Los Angeles area Synth Tech

[chrisso]

Kevin Lightner.
But then you are talking synth tech to the stars.
'Stars' being both his client list and the quality of the synths he is used to working on (rare and expensive).
Kevin Lightner Client list

[XXXEsq]

Try Ed Miller at synthesizerrepair.com. He's on Santa Monica.

[controlvoltage]

stephi at big city music might do some repair outside of Big City's stock - not sure though.

Kevin Lightner suggests you avoid Advanced Musical Electronics.

[e6400ultra]

Originally Posted by controlvoltage

Kevin Lightner suggests you avoid Advanced Musical Electronics.

With good reason. Check out these posts from someone on the Waldorf list!:

"Got my Blofeld back from the shop with a new brain. Thank you Waldorf.

Only complain is with Advanced Musical in Los Angeles.
Apparently their tech and my Blofeld had a wrestling match
when their tech tried to remove the knobs - the front panel
came back with a few screwdriver marks and sounding like a
beat-up maraca, with a couple of loose screws inside. Bad.

Given that Advanced IS Waldorf's repair center in the US West Coast,
they should have better knowledge of how to pull a Blofeld apart and
how to assemble it back together again. In the past I've had a very
good experience with them - it may have been a rookie tech. Nonetheless, bad."

"..I am in the middle of a back-forth with them - I basically said replace the panel or deeply discount the work.
Their saying "asking Waldorf what to do..." (as it their shoddy work was Waldorf's responsibility) "...or send
it back and we will touch paint what we've done" (as if painting will repair the screwdriver grooves)..."

F*ck those guys.

[rokuez]

Originally Posted by XXXEsq

Try Ed Miller at synthesizerrepair.com. He's on Santa Monica.

Ed Miller was recommended to me by someone was well.


i was looking to get my prophet 5 rev 2 repaired and the person recommended Ed Miller and Greg Granieri as two awesome techs in the LA area.

David Kulka's Studio Electronics- History

Greg Granieri
work 818-425-1053
731 North Victory 91502
Burbank CA


&

Synthesizer Repair

ED Miller
6110 Santa Monica Blvd.
Hollywood, CA 90038
USA
Phone (323) 460-4509

[monads]

Originally Posted by rokuez

i was looking to get my prophet 5 rev 2 repaired and the person recommended Ed Miller and Greg Granieri as two awesome techs in the LA area.

Greg Granieri
work 818-425-1053
731 North Victory 91502
Burbank CA

I just dropped my Roland MC-4B off to Greg, hopefully he can repair my display issue problem with all the characters not displaying. I'll keep you guys posted.

Here's his website address by the way Pro Audio Equipment Repair for Los Angeles - Audio Rehab

[bloopbleep]

Wished I know this info before I took the Juno-60 in for service at AME a few months ago. Its fixed but not quite the same and took like 2.5 months :( Next time!

[CJ1973]

I took my Juno 106 to Ed Miller for a replacement chip. I even had the chip purchased off Ebay for like 50 bucks. He got it fixed in a week and its pristine.
I wanted to get my Xpander a full service and I felt he didnt do the greatest job for the 150 he charged me. I think he knows what he is doing and is very very reasonable, but the key is to really write down the issues for him and dont expect him to find minor deficiencies. My fault to an extent but the thing works like a charm but a couple of the buttons are still abit loose (I can probably just open it up and fix those) but I am really surprized he missed those in the full service he provided. I would still go back to him. He charged me 1/3 of what AME wanted to charge me and they could not even guarantee any delivery time etc.

[monads]

Got the MC-4B back today! Greg is awesome! MC-4B is fixed and working properly. There were numerous soldering connections causing the display to malfunction. I can recommend him wholeheartedly.

I have not dealt with Ed, but these look to be the two best techs in the L.A. area. Thanks to rokuez for providing the contact info!

monads

[Synthicide]

bump

[007]

Originally Posted by bloopbleep

Wished I know this info before I took the Juno-60 in for service at AME a few months ago. Its fixed but not quite the same and took like 2.5 months :( Next time!

Is that Alphaville in your avatar?
LOL! I used to love that band, especially the first album!

[dubnspace]

bump for this thread. I need to get a mono/poly serviced for tuning issues.. Kevin Lightner appears to be out of comission (From his website: Currently Kevin is ill and not taking in new work. We have no idea if or when this status will change. We are currently finishing what synths are here now.)

Another thread here had some harsh things to say about Ed Miller as well.. So any others with experience with any of the techs listed in this thread or any new recommendations?

[Coyoteous]

I just read about Kevin's situation today... very sad.

[monads]

Originally Posted by dubnspace

bump for this thread. I need to get a mono/poly serviced for tuning issues....Another thread here had some harsh things to say about Ed Miller as well.. So any others with experience with any of the techs listed in this thread or any new recommendations?

still a + for Greg Granieri of AudioRehab. i would give him a call to see if he can help. I did have another problem with my MC-4, but Greg fixed it as well so he's my go to guy if any of my stuff needs servicing.

[Chub]

Here's the details of my very unfortunate expierence with Big City Music

Around August 16th I called and made an appointment to bring in my Minimoog for repair. I told the girl working there that the synth turned on and filter section seemed to be working fine, however the Oscillator section did not have any output. She assured me that they could work on it and have it back in a few weeks. She did mention the tech was out sick, but should be back in a few days. She also said she would probably be the one working on it anyway, so no worries. Well a few weeks goes by and no calls, so I call and get told the tech is still out sick. Now fast forward to Sept. 21st....no calls, so I call and am told the tech is still out sick and they haven't even looked at it. Ok, so now fast-forward to today Sept. 27th....a hole month and 1/2 later, not one call from them with an update. So I call and get the owner, who actually asks me "well, what's wrong with it?" I tell him to look at his own damn work order and read it! He tells me they haven't looked at it and probably shouldn't because "it could be costly and they don't like working on things that have had repairs in the past". I tell him I'm willing to pay good money for good service and how do you know it's had past repairs if you haven't even opened it? He makes a bunch or silly excuses and tries to blame it on the girl working for him. I would avoid them like the plague. Going to try Greg at Audio Rehab. Will let you know how it works out.

[Mdns]

Originally Posted by Chub

Here's the details of my very unfortunate expierence with Big City Music

Around August 16th I called and made an appointment to bring in my Minimoog for repair. I told the girl working there that the synth turned on and filter section seemed to be working fine, however the Oscillator section did not have any output. She assured me that they could work on it and have it back in a few weeks. She did mention the tech was out sick, but should be back in a few days. She also said she would probably be the one working on it anyway, so no worries. Well a few weeks goes by and no calls, so I call and get told the tech is still out sick. Now fast forward to Sept. 21st....no calls, so I call and am told the tech is still out sick and they haven't even looked at it. Ok, so now fast-forward to today Sept. 27th....a hole month and 1/2 later, not one call from them with an update. So I call and get the owner, who actually asks me "well, what's wrong with it?" I tell him to look at his own damn work order and read it! He tells me they haven't looked at it and probably shouldn't because "it could be costly and they don't like working on things that have had repairs in the past". I tell him I'm willing to pay good money for good service and how do you know it's had past repairs if you haven't even opened it? He makes a bunch or silly excuses and tries to blame it on the girl working for him. I would avoid them like the plague. Going to try Greg at Audio Rehab. Will let you know how it works out.

BCM let my Filterbank sit in their shop for over 4 months, intermittent communication the whole time. I even had to remind them to ship it weeks after they invoiced me. $120's later it's back now but with two knobs that don't match the rest, they kept my originals, and now my Trigger LED makes noise! Thanks BCM

[phrase]

i got a vp330 im trying to get a look at and damnit wtf everyone wants a bite of your wallet without doing shit! im just so fed up im about to call it a quits and return the vp330. my only remote hope is ed miller. Audio rehab wanted $200 just to have it sit there and get a uhm and a ah, same crap with ame. Just pretty much got on the bandwagon of wanting $$$$. When I do pc diagnostics im FREE! because by me charging will only make me no better than the other loser computer techs. Reasonable rates and honesty will get you repeat business left and right. To all the other greedy shops I hope you die and go under! (vst's) thats my rant after calling places for 1 week straight and getting no where in terms of what its going to cost, on my beloved vintage paperweight.

[thenoodle]

synthesizerrepair.com says "free estimates". Is that not the case when you visited there?

I was going to take a couple of dead Roland things in for estimates next week.

[JSt0rm]

I have 2 items in with ed right now. They should be back to me by next wednesday or so. i will report back.

[JSt0rm]

Forgot to update this. Everything went fine with ed. It ended up taking a couple days extra but no big deal.