For repairs to electronic or digital pianos, keyboards, some synths, disc/disk drives, home organs, sound generators, expanders etc. you've found an electronic musical instrument repair specialist in central Surrey. Mike Barden - contact details at bottom of each page.
Full-time, professional repairs to electronic musical instruments - Roland piano, keyboard and synth repairs; Atelier organ repairs; Yamaha piano, keyboard and organ repairs; Clavinova repairs; Technics piano, keyboard and organ repairs; many Korg piano and synth repairs plus some other makes. Over 20 years experience ... well, that's all I'm admitting to. Generally far too many years spent dealing with you mad musicians (it takes one to know one!)
IMPORTANT NOTES REGARDING REPAIRS AND "SERVICING"
Despite what some music shops and other repair centres may have to say, most electronic musical instruments DO NOT NEED "SERVICING" - they only need attention when they go wrong.
As the saying goes "if it ain't broke don't fix it!"
Also, many of my customers have said that their music shop told them their instrument could no longer be repaired. Most music shops do not carry out repairs so are not really able to advise on this. You would be better advised by someone like myself who is only a repairer because I won't try to sell you a new one.
CAN I FIX IT MYSELF?
You pay, I advise service - I earn my living from carrying out repairs and from now on will be charging a fee (payable in advance) to anyone wanting advice about their own repairs. I'm sorry that the free advice had to stop but it was taking up a ridiculous amount of my time.
General DOs and DON'Ts
Don't use WD40 or any switch cleaners or contact lubricants (no matter how wonderful they claim to be) as usually this will make any contact problems much worse.
Don't use WD40 or similar for sticking key problems. Possibly short term success but long term disaster!
Don't believe everything you read on the internet (including this, obviously!) There are loads of music forum sites, various blogging sites, DIY fix it sites etc. which between them have huge amounts of information, posts and replies about repairing musical instruments. Although some of this information is useful, unfortunately an awful lot of it is complete rubbish. Very often you find classic examples of the blind leading the blind!
Do be honest with yourself about what you can and can't do. In order to attempt any work on any musical instrument you MUST be the sort of person who is very, very good at taking things apart and putting them back together. If you've "had a go" and get in a mess it will almost certainly cost you more to have it fixed properly afterwards. Even though I'm extremely good at this it will take longer (and therefore cost more) if some well-intentioned owner presents me with a kit of parts - the result of dismantling their machine and being unable to get it back together again - usually having lost various screws, put others back in the wrong places, stripped threads, put long screws where short ones should go and screwed straight through a circuit board! Yes, these things happen all too frequently!
Some people seem to think "I've got a screwdriver - how hard can it be?"
FAQ: telephone calls from keen owners asking how to open their musical instrument.
Reply: "if you can't even work out how to open it then you definitely won't be able to fix it".
It is worth pointing out that getting a copy of the service manual will not magically improve anyone's mechanical ability - but it might give the Frank Spencers of this world enough confidence to "have a go".
A frightening prospect indeed (oooh Betty!) It's also worth noting that a service manual doesn't tell you everything because it was designed for professionals and as such assumes a certain level of prior knowledge and experience which most laymen will not have. No disrespect intended. If you want to "have a go" it's your machine and no-one can stop you but please (a) disconnect the mains so you won't die in the attempt and (b) dismantle things carefully, methodically (take photos, make sketches, make notes as you go) and NEVER go beyond the point where you feel uncertain about being able to reassemble everything perfectly.
Changing a broken key - this sounds really easy but can be an absolute pig of a job, disproportionately time-consuming and occasionally fraught with unforseen perils ... "I changed the key myself but now the note doesn't work any more" is a regular one. If a contact has been bent beyond repair a new contact board is required. If the part is no longer available the instrument is scrap. This is such a stupid waste of a musical instrument! If I had been repairing it the contact would not have been damaged. Stop and think first!!
"I changed the keys ok but now some of the keys don't play at all and I've got this bit of metal and all these extra screws left over" - thankfully doesn't happen that often!
Contact problems - e.g. one or more notes don't play at all or play too loudly. The problem may occur all the time or intermittently. Do not be tempted to use WD40 or any switch cleaners or contact lubricants (no matter how wonderful they claim to be) as this will usually make the problem much worse and end up costing more. If the stuff you've sprayed in there has caused more contact problems and cannot be completely cleaned off you will need new parts. If these are no longer obtainable the instrument is scrap!
Most contacts are graphite and need to be perfectly clean to work properly. I can sell you the proper stuff for cleaning graphite contacts if you feel competent to do the work.
If a group of notes is not playing this might have been caused by a spillage. If you know this to be the case you may be able to claim on your house insurance - see INSURANCE CLAIMS below.
"I had a bit of a job getting the keys out to do the contacts, couldn't quite work out how to get the keys back in but I did it somehow but now quite a few notes don't work" - the chap had accidentally caused unrepairable damage to a flexible circuit board which was no longer available and so his piano had to be scrapped!
There are literally hundreds of disaster stories but very few success stories.
Weird behaviour, locking up, won't turn on properly The problem may be something simple which you can do yourself. Many modern products have an "initialise" or "factory reset" procedure which sometimes can be found on the manufacturer's web site or possibly in your owners book. IF POSSIBLE ALWAYS SAVE YOUR DATA FIRST! The initialise or factory reset may well unscramble the brain of your poor, confused piano/keyboard/organ/drum unit etc. and restore normal operation. Technics PR603, PR703, PR903 usually need work on the Main Board which you are strongly advised not to attempt yourself.
Backup battery low, lost memory Some batteries are easy to get at, some are really tricky, some are soldered in, some aren't. Some instruments lose all their sounds and settings and may need them reloaded from disc, card or external data dump from a computer or data filer. If you've saved any songs or edited any sounds in your machine it's always advisable to make backups on a regular basis because one day your battery will give out ... and then it's too late!
Spare parts - if you think you can do it yourself I may be able to supply the parts you need.
Service manuals, Owners manuals - I may be able to supply these too.
IS IT WORTH FIXING? It's usually cheaper to repair something than to replace it - but it might not be replaceable because it's no longer in production. If you like your old piano, organ or keyboard it's probably a better bet to have it repaired rather than trying to find another one for sale. At least you know the history of the one you own. Someone else's might have spent its life under a bird cage, be full of dog hair or had a drink spilt in it. Now that many home organs appear to be almost worthless (if eBay is anything to go by) only each owner can say if they think their instrument is worth repairing.
INSURANCE CLAIMS It is very unlikely that you are insured for cost of repairs when something just goes wrong. However your house contents insurance possibly covers your musical instrument for accidental damage e.g. spillages, fire, theft, vandalism, cat/dog/parrot attack or whatever. Don't assume you are insured - ring up your insurance company and find out. First check what the full retail price was when it was new and what it would cost to replace it with a similar new product (ask your music shop or the distributor). Then ring your insurers, tell them that you have a musical instrument worth £xxxx, ask what eventualities it's covered for and ask if it's covered on a replacement as new basis. It is quite likely that the new replacement cost of your piano, organ etc. is more than the "single item limit" on your insurance. In this case your insurance company will need to list it as a specified item valued at £xxxx. Depending on your insurance company this might not cost you any more than your time and telephone calls. Then at least if the instrument suffers accidental damage you know that it's covered by insurance. Re-check this if you ever change your insurance company as they do not all operate in the same way.
MUSICAL STUFF
I play bass guitar and sometimes keyboards in an excellent and very busy function band, play piano at home and occasionally play keyboards or bass as a dep for a couple of other bands.
The band's web site is at www.famousfiveband.com and the gig list is usually bang up to date.
Posted by Admin on March 08, 2007 | 0 comments | Permalink |
TECHNICS PRODUCTS - Most Technics musical instruments can be repaired providing parts are available. In most cases, specialised Technics parts are not needed and all that is required is a specialised Technics repairer ... which is where I come in handy! SEE SEPARATE PAGE FOR TECHNICS
Posted by Admin on June 18, 2007 | 0 comments | Permalink |