Service Centres
Here are some contacts for parts and service in North America and Europe.
North America
CAE Sound (San Mateo, California)
285 N. Amphlett Blvd, San Mateo, California 94401 U.S.A. 650.348.2737
Christopher Now writes that he "was recently at CAE in San Mateo and they had a couple Chromas in for sevice. My old boss, Peter Miller is still fixing them himself and his Chroma Service diploma is still hanging on the wall." [June 1999] Chris Ryan [21030691] had his Chroma serviced at CAE Sound in October 1999, and they did a wonderful job refinishing the wood, which had been damaged by the common problem of deteriorating foam in the case.
Cantos Music Foundation (Calgary, Alberta)
134-11th Ave. S.E., Calgary, Alberta T2G 0X5 Canada. 403.543.5127
John Leimseider <leimseiderj@cantos.ca> [21030434++] writes, "I used to be the Chroma repairman at MusicTek Services. I've done lots and lots of them, and also was fixing voice cards without the customer's Chroma. I'm now at the Cantos Music Foundation in Calgary, Alberta, Canada where I'm in charge of keeping about 200 synths and keyboards running. The service center here is also open to the public." [December 2003]
Analog Synthesizer Service (San Francisco Bay Area, California)
Recommended by Uro [21030401], who writes, "Take it to Greg M: you may have the fortune that mine will be there for comparison, entrails also on display. Greg fell in love with my Chroma after I took it to him the first time—and this is for a big guy who breathes Sequential IC's!" [November 2005]
Michael Krewitsky, ProSound Inc. (San Diego, California)
Michael writes, "My company Professional Sound and Music is a thirty year old Service Center and dealership. We were (and are) a Fender Repair Station dating from the time of the original distribution of the Chromas. We have schematics and can still repair Chromas within reason. We have repaired scores of them over the years, but not many lately." [February 2009]
Mike Metz, Thesis Audio Service (Wichita, Kansas)
Thesis Audio Service, 4235 W, Central, Wichita, Kansas 67212 USA. 316-942-7341. Edward Chen [21030674] writes, "My Chroma started showing all the symptoms of a bad PSU and he was able to troubleshoot and correct it without me having to ship the whole unit to him. Had it back within 2 weeks time and it's been running like new ever since." [October 2006]
Analogics (Geneva, Ohio)
5261 E. Maple Rd., Geneva, Ohio 44041 USA. Wes Taggart writes, "I work on both the Chroma and the Polaris." [February 2006]
MusicTek Services (Hollywood, California)
12041 Burbank Blvd., North Hollywood, California 91607 U.S.A. 818.506.4055
John Leimseider [21030434++] (see Cantos Music Foundation above), who used to work at MusicTek, writes, "MusicTek bought all that Fender had left about 10 years ago. They may still have some, but they're expensive." [November 2005]. Christopher Now writes that this company has parts for the Chroma, "including the membrane switch assemblies ($350.00 each!!!) power supply overvoltage regulator boards and some of the chips on the voice boards." [March 1999]
Cantos Music Foundation has since purchased MusicTek's stock of Chroma parts; see parts available, June 2007.
James Reynolds (Elmira, New York)
Elmira, New York, U.S.A. 607.732.9629
Karta writes, "I have a repair engineer here in Elmira that does my repairs that normally I use ... he is the Authorized Kurzweil Repair person in this area." [July 2003]
Three Wave Music (Hawthorne, New Jersey)
5 Valley St, Hawthorne, New Jersey, U.S.A. 973.949.3199
Sam Masuko writes, "We repair the Rhodes Chroma and Polaris. Also, repair most of vintage keyboards." [March 2010]
The Good Guys Audio Repair (St. Paul, Minnesota)
1111 Grand Ave., St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S.A. 651.292.9165
Tim Siefkes [21030850] had his Chroma repaired here. He writes, "They've been in business over twenty years, and one of their staff has 'certified' Chroma training with a diploma on the wall to show for it." [March 1999]
Richard Willoughby [21030155] writes, "One of the techs told me that they just recently serviced a Chroma last month." [December 2006]
Rockfleet Music Service (Woburn, Massachusetts)
175-P New Boston Street, Woburn, Massachusetts 01801 U.S.A. 617.937.0353
Eirikur Hallgrimsson [21030467+] writes that "a couple of the original Chroma techs do business under the name of Rockfleet in the Boston area." [May 1999] Several people have since been unable to contact the company; let me know if you know anything.
Europe
Roy Paynter (UK)
Paul Hackett-Evans [21010094] <paulhackettevans@sky.com> writes, "Roy Paynter is one of the original Chroma trained engineers, and he has a Chroma which he uses as a testbed for repair units, swapping voiceboards and components, etc. to test and calibrate them. He can take individual sections of a Chroma and service them for you if you need. (Like the power supply from my Chroma, much cheaper than shipping the whole instrument to him.) Roy has sets of leads to connect parts of his testbed Chroma to corresponding parts of repair Chromas to make this easier and more accurate. He does an excellent job. Roy works as a keyboard engineer for a major UK distributor of high-tech musical equipment for 3 days a week, during which time he stays away from home. The rest of the week he works from his own well-equipped workshop near Peterborough, England, where he services Chromas and all manner of other instruments. He only uses his email, <r.paynter@btinternet.com>, to contact component suppliers and keep in touch with his private clients, so if anyone contacts him using it, Roy may not reply quickly. If there is an urgent need to contact Roy, Chroma users can mail me and I'll put them in touch with Roy by phone. He'd rather we didn't put his workshop phone number on the website as the same line also serves as his home number." [February 2001, Paul's email address updated August 2008]
Ben Rossborough, Cyberwave Ems (UK)
"I am now offering repair services for them as I have become something of a specialist! In Hay-on Wye, about an hour from Cardiff." <Ben@softwaresynths.com> [April 2008]
Virtual Music (Austria)
Alexander Guelfenburg writes, "Although my specialities are PPG, Fairlight, Synthex, etc. I have done a couple of Rhodes Chromas successfully." [September 2007]
Touched By Sound GmbH (Germany)
Sigmundstraße 110, 90431 Nürnberg. <info@touched-by-sound.com>
Ernst Eimer [21010299] writes, "I haven't needed a technician for my Chroma so far. But I know that the previous owner of my synth had it repaired once. He sent it to TBS in Nuremberg." [February 2001]
Xtended (Germany)
Mirko Lüthge [21010245+] writes, "My chroma expander [16330046] had been repaired by the company Xtended, Oranienstr. 6, Berlin. It repairs all kinds of analog synths." [July 2002]
Casale Bauer/LEMI (Italy)
Mario Faelli writes that he has found a few service resources in Italy. "I found the Casale Bauer [e-mail service@casalebauer.com] near Bologna city, that was the Italian seller/repair. I get to that company and contact Mr. Reatti, who is the MASTER in repairing Chroma, and Polaris synthesizer. I also contacted the LEMI company in Turin (Torino city), they are the best in Italy on repairing vintage Synthesizer!" [January 2001]
ConnectionBuilt (Holland)
Miriam Bolten writes "I am a proud owner of a chroma and chroma expander ... I picked up the chroma expander a few months ago in Germany. It was working but I wanted a new power supply and a fan in it because otherwise I get problems in the future ... I got the new power supplies from www.connectionbult.com ... Serviceconnection installed the supply in my chromas and also a fan." [April 2001] 