Classic synth repair! Can anyone recomend an Honest and reliable Tech?

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Classic synth repair! Can anyone recomend an Honest and reliable Tech?

Post by Alex Ephexis »

Hey there all!

I was wandering if anyone could recomend a quality reliable technician/service/repair centre who knows their Roland gear! I need two Roland sh101's and a Juno106 tuning n servicing etc. I also need my Jupiter6 fixing as it has been having wierd memory problems!
Also I would like to get one of the 101's modded with midi etc if anyone knows a good place to get that done!

Cheers Dudes! :)

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Re: Classic synth repair! Can anyone recomend an Honest and reliable Tech?

Post by Peter Conz Connelly »

I've heard Synth Restore are good, depends on your location...

http://synthrestore.co.uk/

Cheers,
Peter
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Re: Classic synth repair! Can anyone recomend an Honest and reliable Tech?

Post by zed »

tony allgood @ http://oakleysound.co.uk/ (Cumbria though)
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Re: Classic synth repair! Can anyone recomend an Honest and reliable Tech?

Post by David Etheridge »

Synth Service Centre in London.
http://www.synthservice.com/

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Re: Classic synth repair! Can anyone recomend an Honest and reliable Tech?

Post by Havocman »

http://www.synthrepairservices.com/

James did a brilliant job on servicing and repairing my OSCar. Nice bloke too.
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Re: Classic synth repair! Can anyone recomend an Honest and reliable Tech?

Post by zed »

Alex Ephexis wrote: Also I would like to get one of the 101's modded with midi etc if anyone knows a good place to get that done!
Alex-Ephexis

http://www.kentonuk.com/kenton/index.shtml

Would be the only place I can think of, but they don't do it - their socket kits might be worth investigating, otherwise it would seem that a MIDI->CV convertor (like the kenton pro solo) might be the way to go.
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Re: Classic synth repair! Can anyone recomend an Honest and reliable Tech?

Post by Rolandforever »

Havocman wrote:http://www.synthrepairservices.com/

James did a brilliant job on servicing and repairing my OSCar. Nice bloke too.

James has looked after all of my vintage gear for years. He is really good and mailing stuff to him is not a problem. He also fitted the Europa upgrade to my Jupiter 6 and I strongly recommend this upgrade. Everyone has their opinion however I was not that impressed with Synth Service Centre. On my two visits their workshop was dirty and a restored synth had several faults with it.
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Re: Classic synth repair! Can anyone recomend an Honest and reliable Tech?

Post by equaliser »

...another vote for James at Synth Repair Services in Stoke-on-Trent.

I dragged my battery-damaged Polysix up the M6 for him to fix last weekend, and it's now working beautifully. Top chap, and his workshop is fascinating too.
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Re: Classic synth repair! Can anyone recomend an Honest and reliable Tech?

Post by egothelivingplanet »

james at synth repairs in stoke is top, he recently fixed a cs5 that was given to me and installed the kenton mod for the filter. He is very nice to deal with and has got a lot of knowledge. I only live 10 minutes away from his workshop and everytime iv been round with something, there is something amazing sitting in there waiting to be repaired. Last time there was a modular moog and a OSCar-probably the one mentioned above. It'll get you wet, thats for sure.

Where are you based?
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Re: Classic synth repair! Can anyone recomend an Honest and reliable Tech?

Post by Alex Ephexis »

Thanks everyone for your responses everyone!:)

This James bloke sounds like the solution i need! I am well up 4 the europa upgrade too!I am based in southampton by the way!
As for the sh101! I have a kenton pro 2 but i find it a massive pain in the ass!(tuning etc!). Does a straight midi mod exist?

Cheers again

Alex
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Re: Classic synth repair! Can anyone recomend an Honest and reliable Tech?

Post by ramthelinefeed »

I too will whole-heartedly endorse both Tony Allgood @ Oakley Sound in the Lake District,
and James @ Synth Repair Services, Stoke on Trent.

I've used both of them myself, and so have other people I know and work with.
They will not take your synth from you until they are sure they have the time to actually do the work - whereupon they will do it quickly and professionally and I've never heard of any problems with the results. Prices are perfectly reasonable too.
I hope I won't need much fixing in future but if I do, I will definately be using them again!

I have to say I think Synth Service Centre in Acton are a bunch of tossers. They pulled the classic "bad repair men" stunt - taking machines from me for MONTHS (like 18 [ ****** ] months!!) on end, never return calls (NOT ONCE IN 18 months) hardly ever return emails, every time I contact them, they gave some bullshit excuse like "oh, yes, we've just got it on the bench now! I'll ring you in a few days and tell you how it went". When work did come back, it was still faulty and had to go back in again.
Plus their prices weren't cheap.

The only place I've found worse than them was Panic Music in Cambridge, who did all of the same crap but took SEVEN YEARS (yes, literally 7 years, 1995 to 2002) to complete a repair on my SCI Sixtrak. Addmittedly this may be because Mike Swain there is trapped under a huge mound of all Gordon Reid's synths, but I don't really consider that an excuse.

I take pleasure in publically warning people off these tossers - stick to the good guys like Oakley & James in Stoke.
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Re: Classic synth repair! Can anyone recomend an Honest and reliable Tech?

Post by zed »

Yes, panic aren't known for their fast turn around. Maybe thats why they're called panic?
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