Assistance in ordering spare parts from the UK

[doctor]

Please excuse that this post is a bit off topic.

Over the past few years, I purchased spare parts from a UK based company.
Recently, they changed their support policy, and are no longer able to send
spare parts to customers outside of the UK and Ireland.

I’m looking for a professional technician from a UK who could order spare
parts on my behalf, for his company, and resend them to me.
This may be a few times a year.

For my part, I will pay in advance the cost of spare parts, cost of postage,
and the cost for his service.

I’m also willing to lend him professional assistance based on my expertise:

1. Assistance with schematics and service manuals from my collection
(more than 40,000 files for today).
2. Professional consultation on technical issues – including hard-to-repair cases.
I rarely offer detailed advice on these forums, because it is very time
consuming, but I’m willing to go a long way for someone who helps me.

If you think you can help, please contact me by PM.

Doctor.

[Enzo]

Sounds very specific, what sort of parts are they?

[J M Fahey]

It is also important that you state your Country of residence.

Sometimes some parts can not be sent to some places or paperwork is a nightmare.

Or because of Distributor agreements they can't ship to an end user in your Country but force you to buy from the local Distributor.

Not thinking that you need to build Nuclear Triggers or missile guidance, but sometimes even innocent parts may be subject to extensive paperwork.

I live in Argentina and distinctly remember when, some 20/25 years ago, CNC equipment could not be exported from USA because there was some obscure but valid Law that blocked it based on the idea that "it could be used to build airplane or Military equipment parts" .... I'm talking about a very simple XY router table homebuilt with aluminum window type extrusions, controlled from the parallel port of an XT PC, which could only work on plastic and MDF

[guitarmike2107]

an MDF and plastic military plane would be right inline with current government budgets, you could lead the way...

Pm Sent

[doctor]

It's just spare parts for servicing synthesizers.

As I've mentioned - it's an issue of an economic decision on their part,
to stop handling orders outside of UK - no bureaucratic or legal issues.

If someone can help, I will obviously provide full details, but I prefer not
to go into details in a public thread, or highlight the company in question.

Regards.

[Enzo]

Well, we don't want your secrets, and don't care what company it was, but without knowing what parts you need, it is difficult to tell whether we can offer assistance or not. My own experience with synths tells me there are common parts like op amps, and then there are specific parts like Curtis chips or SSM chips or custom Roland ICs, or whatever. I quit taking in Moog analog boards when they needed all these selected transistors and 1% resistors. There are parts made by general suppliers, and then there are custom parts which are pretty much limited to NOS stuff.

[doctor]

Dear Enzo,

Thank you very much for your offer of assistance.

I have no secrets - sometimes I need spare parts for synthesizers: contact rubber buttons, joysticks, speaker grids, etc. These are special parts and they cannot be replaced by parts made by other manufacturers and/or for other models.

[g1]

Could you tell us which country you are in, or at least the continent?

[Enzo]

Doctor, if you care to engage me in a couple of PMs, I may have a few parts you would be interested in. No secret I am liquidating my shop. I have not done a lot of synth work in the last decade or so, but still have a number of things in stock. A FEW joystick parts, so various key contacts and keys, a pile of DX7 type keys as used by Yamaha and Korg. Some other keys. hell I have whole sets of Wurlitzer tines too. Those little round domes button caps like on a Korg M1? No pressure or obligation intended. Oh, and assuming you are in the USA.

[doctor]

Hi Enzo,

I cannot refuse you.

Please prepare free place into your PM space and I will send you all details.
But don’t complain later…

[Enzo]

OK, I was just over there last night cataloging Ensoniq floppies and rubber contact strips. I have a working ESQ1 board with good Curtis chips and SSM ICs. Need Ensoniq keys? I have a number of keybeds.

[km6xz]

I believe Doctor is in Australia, if so, and on FB there is a members only group of full time bench techs who have stocks of many of those parts, and several members are in Australia, most in US, Canada and UK. Doctor, contact me via PM if you want an official invitation required to join. For others: if you have not been asked to join one of the 2 closed groups, an active fulltime tech is this field, there might be a reason. There are not that many highly experienced techs who are not known by others.

If anyone has needed schematics before there is a good chance Doctor came to your rescue, he has been very generous with his time and vast collection of schematics but this is the first time I have read a request for assistance for himself.

[Enzo]

Well if he is in Oz, then my offer of a small collection of esoteric parts is probably moot.

[doctor]

Hi Enzo,

PM sent.

[doctor]

There is well known Benjamin Franklin effect: “A person who has done or completed a favor for someone is more likely to do another favor for that person than they would be if they had received a favor from that person”.

I have helped many technicians from the UK, but none of them responded.