WHY YOU SHOULD AVOID MR. PAT HICKMAN'S UNQUALIFIED AND UNPROFESSIONAL SERVICE LIKE THE PLAGUE ITSELF.
Let me begin with a little history about myself. I'm a collector of investment grade vintage tube audio equipment. I search for and purchase rare Top-Of-The-Line tube audio equipment. All of my inventory consist of very rare high-end vintage gear, in most cases it's irreplaceable due to parts unavailability as well as being coveted by every other vintage tube collector. Some of my components are a mint condition Scott 4310 tuner, a pair of Scott 310E tuners, Fisher fm-1000 tuner, Fisher FM-200B tuner, Heathkit W5M mono-block amps....you get the idea. All of my collectible tube items are in near-mint or mint condition and I dearly desire for them to stay that way which is what brings me to the purpose of this review.
I recently took my Scott 4310 and 310E tuners to Pat Hickman at Classic Tube Audio. Asking Mr. Hickman if he had any experience restoring these tuners he replied "Yes, I'm a qualified technician to service and completely restore your Scott tuners". With that being said I left my beloved rare tuners with him for a complete restoration. After approximately 3 weeks Mr. Hickman informed me that the tuners were finished, operating as they should, and that they sound stunning all for a restoration fee of $1,253.08.
When I got my tuners back to my home and hooked them up for a test session the 4310 exhibited unusual noise, static, upon initial warm-up. Being a concerned steward for this gear I immediately contacted Mr. Hickman informing him of the problem. He replied by saying "50+ year old electronics have idiosyncrasies that affect their operations". This statement sounded peculiar to me since I was having my gear completely restored suggesting any idiosyncratic behavior will be addressed and corrected in the restoration process. He also suggested that I allow at least a 30 minute warm-up period before playing the tuner to allow it to go through some warming cycles. Ok, that sounds reasonable. The next day I followed Mr. Hickmans advice and allowed at least 30 minutes for the tuner to warm-up except this time the tuner wouldn't grab a station clearly without significant background noise and the output was vastly reduced. Again, I relayed this new problem to Mr. Hickman and he recommended that I gently wiggle the tubes while in their respective sockets....he felt there might be a socket connection issue contributing to the problem. At this point I'm wondering "what did my $1,253.08 restoration bill address?" Ok, you might be asking yourself why I didn't consider the initial issue as a "red flag" so-to-speak regarding Mr. Hickman's experience and proficiency (or lack thereof) with restoring the 4310. I gave him the "benefit of doubt" assuming he performed diligently in his effort to restore the tuner. Now my expectation with a technician who is restoring my gear is that I'll get my item back without any operational issue what-so-ever.....maybe I'm crazy, but this is what "restoration" means in my book= no issues at all, operating as it should as if it were new.
Now at his point I'm asking myself "should I give Mr. Hickman a second chance at trying to correct these new issues". Mr. Hickman admitted that he tried to correct a failing relay coil in the MPX section by applying freon directly to the coil. He claimed it might fuse any loose or broken windings on the coil. He also said that the freon was applied to the coil while it was still in the tuner instead of being removed to isolate the freon only to the coil. Now Mr. Hickman believes that there might be micro-fractures somewhere in the wiring under the tuners chassis. Let me think, freon causes things to radically contract which suggests that the blast he applied to the inner connected component may have affected some peripheral wiring near the coil potentially causing micro-fractures.....hmmmm, so in my opinion he may have caused this issue in an attempt to correct a failing relay coil. Now I'm extremely concerned about Mr. Hickman's experience with restoring Scott tube tuners, particularly the 4310.
At this point I decided to check my other tuner, the 310E I also had Mr. Hickman restore. Upon removing it from it's wooden cabinet I immediately noticed some hand writing on the bottom of the 310e's chassis. Upon closer inspection the writing read "John Siri's 310E tuner" in permanent black ink. I don't know about you, but when I take something in to be restored the last thing I expect to find is something written directly on the chassis in permanent black ink. Why Mr. Hickman didn't write his note on a piece of tape is completely a mystery to me. This was a mint condition investment grade vintage and highly collectible tube tuner, now it has his hand writing on the bottom of the chassis' exterior....needless to say I'm very disappointed in Mr. Hickman's lack of judgement when he decided to write directly on my tuners surface with permanent black ink....that was the final straw convincing me that Mr. Hickman provides anything but professional restoration service. I would avoid him like the plague unless you want your precious rarity to be handled as though it were disposable and easily replaceable.
In conclusion, most professionals will take criticism as an opportunity to improve either their service or product. However, Mr. Hickman used it as an opportunity to complain about the difficulties of restoring a complex tuner like my Scott 4310 tube tuner. If Mr. Hickman truly had experience in restoring Scott 4310 tuners, then the restoration of my museum quality piece should not have presented much of a challenge for him, however, he was stumped at every conceivable intersection which I'm certain contributed to my tuner being returned with significant hum, significant static throughout the entire bandwidth (including any and all broadcast stations), and significantly reduced output all for the price of $1,253.08. This restoration bill also included damage to my mint condition 310E tuner which now, after Mr. Hickman's restoration, does NOT have have an operational squelch control or stereo threshold control, (even the indicator lamps for these controls no longer operate). Does this sound like a professional and competant restoration service to any of you??? After examining my 310E tuner, I noticed that Mr. Hickman chose to write my name and the tuners model on the underside of the 310E's chassis in PERMANENT BLACK INK....not on tape, directly on the chassis itself. He even placed his business sticker on the chassis' stenciling.....how thoughtless is this guy???? Thanks Pat, that's just what I wanted on chassis...permanent black ink. Since when does any collector of vintage tube audio gear want their components labeled with permanent black ink directly on the chassis' surface??????
Anyway, if I were you I would consider any other technician, preferably one with appropriate industry qualifications, to conduct any service on your coveted and collectible electronics, either vintage or otherwise.
Sincerely,
John Siri
Tacoma Washington
), and perhaps most importantly, willing to work with you to give you what you want. In my case, that included an IEC power cable connector plug, 1/4" input jack and 4 and 8 ohm output jacks, and a power (on/off) switch. Work so meticulous my MC50 looks like that's how it was built stock. Also, I don't know what he did to "tune it up," but it is blisteringly powerful now. And Pat left the main caps. I asked for him to replace them. He could have readily and I'd have paid whatever it cost. But he checked them, they measured as sound, and he advised me to leave good alone. I respect that.
