well, after tech school in 1984, I worked at a small temp control company doing temperature controls and some Mil contract crystal ovens  for Hughes Aircraft as an electronics bench tech.  ...Had engineering, test, and manufacturing at one site.  Then, in 1989, moved to Motor drive (inverter) company as electronics engineering tech.  Here I learned the ins/outs and life of electrolytic caps and LARGE power circuits.  ...and some hands-on in the machine shop too.  ...Love me a good ole Bridgeport mill.  And, interestingly, inverter motor drives are basically the same topology as Class D audio amps!  ...interesting learning...  Oh, and spent next 10-ish years going to college part time while working full time.  Finally, ...finally, in 1999 I finished my BSEET at Penn State Harrisburg and began work as product support engineer for AC and DC motor controls at the same company.  There's a lot of pressure when there's a product problem and the line's down!  Then,... a big step... I left the motor drive company to work at perhaps the largest power tool Co as an electronics design engineer.  Here, I made new electronic designs for power tools and was responsible for electronic assembly production at global contract manufacturers in Europe, US and Asia.  I got a lot of international travel out of it and saw a lot of off-shore electronic manufacturing and components, too.  And, all along the way I gained experience in microcontrollers, control systems, power control systems, power supply design (SMPS and linear), analog and digital circuit design, DSP, FETs, IGBTs, BJTs, thyristors, passive component “learnings”  and even got a few US patents in electronic design.  Then, from about 2012, I began managing engineering teams (techs, EEs, MEs, designers).  Also a great growth and learning experience managing technical folks.  And, learn much about people, technical people, myself, humility, keeping open mind, Plan A to Plan C...planning, under pressure problem solving, under pressure problem solving with big money on the line...then as I got older a desire to get back to my passion: electronics, guitars, and amps.

So, where are the tubes?

I've always been interested in guitar.  My first amp was an Alamo tube practice amp.  I fried tubes in that running a Little BIg Muff into it, but it sure sounded awesome!  Later I got a Peavey Classic (the 70s era) and a Music Man 2 12 60 watt.  ...and started tinkering with tubes and sound.  At about same time, I did some side electronic repair for small local music store.  So, studied circuits from books like the Groove tube book and kinda tinkered around.

Then, in early 2022, I started business officially.  Beers Electronics LLC formed and I took on repair work.  Thanks to meeting folks while buying on equipment on Facebook, I took on a steady stream of repair work on misc tube amps, Fender HR series amps (some basic work/upgrades get these amps in a better place), power amps and pro audio stuff and pro lighting.  I enjoy the challenge of fixing problems and especially get a kick out making folks happy with their freshly repaired, "purring right along" amp!