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!
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.
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.
...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.
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.
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?
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.
Ooohhh ! Panic were on my list! Not any more!I cant be dealing with idiots! My synth are too important to me! Thanks Feline1 so much for that major stress saving advice! 7 years? You have the patients of a saint! I would definatly burnt there workshop down after 5 years!
feline1 wrote:I think my favourite excuse I heard off them during the seven years was "oh, one of our techs fell off a ladder and broke both his legs".
i dunno i think that's pretty reasonable, he was probably only trying to climb over the mountain of complaint letters blocking the door so he could get to the pub
James did a brilliant job on servicing and repairing my OSCar. Nice bloke too.
Seconded (or should that be fifthed or sixthed). James also had really good (i.e. cheap) rates.
Ben
well, i wouldnt say that any of them are cheap- including james walker. It really does depend on the works that required. I think that the issue is that from my own experience, i didnt feel ripped off by the service and repair work. But im not an expert and iv got no idea how much the bits and bobs cost +labour. If particular chips are required then it could be very expensive.
But: (and heres where james is very cool) he offered me a range of options to getting whatever synth fixed- repair it or replacement part. With my cs5 i could have paid a lot more that have a replacement side panel but instead i had it glued which looks fine and is solid.
Its quite a similiar trade to car repairs. My girlfirend drives a renault 4 and is in need of a new gear box. renault still make them but theyre over £500 with import cost whereas its cheaper to recondition the current one.
James did a brilliant job on servicing and repairing my OSCar. Nice bloke too.
Seconded (or should that be fifthed or sixthed). James also had really good (i.e. cheap) rates.
Ben
well, i wouldnt say that any of them are cheap- including james walker.
Fair enough - I agree with you actually, I had meant to put 'reasonable' rather than 'cheap'. The worst part about going up to James's was the traffic in Stoke-On-Trent! How do you Stoke residents cope?!
equaliser wrote:...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.
His workshop is excellent. I saw one or two things waiting to be repaired which I've never seen "in the flesh" as it were. The only problem, as mentioned elsewhere, was the traffic and this was down to the never ending roadworks.
Seconded for James! Did a brilliant job on my 303&202 in a couple of days, and was very helpful over the phone with other minor niggling problems. A pleasure to work with!
7 years? You have the patients of a saint! I would definatly burnt there workshop down after 5 years! 
