I received an AH MkII today that I purchased via fleabay, which unfortunately arrived with a bent encoder that will only function within limited range. Not looking likely that it was shipping damage, and still have yet to work out with the seller what we are going to do about it.
In the meantime, does anyone knows what replacement part to get and approximate cost?(Preferably without having to ship to western Canada from the other side of the world).
And if anyone has done this repair on an AH before? Should it be relatively straightforward if I choose to do the repair instead of sending it back on a 3 week journey in the other direction?
I do have adequate enough basic soldering skills and am not scared to take gear apart…
On the bright side, it does sound fantastic!
That sucks. Unless it was a great price to begin with or it’s still under warranty I’d consider returning it. AH mk2 is not so uncommon of an item that you can’t find good deals on them.
If you decide to replace the encoder, Elektron doesn’t seem very keen on giving out part numbers, however they will sell you the correct part for about $4USD. I’m in California and last time I ordered something the shipping was about $12USD so aside from whatever your local tariff is, you can figure something like $23CAD? from Elektron directly.
The repair should be straightforward enough, but people have a notoriously hard time desoldering Elektron components and I don’t know the reason for that, but either use a ton of flux and be super careful or just find something like a laptop repair place and get them to do the work under a guarantee. It should be cheap enough; it’s through hole component and nothing complex but at the same time you don’t want to be left holding the bag if you accidentally drop a solder pad or something.
Anyway, I think it depends on what the seller is willing to do and what you’re willing to live with, but my experience as someone who’s always looking for a better deal, is that sometimes I have to just put my bargain hunting on hold and admit that it’s worth paying a couple extra dollars for something that has never had any issues and doesn’t need any kind of service.
Up to you though, sorry to hear about the bad situation but hopefully it gets resolved quickly and without a lot of push-back on the other end.
Yea price was pretty good, maybe a bit too good… Well at least until shipping and (BS) sales on used goods tax, still came in, bjt still a fair bit less than any other sources I could find within the timeframe I spent looking. (not including my getting reverb account put under review for a week after attempting to purchase one there, ffs) Seemed like a win if there wasn’t this issue.
K, thanks for the info, I will contact Elektron. I’m leaning towards not going through the hassle of a return, and asking for a partial refund instead, to cover repair cost/time.
Maybe I’ll feel different in the morning.
Yeah, if it’s in good condition other than the encoder it could be worth keeping.
No worries, with any luck they can ship the part from SoCal instead of Sweden. I think the encoder is pretty common, but if you order something random it almost always comes from their stock at the Sweden warehouse so you can figure on a significantly longer shipping time if that’s the case.
Like I said, it’s a fairly common part, their US hq might have a bunch of them. If you submit a contact form from the elektron.se site they’re pretty quick about getting back with a quote though.
Anyway, good luck with that, whatever route you decide to go.
Good news mostly.
Not wanting to wait around for the Elektron team to get back from holidays, and being a sort of a live on the edge kinda guy, I opened the AH and with a pair of grips as gently as possible yet quite firmly, managed to bend the encoder into its proper position and regain 100% functionality.
There is still a small wobble when turning the knob and I will order an encoder to have on hand just in case.
Even after disclosing to the seller that I did this, he agreed to refund me apprx 10%.
In the end, yes probably would have been better off paying more and buying from a retail store with solid return policy, or at least from as seller within the same country or time zone but I am happy enough with the situation now.
And for anyone else reading this, I don’t necessarily recommend trying this fix at home, but yes it is possible (at least in this particular case) to bend a bunged encoder back into place. Obviously you would want to be very sure not to put any undue stress on any other components
Only issue remaining is I am very quickly wishing I had a second LFO…
That’s awesome that you got some closure! If you see that the reason it’s now a bit loose is because the “claw” parts on the metal aren’t gripping the encoder body well enough after having bent it back into place, you might be able to gently tighten those up against the sides using a channel lock plier from directly overhead.
If it’s the shaft which is loose in the bushing and the housing seems firmly gripped by the metal part, I would just leave it alone.
Cool though, glad you got it sorted with the seller too. Happy holidays! Maybe Santa will bring you an extra LFO for christmas
