November 2024 – have done very little work since my wife unexpectedly became ill and died mid 2022. Loads of you have been very sympathetic and kindly waited for me to say I’m taking in some work again.
Received a few messages this week which will not get a reply. Two were from overseas with no email address. One was from UK with make and model but no decription of what’s wrong. Please ring again and leave the info I need. There were two more where no message was left.
If you read a long way down this page you might think that I won’t call UK mobile numbers. This info is very old and out of date so please ignore it. My contact page says that I will call UK mobiles.
Nov/Dec 2020 – a UK customer in the Coventry area sent me circuit boards from a Technics PR603 for repair. The amplifier board had been “refurbished” by someone in East Anglia – possibly Ipswich area? As far as I know, I’m the only person who advertises that these amplifier boards need an extensive refurbishment if they are to continue working for any length of time. In my opinion, this person is copying what I’ve said to get more work. Unfortunately this person obviously has no idea which areas need refurbishing. Areas which needed work had not been worked on. Areas which needed no work had been worked on. Some transistors had been removed and replaced unnecessarily – presumably to test them. All those transistors can be tested without removing them and they are not in areas that needs refurbishing anyway! All the work done by this “repairer” was of a very poor standard e.g. printed circuit tracks damaged and absolutely dreadful soldering. The amplifier board was left in a far worse condition than before this person had “had a go” at it – and the poor customer had to pay for it to be done properly.
August 2020 message from someone in the UK – “I have something that needs repairing – please call me back”. I won’t be calling you back because my contact page says this …
New repair enquiries – basic information required from you …
I need the Make AND the Model AND a good description of the problem.
If you don’t give the Make, Model and problem, your message will be ignored – sorry!
21st June 2020 message from Indonesia about PR702 – text to voice message – same message repeated 3 times but not possible to get your email address. Please call again and leave your email address slowly and clearly using the method on my Contact Page – and repeat it.
PHONETIC or ARMY ALPHABET – Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf,
Hotel, India, Juliet, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec,
Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee, Zulu.
May 2018 English chap in Mallorca with a KN6000 – left a voicemail for me but gave his email only once and did not spell it out. I’ve tried emailing you. The email I sent didn’t bounce but I’ve had no reply. I will have to wait for you to contact me again. Hopefully you will leave your email address twice using the method explained on my contact page.
January 2018 – message from a guy in Mexico with a Yamaha Disklavier problem. He left a number asking me to contact him using Whatsapp. I’ve heard of Whatsapp of course, but I don’t have a smart phone. I don’t have a SKYPE account either.
I would not be contacting you anyway. On my home page it says that I don’t do Disklavier and that I don’t give repair advice … “either you repair it or I do”.
You need to contact Yamaha or a Yamaha service centre in your country.
November 2017 Last chance to buy service manuals for most home organs, older Yamaha pianos and synths, Roland pianos and synths,
Many other makes and models including organs, pianos, keyboards etc.
Any service manual 10 GBP + postage if I still have it for sale.
Note that these are the real thing – NOT pdf scans on CD or by email
2017 – there are definitely some bad cowboys out there so be very careful when buying Technics pianos. If in any doubt, ask me for advice. If possible get the seller to remove the top of the piano (not the back in most cases) and photograph the circuit boards to show the part numbers.
A recent example – a PR703 on which several things didn’t work because the piano had a PR603 main board in it. This is the result of either total stupidity or knowingly deceptive butchery on the part of the seller (e.g. the customer won’t know what doesn’t work as long as we show them that the piano plays ok).
NOTE – It is not possible to convert a PR603 main board into a PR703 main board because the parts are not obtainable. Even if they were, it would not be an easy job. Unbelievably this PR703 also had a PR903 amplifier board in it! Someone WHO THINKS HE KNOWS WHAT HE’S DOING BUT OBVIOUSLY HAS NO IDEA AT ALL had tried to repair it and failed miserably in all areas. First – can not remove simple components without damaging the printed circuit tracks. Second – has assumed he knows equivalent parts but is very wrong indeed … the replacement parts fitted are nowhere near the correct voltage and current rating so would go BANG immediately or last about 17 seconds (on a good day). Third – this idiot is hopeless at soldering and has also used the wrong type of solder. His best soldering attempt to a transistor managed to connect just one out of three legs to the circuit board track. One other transistor survived because NONE of the three legs soldered had made any connection at all. This circuit board would not have worked after this idiot’s repair attempt. Why on earth do people like this attempt electronic repairs when they clearly have no repair skills or knowledge in this area at all? I think they should stick to work they might just about be capable of understanding e.g. washing up or emptying bins.
2017 / 2016 – there is someone who works on Technics pianos in the Norfolk area of the UK who is obviously “repairing” by swapping circuit boards which they assume are the same but aren’t!
A Technics SX-PR703 arrived with an amplifier board belonging to the SX-PR602 or SX-PR603.
This particular combination would work but the PR703 will not sound as it should do.
Technics designed the EQ of each board to suit the speakers and cabinet of each model.
Each board has a different part number which should make it pretty obvious that they are NOT the same!
Some of these Ensemble pianos have different transformers which give higher voltages so fitting the wrong board would cause a major failure!
For the record, only the SX-PR602 and SX-PR603 use the same amplifier board.
Late 2016 – an amplifier board from the SX-PR902 has been looked at by a “repairer” in the London area (I think). For some unknown reason this person has removed both pairs of the output MOSFET transistors together with the heat sink they are mounted on!
1 – If you know what you’re doing, it’s easy to test these MOSFETs to see if they’re OK without removing them. (No, I’m not going to tell you how to do this!)
2 – If the MOSFET transistors read OK you do not remove them because they are extremely susceptible to damage by static.
3 – If any of the MOSFET transistors read short circuit they must be replaced but
(a) it is now virtually impossible to find any genuine ones
(b) many so-called repairers manage to damage the circuit tracks when removing these
4 – No proper repairer would ever remove the heat sink because it is completely unnecessary!
Conclusion – this person should not be working on these products because they obviously have no idea what they’re doing!
28th(?) March 2016 – Mark Hawes, you left a message about a very badly damaged PR804. The number you left was incomplete (only 5 digits after the code) so I can’t ring you!
Other people had called after your call so I couldn’t get your number using 1471.
Please leave another message.
14th March 2016 – Adam Blackburn, you left a message which started very clearly (so I could hear your name) but this was followed by a minute or two of continuous loud noise through which it was impossible to detect any words at all. Other people had called after your call so I couldn’t get your number using 1471. Please try ringing from a landline next time.
Unlikely that this will reach you but thought it was worth a try.
Dec 2015 Message from someone wanting a pitch-bend unit for an old Yamaha CVP model which he’d found is no longer available from Yamaha. No telephone number given so this makes it rather difficult to say “Sorry, I don’t have one of these.”
I sometimes get messages on my answerphone which end with “please call me back on this number” … Pretty stupid if you think about it! If someone else has phoned since then, it isn’t possible to get your number because dialling 1471 only gives the last number that called.
Message left on my answerphone about a Yamaha stage piano needing repair and only a mobile number given. Read my contact page. Just giving the make is no use at all. I need the model number and a description of the fault. If you want me to call you back I need a landline number and the latest time of night you don’t mind getting a call. I hate getting calls from mobiles. Don’t people realise that much of the time it’s very hard to understand what’s being said through all the mush and noise? The calls drop out on numerous occasions because the caller is in one of several hundred thousand bad reception areas. Proper phones work really well – mobiles don’t!
I’ve stopped doing Korg repairs. Nothing wrong with Korg but I get so few repair enquiries it’s not worth continuing with this make. The last two enquiries were for a Concert 2500 piano (1988) which will have corrosion and need a major clean up, track repairs and all its capacitors replacing. The other was for a Triton Studio described as “in pieces, taken apart to give it a good clean, needs servicing and a new volume pot” which sounds like they couldn’t work out how to put it together again. Read my website. On most pages it says Modern electronic pianos, keyboards etc. do NOT need servicing. It also says that I don’t do repairs which are a kit of parts dismantled by someone else. Thank you very much but no thanks!
Korg like doing repairs because it helps pay for their service department.
I don’t supply spare parts for Korg. If you want to buy spares, you can order them yourself from Korg UK.
May 2015 Technics are no longer taking back any circuit boards for repair.
Jan 2015 – Jacov from Israel re PR902 (?!)
You left your telephone number wrongly (says “number not recognised”)
PLEASE leave your email address TWICE, SLOWLY USING PHONETIC ALPHABET
Dec 2014 – Jacov from Israel re PR903
Very bad telephone line – listened to message 20 times trying to get your email.
Have emailed you but the email address may not be correct
PLEASE leave your email address TWICE, SLOWLY USING PHONETIC ALPHABET
7th April 2014 re message left for me about Yamaha Clavinova CVP107
No info given about what’s wrong with it or whereabouts in the world you live … just an email address. I must admit I thought I’d made it pretty clear that I don’t discuss repairs by email.
I will ring you back if you leave me the required info and a UK landline telephone number (on a Monday morning).
NOTE – If you’re not in the UK, it’s ok to leave me an email address for Technics piano repairs but you should always give the model number and say what’s wrong with it. If you are in the UK and have a Technics product, don’t leave your email address – leave a landline number and I will ring you back. I do not discuss UK repairs by email – not ever!
18th Nov 2013 Message for Olivier “Ocy” Cote in Montreal, Canada
Re your Technics SX-PX103M main board – I expect I can repair it (98% success rate so far)
As it says on my Contact page, please leave me your email address on my answerphone using the phonetic alphabet. Best to leave it twice in case there are crackles on the line.
20th August 2013 Message for Alan(?) Brown in USA with PR903
1) re your PR903 – send me your Main Board so I can test and repair it
Please leave your email address on my answerphone using the phonetic alphabet (as described on my Contact page) so I can send you details of how to do this.
2) re your many questions about other products and spare parts – sorry, I can’t help with these.
28th Feb 2013 Message for Mike Bishop about Technics PR270
Something wrong with your email – listened to your message several times.
Tried variations of your email like mike_ mike- mike. and all have bounced.
The Technics PR270 can be dismantled to transport it.
The owners book shows how to do this but it’s quite straightforward.
If you’re stuck, leave your email on my answerphone again – preferably twice!
NOTE TO SERVICE ENGINEERS / TECHNICIANS
Regarding main boards where +5D reads short circuit. On some models, the cause of this is when a damaged pedal lead has shorted out the 5 volt rail and blown the regulator.
Another reason could be that the regulator blew because a zener or schottky went short.
If the regulator goes short, +Vcc will be on the main board’s 5 volt rail for a brief moment before the fusible components blow.
Only remove components in the 5 volts supply line e.g. regulator transistor, zener diode, schottky diode and maybe desolder and lift one leg of any suspect electrolytics.
Don’t cut any tracks and take care not to damage any vias!
If the 5 volt rail still reads short circuit, there is no point trying to find out which ICs are shorted because most are no longer available.
If the 5 volt rail no longer reads short circuit, replace any faulty or blown components and test the piano. Even if the 5 volts comes up, the piano may play normally … or it may sound terrible because some ICs have been damaged. In this case there is no point trying to find out which ICs are damaged because most, if not all, are no longer available.
I can still get some of these main boards repaired but not if legs of ICs have been cut or lifted or if any tracks have been cut.
E&OE