Zinky Superfly blog - Part 2: Early problems

Over the next few days in January 2007 I began to notice a problem when using the Superfly: upon turning it on and plugging in, at first everything was fine, but then the reverb would go silent; no crackles, pops, hum - just an absence of reverb.

I took the back grille off and did the obvious checks - loose connections to the spring reverb pan (OK, see attached picture), unusual glow of the valves (looked OK), but there was one odd thing to be observed: there was a retro-fitted level control in line with the reverb return, housed in a grubby looking metal case (no picture unfortunately, but more of this later).

Some searching on the Web failed to find anyone else who had reported this problem. The most encouraging information I came upon was the assurance on the Zinky web site that their products carried a lifetime warranty (see quote on the right).

Reassured that Zinky, in the person of founder and main man Bruce Zinky, stood by their products, I decided to consult the man himself about my problem - see part 3.