Missoldered chips aren't an issue - these would be discovered during the soak test. The warranty difference is simply due to the fact that the US is serviced by a US company, and the rest of the world is covered by empeg in the UK.

No, we're not expecting them to only last 6 months, otherwise we wouldn't have a long warranty elsewhere: I'm not the person who dealt with the setting up of the warranties, but I believe the differences are down to legal systems in the various countries.

Hugo