Moog Music Forum

Anyone know of a reliable synth repair place in L.A. besides Advanced Musical Electronics?? My Micromoog is having oscillator troubles as well as doubling problems...Any help would be greatly appreciated...
Thanks

I have been referring people to Advanced.. have you had problems with them? I'd be curious to hear any feedback.

Amos wrote:I have been referring people to Advanced.. have you had problems with them? I'd be curious to hear any feedback.

Yeah when I first got my Micromoog about 4 years ago I took it in to their shop because the filter section and waveform section were all out of whack. After keeping it for about 3 months and charging me me like $60, or something, they told me it wouldn't be worth the money to "recalibrate" the synth. So I played on the broken ass Micromoog with its very limited capabillities before finally taking it to the tech over at Big City Music and he got everything working (including repair to a scaling problem) for about $200.
Last I heard though, their tech hasn't been in as much lately so I was just checking to see if anyone had some other leads...
Sorry for the long story, but I don't know, I just didn't like the service I got from Advanced. Took way to long with essentially no results.

Advanced kept my liberation for over a year (with a $400.00 deposit) and claimed to have done some work to it when i finally picked it up (replaced IC chips,etc).The next tech i took it to,opened it up and said everything was spot on original..nothing was replaced...i did get around 200 back from advanced,so i paid them 200 bucks or so to store it for a year.However,the new tech at least admitted it was more than he could handle.
eventually,i took it to big citys tech...in 2 weeks i picked it up,playing at 100% and very reasonable fee.

Since I'm a tech, I'll reserve my opinion regarding AME for private emails.

As for myself, I could help, but a Micromoog represents a small value synth that requires a high amount of labor and some parts to get right.
I only restore vintage synths now: total "hit everything possible" service.
You get a warranty of 90 days back.

But even a Micro here would get recapped, rebushed and all new trimmers just to start. That's even before I go looking for a specific problem.

So on a small synth like a Micro, it's probably not worth it to hire someone like me.
I'm also pretty slow due to the high number of synths already here and health problems of my own.

Unfortunately, the Micromoog has several features that are difficult to get right if the tech is inexperienced: correct calibration of the temperature "oven" for the VCO, the ribbon and various selector switch problems.
The rest is pretty standard stuff.

Big city also tuned up my micro,fixed a dead key and did a bass mod i wanted for a extremely reasonable fee.Nice in the know folks,and very much into the things they sell.My experiance with Advanced was horrific,so i wouldnt reccomend them for anything.

How did you like that bass mod? I'm assuming it's the mod that makes the bass fuller..

I like it...and its a real minor job,as i understand it..soldering on a capacitor or something

Even before I joined this forum a number of years ago, one person's name that always came up was Kevin's. I would highly suggest that anyone with a Moog or other vintage gear call Kevin first!

If your referring to Kevin Lightner,im told he is the best,but there is a waiting list of over a year,such is the demand for his services,and if im not mistaken he only does work on Polymoogs,ARP 2600's and Odessys and modular systems,but again,i may be totally wrong on that.His quality of work however is said to be incredible.Recently,i had some repairs done on my Emulator 2+HD by Forat here in Los Angeles and was delighted with his work,speed and price.Forat is basically Linn drum now and while repairing and modding those and other drum machines is a specialty,it couldnt hurt to give him a call and see what he says about wrenching on your analogs!

Monger wrote:If your referring to Kevin Lightner,im told he is the best,but there is a waiting list of over a year,such is the demand for his services,and if im not mistaken he only does work on Polymoogs,ARP 2600's and Odessys and modular systems,but again,i may be totally wrong on that.His quality of work however is said to be incredible.Recently,i had some repairs done on my Emulator 2+HD by Forat here in Los Angeles and was delighted with his work,speed and price.Forat is basically Linn drum now and while repairing and modding those and other drum machines is a specialty,it couldnt hurt to give him a call and see what he says about wrenching on your analogs!

Actually, Kevin Lightner is THE go-to guy for ALL synth issues. As has been stated before, wait times are long and repairs costly. You get what you pay for, that's for sure! I have a Minimoog filter clone module he put on e-Bay, and the quality is superb! I also am eagerly awaiting a four space module with a bunch of stuff built in, including two Mini envs, a VCA, and mults. It's been a while since he started, but the module is paid for, and I am confident he will deliver it when he feels it is fully functional.

That sounds very cool..so he will also build custom modules also? Awesome...if memory serves,isnt he based here in CA? Wrightwood or someplace?

Wrightwood is correct. He will do anything synth related, if you are able and willing to pay.

Well,it sounds like he is going to be hooking you up with some sweetness! will you post audio/video/pics of your rig when you get it? And is there a pics page on this forum? Its been sometime since ive been here,(health issues) i thought there was before....

Of course I will post pics and vids up here as they become available. I have videos on YouTube of my synth stuff, and as I build my modular, there will be demos. Youtube.com/voltor07