Read this ENTIRE page before sending me an email

The following text may not be pleasant because it may ask you to work a bit harder than you normally do when asking for help. I'm sorry if it offends you. I will no longer reply to those who will not make an effort to make the email easy to read. Emails that don't comply will be immediately deleted.

Proper Grammar and Spelling:
One of the most important things you need to do when asking for help is to use proper grammar. This includes punctuation, capitalization and proper spelling. According to a first grade teacher, this level of writing can easily be performed by the middle of the school year (first graders can easily do this). I know that some people have a problem with spelling, regardless of their age or level of education. If you're using Firefox, there is a spell-check add-on for it. Download it and use it.

It may seem like I'm being unreasonable asking for this but this is technical and the language needs to be precise so I don't have to ask for clarification of everything you send me. As a general rule, you should attempt to write at approximately the same level as the person with whom you're corresponding. If you're in a forum where there is nothing but slang, then it's appropriate for you to reply that way on that forum. If the person corresponding with you is taking the time to use proper grammar, punctuation, capitalization and paragraph breaks, you should do the same. I'm willing to help just about anyone (free of charge) but you have to do your best to help me to help you. If this is too much to ask, please look for help elsewhere.

I don't expect every email to be absolutely error free (my replies won't always be perfectly written) but you MUST make an effort. I suggest that you write the email, wait an hour, re-read it and if you don't think anything needs to be changed, then send it.

If you're from somewhere other than the US and/or English isn't your native language, do your best and I'll try to help.

If you ask me for help and use ALL UPPER CASE TEXT, chatspeak, LEET or truncated/abbreviated words (ur for you are, str8 for straight, etc...), don't expect me to reply. If I do reply (unlikely), it will likely be to ask you to re-submit the question, written properly. If you're not intelligent enough to ask properly, you're unlikely to be intelligent enough to complete the repair (most emails I receive are for amp repairs). Many of the replies require 10 minutes to an hour to find the answer. If you can't take the few seconds that it takes to spell out words, you shouldn't expect anyone to spend time trying to help you. There may only be a few people on the entire planet willing and able to help you. Show your appreciation for their time and effort by writing properly.

If you're someone with a legitimate learning disability and cannot use proper grammar for that reason, you can still use capital letters and periods. The spell-checker in your browser will take care of spelling errors. It will at least show me that you're trying.

Questions Regarding Speaker Impedance or Speaker Enclosure Volume:
I no longer answer any questions regarding speaker impedance or enclosure volume. They are both well covered on the site. If you email me about either of these, I'll only send you to the relevant pages of the site.

Leaving a Space Between Questions/Statements:
Leave a blank line between the end of one question/statement and the beginning of the next question/statement. It makes it easier to read. It also helps ensure that I see all the questions. I have a very limited amount of free time to help those requesting help. I need to be able to quickly scan the email and easily understand the problem/question.

Keeping Email Threads Intact:
I get more than 100 emails a week asking for help repairing amplifiers. There's no way to remember the details of every repair. If you email me multiple times, keep the email thread intact. If you break the thread, I'll tell you to copy and paste the previous emails into the last email you sent and won't answer your questions until you get all emails inline. Keeping ALL previous emails inline will allow me to scan back through them to see what was done or suggested previously so I don't repeat questions and so I don't repeatedly suggest that you perform the same tests. If you need help repairing an amplifier, read the ENTIRE Basic Amplifier Repair page (item #20 in the directory). You need to read 100% of it, even the parts that you feel are boring or unimportant.

Amp Repair Repair Assistance:
If you're repairing an amplifier and need help, it's important that you do everything possible to make the transfer of information from you to me as efficient as possible. A few years ago, I had only a few people asking for help. Now I have to respond to hundreds of requests (literally) every week. To get to as many as people as possible, I need the information sent to me to be clear and concise. If you need help repairing an amplifier, read the amp repair page (link provided below) before emailing me. You need to use the correct terms for various components. Most are covered on the basic repair page. I will need the amp make and model. I need the exact model number. If there is one missing number or misplaced period, it could lead me to think that you have a different amplifier. If you're too lazy provide the correct information or getting the amp repaired isn't important enough to read the amp repair page in its entirety, please don't email me for help. Too many people need help with repairs to help those who won't put forth the effort required to get their amp repaired.

Basic Car Amplifier Repair

If you need to send me photos of an amp, they will need to be good quality photos. Blurry photos are generally useless. There is a section dedicated to taking acceptable quality photos on the page (link) above. You will see that acceptable photos can be taken with a 2MP camera. If you send poor quality photos and claim that they are the best that your camera can produce, I will look at the EXIF data associated with the photos and look up reviews for your camera. If I find good photos for similar types of photos, I'll tell you to take them again. If you're unwilling to take the time to learn to use your camera, have the amp repaired by a qualified technician.

If I ask for 'one' good quality photo of the entire board, don't send me anything more than that. I may simply need to see if it looks familiar. If I need photos with more detail for a particular area, I'll ask for them. When I have to wait for multiple photos to download I may have to delay the response to the email until I have more time.

Do NOT send me videos. Again, they take too much time to download. If you send a link to a video on youtube, it's extremely unlikely that I will follow it. Most are poor quality with bad audio that are taken with a handheld camera and require that I take a Dramamine so I don't get seasick watching them. In most cases, they're no more useful than good quality photos.

Click HERE to email me. If clicking doesn't work in your browser, either copy and paste the address (babin_perry@yahoo.com) or drag the link to the text field of the address bar of your browser.

Hotmail, MSN and Live Email Problems:
If your email is from one of the above providers, you should use a different email provider if you need help or have a question. Most all of the emails that I've replied to for users of those providers have bounced.