DIY Music Gear Repair with Bell Tone Synth Works

At local vintage synth repair shop Bell Tone Synth Works, some of the repairs that we do, and many of the repairs that we receive inquiries about, are simple enough that almost anyone could do them with just a little bit of knowledge and a few simple tools. However, widespread cultural shifts and the sense of inscrutability that consumer electronics manufacturers cultivate have led to people being less comfortable tinkering and fixing things themselves than people in our parents’ and grandparents’ generations were.

At our ongoing series of DIY Music Gear Repair Workshops, we hope to empower people to do simple audio electronics repairs themselves. For this workshop, we invite you to bring something that you have that is in need of minor repair, and the professional electronics technicians on our team will coach you through learning how to fix it. Other types of musical equipment other than synthesizers are also welcome at this event (see below). Through this process, attendees will have the opportunity to learn a bit about whatever topics come up during the repair: common issues and their causes, troubleshooting strategies, instrument construction, how to use basic test equipment, how to solder, etc. 

Categories of gear:

• synths, keyboards, drum machines
• Eurorack and other modular synth modules
• mixers
• stereo equipment and speakers (no headphones or ear buds)
• effects pedals and other effects units
• solid state amps (no tube amps)
• electric guitars and basses*
• help with DIY builds in progress

Example types of repairs:

• dirty/noisy or broken potentiometers and sliders
• finicky audio and DC jacks
• keyboard key contact issues - keys double triggering or not playing
• things that work with batteries but not with their adaptors
• internal memory battery replacements
• *electric guitar and bass wiring and controls

About the Instructor: 
Alison Stout is the owner and a senior technician at Bell Tone Synth Works, a vintage synthesizer service and sales shop located just outside of Philadelphia in Upper Darby. She is a musician and electronics technician and designer with over 15 years of electronics repair experience, and has operated Bell Tone since 2016. Through this work, she has studied decades’ worth of consumer electronics design conventions and paradigms. Inspired by this knowledge, she is now working to design musical devices that offer sustainability through serviceability.