CIRCUITBENDERS FAQ
1 - Do circuitbenders sell mod kits?
2 - Is the price shown for a circuit bent machine, a mod kit, or for the installation of the mods?
3 - Can you circuit bend my Nord Lead / Roland JV2080 / Korg Wavestation etc etc?
4 - Do you ship to my country and how can i pay?
5 - Will you take my piece of kit in part exchange for circuit bent gear?
6 - Can i buy a machine from ebay or similar, and get it shipped straight to you for modification?
7 - What kind of turnaround can i expect and when should i send payment?
8 - What should i send with my machine when i ship it for modification?
9 - How much will it cost for me to ship you my machine from my country?
10 - Can i drop off and pick up my machine in person?
11 - Are you based in London? Where are you based?
12 - Can i buy the machine i see on your gallery or sounds pages?
13 - Do you have a list of modified machines i could buy from you?
14 - Can you get hold of a certain machine and mod it for me?
15 - Can you repair my machine?
16 - Can you tell me how to mod my machine?
17 - Can you sell me an unmodified machine?
18 - How much would it cost in my local currency?
19 - I don't see my machine listed anywhere on the site. Can you do (insert mod here) for me on my (insert machine here) and how much will it cost?
20 - Can you do the same mods on my machine, as on this Youtube video made by someone else?
21 - What kind of warranty do you offer?
1 - Do circuitbenders sell mod kits?
Other than some special circumstances the answer is usually no. We don't sell kits for any of our drum machine patchbay mods or most of our synth mods, but we do sell various bit and pieces on the SHOP page that could be used to mod other machines.
Bear in mind that producing a kit isn't as simple as just sticking some parts in a box. First you have to get hold of a machine and install the mod while taking photos of every stage of the installation. Then you need to produce a build guide so comprehensive that you won't spend all your time answering support emails. After that you have to source enough quantities of maybe a few dozen different parts and packaging, and then spend a few tedious hours actually assembling kits.
All this can take literally days depending on the machine in question, so realistically we're not going to put together a one off kit for you
unless you want to pay for the time it takes. In which case you might as well pay us to do the mod for you, as it'd probably work out a lot cheaper!
2 - Is the price shown for a circuit bent machine, a mod kit, or for the installation of the mods?
We don't usually sell kits (see above) and any already modded machines we have for sale will be listed on the SHOP page of the website. The prices quoted around the site for mods are the cost of us installing the mods into your machine for you. Obviously in order to do this you would have to ship your machine to us
3- Can you circuit bend my Nord Lead / Roland Boutique / Elektron Digitakt etc etc?
There is a limit to the level or type of technology that can be circuit bent and machines as complex as a Nord Lead or similar are not going to take kindly to being messed around with. Even something as seemingly simple as a Yamaha DJX mkII has some pretty hardcore integrated electronics in there and there's no way it would be possible to isolate individual features to circuit bend without some serious reverse engineering. If in doubt feel free to ask but bear in mind we can only work so much magic before even we are defeated. :)
4 - Do you ship to my country and how can i pay?
We are happy to ship virtually anywhere within reason as long as the package has a decent chance of arrival and isn't going to be put through a controlled detonation in customs when they X-ray it and discover a mess of rewired electronics. That probably means that North Korea or Iraq might prove a bit difficult and don't even think about asking from Nigeria. From within the UK we will accept a cheque, bank transfer, Paypal, or credit card (via Paypal checkout). From outside the UK we mainly only accept Paypal, credit card, or a bank transfer using IBAN / BIC numbers or transferwise, but we are open to suggestions if you have something else in mind.
5 - Will you take my piece of kit in part exchange for circuit bent gear?
As terminal gear junkies we will always consider virtually any item of music making kit as a part exchange or swap for a bit of circuit bent gear we have for sale, just get in touch and let us know what you've got. We have an especially depraved lust for ancient samplers, anything old and analogue, and weird effects units .
6 - Can i buy a machine from ebay or similar, and get it shipped straight to you for modification?
Yes you can, but due to the current customs restrictions we can only really do this from within the UK. As you can imagine, we couldn't really expect a third party to fill in any necessary customs paperwork correctly. If you are in the UK, or buying from within the UK, as long as both we and the seller are fully aware of what is happening, and the seller can include some kind of note saying who the machine actually belongs to then this would be fine. We will not get involved in ebay or Paypal disputes and can't be held in any way responsible for items on their way to us getting damaged or going missing in the post.
7 - If I'm sending a machine for modification what kind of turnaround can i expect and when should i send payment?
Any payments are due after your machine has been modified and is ready to ship back to you. We will send you the relevant payment and cost details at that time. Depending on how much work we have on turnaround is usually approximately two to three weeks from your machine arriving until it is ready to ship, probably no longer than that unless we come up against any serious problems. If we are doing a custom mod for you on a machine we have never looked at before it may take longer if we have to get hold of special parts or similar.
8 - What should i send with my machine when i ship it for modification.
The main things to make sure you include are full details of your name, address, e-mail address and what mods you want done. This is VERY important as we occasionally get machines arriving with no identification whatsoever and no way of tracking down who owns it.
We have a dedicated SHIPPING FAQ page HERE.
9 - How much will it cost for me to ship you my machine from my country?
We get asked this question all the time, but please think about it for a second before you email us. Not only do we not have an encyclopaedic knowledge of the prices of every postal system and courier worldwide, but we also have no idea about the weight and dimensions of your package, so theres no way we could possibly know how much its going to cost you!
10 - Can i drop off and pick up my machine in person?
Unless you happen to live just around the corner and shipping would be absurd or wildly impractical, the answer to this is no, as we don't currently allow customer deliveries and pickups. If you are in the UK we are happy to recommend a cheap and reliable courier.
11 - Are you based in London? Where are you based?
Astonishing as it may seem to some residents of London, things do actually happen in the UK outside of the capital. There are actually other cities in the country! ;-)
We're based in Portsmouth, on the south coast of the UK.
12 - Can i buy the machine i see on your gallery or sounds pages?
Most of the time the answer to this one is no. Most of the machines you see on the gallery or sounds pages were custom mods for people or just one off machines we sold some time ago. There is a small possibility that we may have another machine in stock we could custom mod for you so get in touch if theres something specific you're looking for.
13 - Do you have a list of modified machines i could buy from you?
No, we never have a fully comprehensive list of machines we have in stock as our stock changes so rapidly and seemingly at random. Our standard response to this question is 'take a look round the site and let us know what kind of machine you might be interested in and we'll let you know what we could build for you'. While we are perfectly happy to give advice we can't tell you what you want!
14 - Can you get hold of a certain machine and mod it for me?
Yes, within reason. We are not going to go out and buy a TB303 for £2000+ on your behalf, but if you are wanting a certain drum machine, synth or modified machine and we don't have one in stock we will do our best to get hold of one for you. We will do our best to advise you as to costs and a budget must be agreed beforehand. For items that may prove expensive to get hold of (i.e. an SH101) we will require a deposit.
15 - Can you repair my machine?
We don't normally do repair work but if you send a machine for modification we will do our best to fix any simple problems that we find along the way. This can include keys and buttons not responding, broken jack sockets, scratchy pots and sliders, dry solder joints and replacing memory backup batteries among other things
16 - Can you tell me how to mod my machine?
Yes, within reason. While we are happy to help people out with their circuitbending and modding problems and will point you in the right direction, we're not about to spend hours writing you a free DIY guide on how to do all our mods. You may have better luck asking on the circuitbenders FORUM where we often post bending information and others may be able to give you some advice.
17 - Can you sell me an unmodified machine?
No, we don't sell unmodified machines as we tend to need them all as stock, so unless you want to offer an absurd amount of money for something then I'm afraid we can't help. Sorry.
18 - How much would it cost in my local currency?
Before sending us an email asking this question, we'd suggest you take a look at an online currency convertor such as XE.com, as thats exactly what we'd be doing ;-)
19 - I don't see my machine listed anywhere on the site. Can you do (insert mod here) for me on my (insert machine here) and how much will it cost?
This is a difficult one to answer. On a machine that we have never modded before it will be very difficult to give a quote for a job before actually taking a look at the thing. If we have worked on similar machines before, or you can send us a link to the schematic or service manual, we might be able to give a rough price in advance, but often it is just not possible. With machines we have never worked on before we will have to charge a £35 inspection fee, but only if either no mods are possible, or you chose not to go ahead with mods after we have worked out what might be possible. This fee is waived if you go ahead with any mods that cost more than £35.
We will usually be willing to do interesting jobs cheaper than dull ones, so send us something freakishly weird or unfathomably complicated, and you might get a bargain. ;-)
20 - Can you do the same mods on my machine, as on this Youtube video made by someone else?
Firstly, we're not in the business of copying other peoples work, but our usual response to this question is 'if you want those mods on your machine, why not contact the person who made that video?' This may sound a little blunt, but you should probably remember that circuit bending and modding is not an exact science. Unless a certain mod is very obvious simply from the sound, or the mods have been documented, theres really no way of knowing exactly what someone else has done.
It would probably also be a good idea to consider that most mods you will see on Youtube and around the net, have been done by people in their spare time as a unique build. Someone doing this as a hobby is perfectly able to spend maybe 100 hours perfecting mods and building a hugely impressive enclosure over a period of weeks. While we're quite happy to consider jobs like that, you probably don't want to imagine how much that might cost!
21 - What kind of warranty do you offer?
All our mods are guaranteed for a period of six months after installation. With this kind of thing, if something is going to go wrong with some mods then it'll most likely go wrong pretty much immediately. If its still working ok after six months then the mods will probably outlive the machine they're installed in! If something goes wrong within that period just get in touch and we'll do our best to sort it out for you. Having said that, we're not going to be dicks about this so feel free to get in touch if something goes weird on one of our machines at any point and we'll see what we can do.
Please note that we only offer a specific warranty on our modification work and NOT on the original circuitry. If we install some mods and then months later a completely unrelated fault becomes apparent then that subsequent fault is not covered i.e. if your output jack falls apart 3 months after we installed a reclocking pot then its not our problem. We do appreciate that there can sometimes be something of a blurred line between mods and original circuitry, so each case will be taken on its merits, and again, we try not to be dicks about these things.
Our warranty is not transferable to subsequent owners if you sell a machine on to another buyer, and will become immediately void if any further work has been done on a machine by anyone other than circuitbenders.co.uk.