Baja Electronics in CHCH

[war-wolf]

big tick for guy-thumbs down on steve-80$ for two dry solder joints?fuck off!and he's a queer quim....a freind of mine was interested in that abbey he'd restored on tard me,answer ph all day and when he finally got through to him at 6.15pm he said "i don't work after 5"

[Some Bozo]

Dealt with him a couple of times for pedal matters, straight up and the price was right

[Ears]

Yeah, he's still going.


To be straight up, I'd track down Guy Benfield for amps nowadays; Steve's getting an ugly rep for doing weird and unwanted things, only allowing "Grove" tubes to be put in and not giving you your old tubes back, adding master volumes for no apparent reason.

I took my sovtek to Guy, sounds great! He has a policy of only doing mods that a subtle and won't ruin the resale or inherent character of your amp because of Steve's rep of changing random crap.

Effects though, Steve's your man.

Tony, did Guy once (or still) work for Mike Waldergrave at the Soundpeople?

On S B he knows his way around tube gear. I was given a Holden VBH he had converted to a SLO, efficiently executed (if a little untidy solder-wise).

[rocklander]

I've dealt with Steve a number of times WRT stompboxes and have nothing but good things to say about the guy.. can be found over at fsb fairly easily.

[TmcB]

Tony, did Guy once (or still) work for Mike Waldergrave at the Soundpeople?

On S B he knows his way around tube gear. I was given a Holden VBH he had converted to a SLO, efficiently executed (if a little untidy solder-wise).

I've got a feeling he did actually. Really nice guy.

Steve is also very friendly and good yarns in person but after going to Guy I wouldn't take an amp to him.
Steve is the effects whisperer though and really knows his way around them.

[Some Bozo]

Had a bit of a chat when I dropped in there, they guy has a good eye for snake oil and was taking the piss out of various gadgets that aren't what they're cracked up to be. Mostly went over my head but one of the things he mentioned was some super-dooper boutique rack mount delay gadget form back in the day which turned out to be basically a big empty box with the circuit board of Boss DD-3 pedal or whatever it was inside it

[NZRS-Dave]

Yup, Steve's an okay guy but if you want to lose half the day, ask him something about valves.



I have mixed reactions about him from people ... some claim he's a butcher and mods things that don't need to be done; and others claim he's holy grail when it comes to repairing things. I guess if you agree with the things that he says (or don't know any better) you'll get on fine with him.

I had a mate around the road and his Fender Deville was playing up. He took it to Steve and spent 4hrs there learning about tubes and trying different combinations. Said it was one of the best mornings of his life and he was in awe of Steve. Said it was like talking to your best friend of 30 yrs and he'd never met him before.
We used to use him for repairs, but now we use Paul Mallon for repairs.

Guy Benfield is a good cat too. He's a little standoffish til you get to know him. Got grumpy at me because I used his name over the mic one day when he was mixing. Not real grumpy but suffice to say that I knew not say 'hi Guy, can you get the bass in this monitor a bit more?' Kinda funny because after that I would say, 'hi sound guy, ccan you get the bass in this monitor a bit more?'

[Timoes]

Temprementals these amp techs? My usual guy is great but he ridiculously busy doing other shit that makes him good coin. Last time was 6 months ! Just cant handle that. A week or two is cool tho.

[philbit]

Have send gear down to Steve and yep great guy who knows his stuff,he also does speaker repairs.
His email is baja002@clear.net.nz

[Enigmur]

Steve's good, I've heard from someone he changed something random in his amp but he's been great to me.

When I took my Ashton valve amp to him for a valve change he added negative feedback (or got rid of it, cant remember haha), but he said I've done this, if you don't like it bring it back its easy to change. But he had worked on that kind of amp before and knew his way around it.

Hes really friendly and easy to talk to, if I were to be getting something designed or upgraded, I feel he would be really easy to get what I wanted across.

He's an avid groove tubes fan (the opposite of EVERYONE on the internet) but he tests every tube he gets and won't sell anything under his standard, and they've all been great and sounded fantastic.

Good prices for labour too.

[twistedthoughts]

Just had him look at my amp as there was a problem I couldn't work out. He checked it out for me and everything. I ended up finding out that it was a dodgy speaker lead that was actually the problem. Called Steve up to thank him for his work and to arrange pick up. He REFUSED to take any money because he "didn't fix anything".

That was the 3rd time I've dealt with him. Always a pleasure if you ask me.

[jeremyb]

My workmates marshall was playing up all the time, cutting out and generally being an arse, he took it to Steve and $80 later he'd resoldered a bunch of components, tested and cleaned everything and now it works beautifully, thats a bargain in my books and another happy customer

[Terexgeek]

Steve worked on my Ibanez Super Metal (Tubescreamer with treble, mid and bass knobs), it was under $20 even though he'd spent quite some time diagnosing what it was. Goes well now, good to deal with, great talker (speaking as an expert on the topic), quick turn around.

[SammyD]

I just brought a Fender Super 60 and the tremble knob is broken, it makes the amp cut out if you turn it to certain settings. Think i will take it to Steve next week but I work Mon - Fri 9-5. Any idea's if he does weekend work or will allow me to drop it off to him on a Saturday?

[war-wolf]

if he wont even answer a query on an amp he is selling after 5 i dont like your chances