There is a technique to ferret this kind of stuff out from an honest but perhaps not professional seller. That is to have an exhaustive checklist of every aspect of a guitar/amp, and to simply run down that checklist and get a definitive answer on each point. This generally gets anything but outright fraud, which is obviously not the case here.</p>
Bill, you're right. Many of the 'big dogs' simply won't ship amps, or if they do, they say 'final sale'. The problem is that there can be 'invisible' problems in anything electronic, and the logistics of helping the customer are terrible when it's an old, out-of-production tube amp. Even a very conscientious high-volume seller winds up with some angry customers. It's just bad business. Now if an old amp like this is sold 'as-is', and price accordingly, or sold by someone who restores them, it's different.</p>
Of course, these are great amps, set up properly. It costs a fortune to make a new amp of this quality, and I have usually found they're worth restoring. But you know, Bob, you might find a guitar player who just loves this amp as-is. Most guitarists hate the ultralinear versions, and many will pay a premium for a blackfaced example. My old guitar shop (still running, but I'm out of it) has always made a sideline out of blackfacing SF amps. Don't look at the bottle as half-empty, it may be mostly full.
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