How reliable are your hardware synths?

[ghettosynth]

I have no probs buying from ebay. You either make sure its local so you can test it properly, or take a chance, and dont spend a fortune on it 'just in case'. That goes for anthing really. Synths, hi-fi seperates, cars.... its common sense.

I should have been more clear. I don't have a problem buying from ebay in general, the issue is that the market drives the price of analog synths higher than their value to me given that I expect them to be broken and that probability goes up on ebay. In short, I want a better deal. I have rarely seen what "I" consider to to be a "good" deal on ebay. There are a lot of variables here, so YMMV.

In some cases, the seller doesn't even know that their synth is broken, so it's not even all about dishonesty.

My best deals have been analog synths that all parties were well aware that the synth didn't work and I was able to purchase at what I consider to be a good price for a broken analog synth. No, I won't tell you the prices, it will only make you cry.

[Kriminal]

I have no probs buying from ebay. You either make sure its local so you can test it properly, or take a chance, and dont spend a fortune on it 'just in case'. That goes for anthing really. Synths, hi-fi seperates, cars.... its common sense.

I should have been more clear. I don't have a problem buying from ebay in general, the issue is that the market drives the price of analog synths higher than their value to me given that I expect them to be broken and that probability goes up on ebay. In short, I want a better deal. I have rarely seen what "I" consider to to be a "good" deal on ebay. There are a lot of variables here, so YMMV.

In some cases, the seller doesn't even know that their synth is broken, so it's not even all about dishonesty.

My best deals have been analog synths that all parties were well aware that the synth didn't work and I was able to purchase at what I consider to be a good price for a broken analog synth. No, I won't tell you the prices, it will only make you cry.

agree, ebay prices are mostly way over the odds. Im always looking for the one everyone else has missed

[ghettosynth]

Yep, I'd be reluctant to buy used without testing. And scared of buying used at all unless the price is stupid low.

I'm not much concerned about this sort of thing with analog gear. I am with digital gear and mechanical stuff because it is much harder to repair.

Just about anything is "in theory" repairable, but sometimes a piece has to be cherished indeed to make a lick of sense to fix it. Long ago sometimes saw weird cases, a fella would prize some old broken obsolete gadget so much, as to gladly pay a lot more to have his favorite gadget fixed, than the original cost of the piece, or the cost of replacement with a newer better non obsolete gadget. One old guy loved his ancient falling apart dictation recorder so much, paid the big bucks to bring it back from the dead, because for some reason he was real attached to it.

I don't get that really, but, it's their money. I don't even fix my own things that are beyond reason, even if I'm capable of fixing it, if it's too much time, or money, I just part it out and move on. I'll even part out working synths if the parts are worth more to me than the market values the synth.

Here's an example:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Korg-DSS-1-MIDI ... 4d1b202fcc

I have one of these in my synth-closet. I don't care at all about having a gigantic surfboard sized 12 bit sampler keyboard even though it has great analog filters. Mine is in slightly better shape but they seem to have very low value. The parts are worth more to me than $60.

[ghettosynth]

agree, ebay prices are mostly way over the odds. Im always looking for the one everyone else has missed

Sure, I've just had better luck doing that locally than on ebay.

[Jace-BeOS]

I only have digital stuff. That said:

Roland V-Synth XT hates some wave files and CF cards. No telling which will crash it. It also develops condensation bubbles under the touch screen's resistive film, making the synth essentially useless as anything but a preset player until the heat it generates dries it up. This only happens in the summer. If I moved west or north, it might not happen but I can't move and I have way more compelling reasons to do so than my V-Synth. The V-Synth is really cool if you can look past these niggles, and the shitty file management and sample editor GUI. Bought new.

My Virus TI gives me no problems, but I rarely use the DAW integration and that's a software/computer design/inconsistency issue more than anything else. Bought it used.

My t.c. electronic Fireworx died on me after the equivalent of two hours use. If I had used it continuously, maybe it would've failed under warranty. That's not how it worked out. It spent most of its life inactive but plugged in, or in its box in a relatively temperature-controlled closet. I found many other complaints on the web for this thing's power supply. It will cost me about $300 to get repaired, plus shipping (I'm poor, remember). Bought new.

My Alesis QS8 has no known problems but I'm sure the battery will eventually make me angry as on all hardware that has these things totally inaccessible to user replacement. Bought new.

My Peavy TransTubeFex guitar effects unit had its battery dying on me, but I bought a batteryless non-volatile RAM chip to replace the battery backed one. No problems otherwise. Bought new.

My Alesis Fusion 8HD is one I fear developing faults since the hardware is not likely repairable. No problems yet though. The smaller model has a reputation for power supply failure. Bought new.

I can't think of any other hardware concerns other than worrying about the touchscreen or backlight dying on my Korg M3m (bought new), which needs calibration more often, compared to never before... or similar stuff wearing out over time.

I think I've had an average experience. [shrug]

[ghettosynth]

I only have digital stuff. That said:

My t.c. electronic Fireworx died on me after the equivalent of two hours use. If I had used it continuously, maybe it would've failed under warranty. That's not how it worked out. It spent most of its life inactive but plugged in, or in its box in a relatively temperature-controlled closet. I found many other complaints on the web for this thing's power supply. It will cost me about $300 to get repaired, plus shipping (I'm poor, remember). Bought new.

Because it's digital, this is the kind of thing that I want for almost nothing, or won't even bother with at all, but, if I had one, I might fix if I had a use for it. Power supplies are often quite easy to fix for someone that knows that they're doing. They're certainly easy enough to test independently of the device that they're powering.

If it doesn't work, there's just no way of knowing that the power supply going out has damaged something else. I only mention this because I often hear statements from people who don't know what they're doing that go something like "It's a ten dollar fix if you know what you're doing, I read it on the internet." Well, it might be, or it might be a pile of junk because the power supply took some difficult to diagnose or irreplaceable parts with it when it went out. It doesn't matter what it cost new, if it's dead, it's worth what the obvious mechanical reusable parts are worth, unless, I have a good sense of the probability that it's "just the power supply."

[SJ_Digriz]

I'd just like to offer the other side of this coin. I was at a show where the keyboard player was 100% virtual and his lappy went Tango Uniform. So instead of having 1 futzy keyboard ... he didn't have any keyboards at all.

[Uncle E]

Watch out for Sequential Circuits, early Andromedas, and mid-80s Rolands.

[JCJR]

Old synth repairs can sometimes drive you nuts, and there are so many different models. Unless one had the luxury of specializing in a very narrow set of products, you would have to be a freakin genius to fix stuff fast enough to make any money, dollars per hour worked. And bench work can make a person real stir-crazy after awhile.

A fella could specialize in something like refurbing old geetar amps, kick out more product and make more money.

Though some synths took way too long, the one I couldn't fix that bothered me most, was my own chroma polaris. I loved that old thing. It had some kind of fault in the bootup logic timing, just couldn't track it down. The clock would run, the startup reset pulse would fire, but it just wouldn't boot and run. It seemed a common fault after about 5 years use. I eventually ended up with a second free dead polaris and a dead polaris main board, all with the same problem. Ought to go dig em out and throw em in the dumpster.

One time somebody brought in a korg poly 61 that took forever. Everything worked, except it didn't work. Finally it got down to checking every dang connection inside the thing. You know you have got desperate when you resort to checking every single connection and part in a gadget.

Finally located a long pc stripe (running in parallel with a bunch of other long stripes) that visually looked fine, but had oxidized open somewhere along the line. So finally after many hours, the fix was just soldering in a jumper wire around the bad stripe. No way to make a profit, unless all the customers are wealthy price-is-no-object fellas.

[Biome_Digital]

All the hardware I've had has been rock solid. The only issue I had was with a broken convertor chip in my 15 year old Supernova, which I got fixed for about £50 by Novation.

Unless of course you buy something from Arturia, in which case it'll probably die anywhere within the first 10 minutes to 10 months of ownership and they may well (if you're really lucky) send you some parts to fix it yourself (no really, this actually happens).

lol. Thats funny, my microbrute broke when it was only in its first few months. Arturia had me running round in circles and I felt I knew more about the synth than them! Juno Records (where I bought it) fixed it under warranty pretty quickly. Some places, I think absolute music, might offer a three year warranty?

[goldenanalog]

[Mushy Mushy]

agree, ebay prices are mostly way over the odds. Im always looking for the one everyone else has missed

Sure, I've just had better luck doing that locally than on ebay.

+1 with eBay

But it's impossible. Everybody here and on GearSlutz and every other forum is doing the same.

[Sendy]

I picked up a Roland JP-8000 and an Alesis ION through ebay, amonst others. I must say, in all cases the seller has been true to their word and friendly and cooperative. The synths arrived on time and in the condition stated or better. However, I've had pretty bad luck with my hardware digital synths. The JP developed the weak output bug about a year after I bought it, meaning that it's quite quiet and crappy sounding now; and the ION has developed problems with it's push buttons, and of course it's the most important buttons that get used to most, so they are the first to go. The ION had very poorly designed/built buttons which is a real shame as the knobs are fantastic.

So both of these synths are sort of in limbo right now. They aren't trashed, they basically work, but have problems, and I don't know whether to sell them or try and get them fixed.

[ghettosynth]

Old synth repairs can sometimes drive you nuts, and there are so many different models. Unless one had the luxury of specializing in a very narrow set of products, you would have to be a freakin genius to fix stuff fast enough to make any money, dollars per hour worked. And bench work can make a person real stir-crazy after awhile.

Exactly, it's tough to make it profitable enough to be worth doing.

A fella could specialize in something like refurbing old geetar amps, kick out more product and make more money.

There's a LOT more interest in that, there's probably enough value in it that any medium size city could support one or two people doing this full time.

Though some synths took way too long, the one I couldn't fix that bothered me most, was my own chroma polaris. I loved that old thing. It had some kind of fault in the bootup logic timing, just couldn't track it down. The clock would run, the startup reset pulse would fire, but it just wouldn't boot and run. It seemed a common fault after about 5 years use. I eventually ended up with a second free dead polaris and a dead polaris main board, all with the same problem. Ought to go dig em out and throw em in the dumpster.

AAGGGGHG! No, don't throw them in the dumpster!

[goldenanalog]