Repair Service Info

What We Do & Don’t Do

Our focus for repairs is ‘modern’ modular synthesizers and analog equipment and certain vintage analog modular and hybrid synthesizers released from the 1960’s -1990’s.

Generally, we can’t repair synthesizers and equipment manufactured from the early 2000’s and later that are mostly digital or that use highly-integrated manufacturing techniques (for example membrane button panels). The disassembly/re-assembly of these units is too complex and time-consuming, and the internal parts are not usually repairable. These were design decisions made at the time, by the manufacturers, and are part of the broader debate about the disposability vs repairability of consumer electronics. In many cases, the original manufacturer of the equipment is where to seek service or a referral.

Repair Policy

Email us at kjarg@synthcube.com or call us at (781) 538-6519 describing the equipment you have and the issues you would like evaluated. If we are momentarily unavailable, a member of our service team will contact you via email or telephone to discuss the issues and to confirm it’s something we can offer you successfully.

Following that assessment, the item may be brought to our shop or shipped to us. We will invoice you for the intake fee ($100 for a synthesizer, or $50 for a module) which is non-refundable, but will be applied to any services performed. The equipment will be inspected, tested, photographed for our protection and yours, and detailed estimate sent to you. You may then choose to continue with the repair or to pick up/ship the unit as-is.

synthCube Repair Service contract and Warranty

Click here to review our service contract, which outlines the terms and conditions of our repair service. synthCube guarantees our repairs for a period of 90 days subject to the service contract.

Timeline/Turnaround Time

We generally complete basic repairs or calibrations within 2-3 weeks as long as there are no parts required that have a long lead-time. We will keep you informed of our progress including updates on any parts required and their lead times from parts sources. Once we notify you of completion, pickup or shipment of the repaired/serviced unit must be made within six weeks.

Rates

Our tech bench rates are:

‘Modern’ modules sold by synthCube: $75/hr.

Vintage or other equipment: $125/hr.

Experience/Background

Our Chief Engineer Kyle Jarger has over 35 years experience as an Electrical Engineer, in repairing and calibrating analog and hybrid synthesizers. In 1985, after receiving his BEEE degree, he bought an ARP Solus and noticed that the VCF wasn’t behaving as expected. After getting this synth working properly (the VCF’s “tempco” component had failed), Kyle’s interest in repairing synthesizers took off. He slowly realized that he wasn’t going to be making much music, but instead he’d be helping other folks to make THEIR music.

Kyle has repaired hundreds of synthesizers, from Yamaha CS-80’s to Juno-106’s, from Memorymoogs to Octave Kittens. At this time when many of the classic synth components or replacement parts are no longer available, Kyle’s knowledge and expertise means that in many cases an alternate solution or workaround can be devised to solve a difficult problem.

As our tech lead, Kyle will be directly involved in the work on your synthesizer, either completing the assessment and service himself or guiding one of our service techs directly.