When I had my shop in Lowestoft (Which is now a nail bar)
a customer called and asked me to have a look at his Hitachi Instavision.
''Every time I watch it, the picture.. well it sort of... bounces ?''
I had it in the workshop for a day, and nothing. My wife was heavily pregnant with out 1st daughter at the time so I decided to take it home and let her watch it, there she sat for a few days and the Instavision was perfect !
I took it back...
I got a call to say that the fault was still there
(even though I didn't charge him) so I left right away, it was the end of the day and he was on the way home.
He put the kettle on and we sat there staring at this thing for a bit, all of a sudden '' There, did you see that''... er no.
I noticed a large bag of boilled sweets next to him on the sofa, I then watched him... every time he cracked a sweet in his mouth it gave the illusion of frame bounce ! That was a goodun.
My other fave story was an old couple who's KT3 had passed away.
After fitting a new tripler the picture was awefull, all green and soft.
I gave the tube a boost and tweeked up the thing to give a very presentable picture.
When I reinstalled it they were horrified at how ** BAD ** the picture was !
I had to turn the red, blue and contrast right down there and then because they really were furious
One more...
My friend's Decca (Tatung) had lost it's voice.
I replaced the amp chip and a couple of caps and all was well again.
I suddenly came over all mischeivous, wired the scan coil up back to front and delivered it on the way home, he was delighted.
It took him 3 weeks of wondering ''What's different about this set?'' before he hit the text button and called me up in histerics
I've never been called so many unsavoury things since !
Greats story's guys...
Dave W