Ebay Rev 20s

[Guitarvamp]

Did anyone on here get the Revision 20 Sustainors that were on Ebay? Just curious how they sound and jealous.

[GuitarBuilder]

I can't imagine spending $1,900 on a unit that may be unrepairable if something goes wrong.

[Guitarvamp]

Why would a Rev 20 not be repairable? It's not made of moon man parts. There are people that know how to build them/modify them - they just don't want to/don't need to/don't care and don't want to share with others that do want to tinker. The info is out there, though.

[GuitarBuilder]

I was thinking of the (undocumented) modifications. I don't know of anyone who has a Rev20 schematic.

[Guitarvamp]

We went through that on the old board - there are people that have information on the Rockman units (including schematics), and they don't like to share. Call it copyright/legal, Dunlop says, it wouldn't be nice to Tom, we don't want China to have it, it's infringing on my business, it's a close family secret, or they just don't play well with others. The information is out there.

Think about it.....

Someone says "There are 111 parts added to make it a Revision 20." Did they count all those parts? They had to know exactly what they were looking for (as compared to the other most recent revision on that model). Even if they somehow did that.... they now know the differences.

Or someone had a schematic and saw the revision changes and just counted the new parts.

Or someone owned one, and just mapped out the circuit by hand.

Or various other means.


And without naming names, somone on the old board was building one.

[iZheil9152]

I have talked to that "someone". He knew Tom and SR&D employees, he pieced together the history and and info they told him...

Even if Dunlop does something with Rockman/Autoclean, I'll bet it will be after Tom's time, out of respect for him. (IMO)

[darthoverdrive]

We went through that on the old board - there are people that have information on the Rockman units (including schematics), and they don't like to share. Call it copyright/legal, Dunlop says, it wouldn't be nice to Tom, we don't want China to have it, it's infringing on my business, it's a close family secret, or they just don't play well with others. The information is out there.

How true and it's a shame. There is a lot of useful information that isn't being shared for one reason or another. I had emailed Dunlop requesting a couple of schematics, well I'm sure you already know what their response was. I won't even bother requesting them here as I've seen the responses before.

[GuitarBuilder]

Tom and Dunlop have the dubious honor of being the only company(s) I know of unwilling to share schematics or technical details for 20-year old equipment. Shameful, if you ask me.

[Guitarvamp]

I agree. My first amp was a Crate. And the last page was the schematic for the amp.

Sad that we as fans of the Rockmans, can't take what Tom saw, and run in new directions with it, but like has been said, some bad apples spoil the whole bunch - people will start selling their "own units", Chine will no doubt start popping out something similar, etc.

[darthoverdrive]

Nobel’s did that some years ago making their own headphone amp, but it was also when the Rockman was still being produced. As I understand they were asked to stop. I picked one up on craigslist, it was in rough condition but works and only cost $60!

I’m surprised someone hasn't come out with some type of knock off product already. Anyone with a lot of patience can trace out the circuit board, produce a schematic and go from there. And there seems to be an interest in these little blue boxes and what they do even after all these years.

Or is the world going Digital?