BENCH NOTES

We hope you’ve been keeping cool during these summer months!

Heatwaves and thunderstorms aside, this month we’re keen to share some inside-baseball with y’all. Today’s newsletter pulls back the curtain on our standard repair process - from start to finish. If you ever wondered exactly how we keep track of all 40+ items in repair at any given moment, well, today’s your day.

And we had an amazing response to last month’s featured releases - so we’re excited to share another round of releases from customers of the shop! Always great music, and some fun collabs to highlight. Check them out!

OUR REPAIR PROCESS

When you perform over 300 repairs each year, you start to notice a pattern. And not just in the causes and issues of problems (though we do that too). 

While every case may present unique challenges, every repair runs through some variation of these distinct stages. If you’re curious to learn more about our approach during each stage, check out this deeper look into our repair process.

Triage: We run every instrument through a triage process to get the baseline of its health.

Repair: Once all of the issues have been located, solving them can follow any number of paths. Some problems require research, trial and error, or just hours of manual labor.

Set Aside: We will often set an instrument aside until we have the next steps - parts, customer approval - to move forward on the repair. We track this status to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.

Escalation: If an issue proves to be more complex, it can escalate to our head tech’s bench. This allows us to formulate a plan for repair and provide a more accurate estimate.

Next Phase: Whether it’s because a part has arrived or a customer has approved the next steps, we use this status to track set-aside repairs that are ready to be returned to the bench.

Quality Control: After an instrument has been repaired and reassembled, it goes through a quality control check to verify that the customer’s original issue has been remedied and everything is functioning as it should.

Complete: Once an instrument has passed QC, the repair is officially marked “complete”, and we’ll email the customer to arrange a pickup!

COLD JOINTS

The internet loves to blame bad caps for almost every synth problem, but you might be surprised how many issues come down to cold solder joints.

Cold solder joints are weak connections that happen when the solder being applied isn’t heated adequately to bond the surfaces being joined. Sometimes cold/broken joints can simply break from use on connectors/controls, and other times it could just be poorly soldered from the factory. Corrosion and oxidation can also be the culprit for weak joints.

We often catch them when faders, output jacks, or other controls only work when you hold or wiggle them a certain way, but cold solder joints can show up in all sorts of places. Just about every electronic connection inside every synth uses solder to hold it together, and every single one has the possibility of being bad. The beauty of cold joints is they’re a snap to repair once we’ve found them - bit of heat, bit of fresh solder, and it’s as good as new.

RELEASES

Some of the latest releases from the Synths When community: 

LOCAL EVENTS

Synth and synth-adjacent happenings in the GTA.

Monday, August 12th | Toronto Electronic Music Open Mic

On the second Monday of each month, our friends at TEMOM hold an electronic music open mic night at Handlebar. 15 minute sets. All live. All musical styles. Drop by at 8pm and enjoy!

Every Wednesday | Render File

You can often catch our talented tech Sam making noise at Render File on Wednesdays. This casual event stars a different video game playthrough each week with an improvised score by a live band. Check it out at Wenona Craft Beer Lodge every Wednesday at 8pm.

Got any suggestions for local events we can add here? We’d love to hear about them! Just reach out and let us know.

If you made it this far, thanks so much for reading! Feel free to let us know what you think, share it with a friend, or suggest new topics you’re curious about.

—The Team at Synths When