I can relate as the envelope generator of my MC-202 just dies this afternoon ā¦
Lucky me that I have a semi-modular modded version so I can use any of the envelope from my modular to replace it but still this is anoying !
sounds like you need an italian professor standing by in your studio.
Too bad thereās an ocean between us. I am about to put mine on the chopping block. It is a great machine. Like you, I prefer the DX for its ability to easily tune voices. Itās also quite easy to swap out the voice chips (of which I have quite a few in their original Oberheim packaging).
Mine has the DRAM and MIDI upgrades from Electrongate. I shall be sad to see it go, but I almost never use it. As great as it is, itās wasted on me these days. Now if I had an Oberheim Prommerā¦ 
arenāt you in the states? Iām in Ohio.
Oh! I thought you were in the UK! (pre-coffee reply) Yeah, Iām in Kansas.
This is the normal method.
I worked at a repair shop years ago.
The majority of time and effort is finding out what the problem is.
You could spend a whole 8 hour day troubleshooting something and then the person decides they donāt want to fix it. Yay!
So the tech makes some percentage (60%?) of that $50 diagnostic fee and the person raises all hell and bitches and complains that theyāve been charge just to figure out the problem. So you spend another few hours dealing with some jerk. Then they go online and complain about how much this shop sucks.
Many of these people are paying off student loans making less then minimum wage in reality. The ones that stay are usually retired guys just looking for something to do.
Wonder why there arenāt many good repair shops anymore? Itās charity work dealing with peoples filthy nasty gear and being yelled at all day. How many highly educated and skilled people would stay in this job?
Want good repair shops? Be kind and understanding 
This isnāt directed at you oldbills, just feeding off your comment.
Preach @Airyck! This is the main reason I stopped doing repair work. Itās sad because I really enjoyed the actual work part, I just couldnāt take the abuse from unreasonable/ unrealistic customers.
Anyone who can use a soldering iron and a screwdriver can swap components out, the skill is all in the diagnostics.
Next on 60 minutes: A real life look at the rancid squalor in music repair shops!
@blurrghost You know exactly how it is hugs
Even when you were able to repair stuff youād have to charge way less than the actual work you did just to āsellā the repair to the customer or risk not getting paid for your work.
This gigging musician from Vale Colorado would come into the shop with a Yamaha keyboard every few months. It was just full of beer and shit was broken all of the time every few months. He was always so thankful and kind that Iād clean it up and fix it for him. Those kind of people were the ones that made me stay.
The shop I worked at Mars Amp Repair in Colorado was happy to take me on when they did. Theyād been open many years. I left in tears when I quit because I loved the guys there. But I was going to be homeless and not able to eat if I kept working there.
I quit and he closed the shop for good in a week, After being open 20+ years. They just couldnāt do it anymore.
Edit: Donāt get me wrong, some repair guys are just pricks, but thatās how they get treated everyday so it makes sense 
I guarantee the picture I painted is the reality of 100% of the repair shop guys out there. So keep that in mind when you take your shit to the only 3 repair shops left on the planet.
Iām getting sweaty palmed flashbacks thinking about that. Nearly came to blows several times.
I even went so far as to undo repairs (put the dead components back in) for customers who refused to pay on numerous occasions toward the end. Clear sign of burnout.
Your regular with the Yamaha was the type that made it worth it though and there were enough of them to keep me in the field for years. Unfortunately I always had to have another job too if I actually wanted to pay my rent.
I still have a short list of regulars (friends mostly) who I do repairs and mods for at friend prices, sometimes for trades. Thatās about all I can stomach these days unless the project is really interesting and I am told to just name my price.
A different look @ the realities of owning vintage gear
Just back to say another weird reality of vintage gear is that they sometimes repair themself hahaha, the next day I plugged the MC-202 again and it was working perfectly
Back when I couldnāt afford anything else I used to buy broken synths to repair myself and keep in my modest collection. It didnāt matter to me if it took an hour or a week to diagnose a fault and repair it (obv just dipping in and out when time allowed). However it got to the point that broken vintage gear got stupidly expensive (imo). I guess itās just a reflection of the market but it was a sad one when I realised I was getting priced out. I couldnāt work out how folks were able to pay the asking price, pay for repairs (if they werenāt doing them) and still be able to turn a profit until used prices went through the roof. I never flipped any of those synths, I used to really enjoy the fault finding and repair element, I guess that ship has sailed now.
They certainly werenāt buying them at fleabay asking price, even in āunworkingā condition.
There was a guy bringing us things like the CS80, Farfisas, various vintage synths, etcā¦ heād have us repair/restore them and flip them.
Not sure where he was getting them but I know he was charging a lot after we worked on them.
I have a couple of āvintageā things i still need to finish restoring. Nothing special really, I just feel like I need to finish before I sell them off. I hate the idea of sending them off to probably end up in a landfill when the next person gives up on them.
Iām afraid they were, well, the items Iād watched or bid on. I couldnāt believe what stuff was going for.
Yup, got a few myself, to my eternal shame! Iāll get around to them soon
I think you can still go this route. I know of someone whose studio is almost all vintage synths and drum machines and he got the majority of them by getting gear that needed a bit of work. but yes, you have to watch eBay, Reverb, forums, etc like a hawk. you eventually build up private contacts as well, who will approach you before listing publicly.
I also think there are still some awesome affordable vintage synths out there, which havenāt really gone up that much in price in the past decade (comparatively, at least). Yamaha CS series of monos, vintage MS-20ās, SH-101, etc. and these are all pretty reliable synths as well.