Tim seems to know synthesizers and especially the older vintage synths. His repair prices seem fair to me. It took months, however I was not in a hurry. Especially in an area where there are few knowledgeable synth guys. There used to be some knowledgeable guys even in Eugene, but they are long gone, just like disposable consumer audio equipment. I had a prior horrible experience at another Portland repair shop years ago. My attempts at just talking to someone knowledgeable about an Oberheim OB012 was futile. The problem is you have to go through the girl who answers the phone, and she isn't going to give you any information other than a time frame to open it up. That synth sat for months until I finally got a call saying they could not fix it. What did they do? Nothing other than what I had already attempted to do which was firmware updating. I sent the Oberheim to Viscount USA, the makers of the Oberheim OB-12, and it was fixed within 3 weeks. Imagine that! Back to Tim...yeah I would send him anything he says he is open to looking at. read more

I thought my 1950's microphone was beyond repair, but TIm brought it back to life. He is a wizard. And a really cool guy.

I brought my Nord Electro 5D in to Tim Hochstedler at Synapse Audio Systems to fix two broken drawbars and a dial that was loose. Tim fixed the problems an an extremely timely fashion and at a reasonable price. He is very easy to work with. Very satisfied. read more

Vintage gear is fussy & idiosyncratic, but that's why we love it. Keeping it all in working order has been much easier thanks to Tim's no nonsense, reasonable & personable service. I did try one other 'pro audio' place in Portland due to the simple fact that it was located within walking distance from my studio & it was a pretty awful experience for all involved. No such problems here. Brian Sours is great too - get one of his $100 boosts if you can... read more

I've taken a couple of things there and have talked with others about their experience too. Portland Custon Shop takes a relatively long time for repairs, and they don't always do the best job. Someone told me yesterday their mono poly has been in there for two months. I had a synth in there for more than a month to replace a broken key, and they did an awful job of matching it, although it did function. People I've shown the synth to have laughed at the repair work. Bottom line -- if you're expecting excellent work on something unique, I'd say look elsewhere. Tim is a nice guy, but his skills are limited. read more

This shop saved my Kawai SX-240 from being parted out. I had taken it to another shop and was told that they had no idea what the problem was and suggested I part it out, or if I was willing to dump unlimited funds into it, they could try to fix it. That advice cost me $100. I decide to get a second opinion so I take it to Portland Custom Shop and first off, they didn't take any money from me to look at it. I was told "We don't operate like that" which I really respected. Fast forward a bit and I get a call telling me to come pick it up. It was working perfectly and they had even reloaded the original sound banks which were lost when the battery failed. I asked what was wrong with it and it was just the power supply which wasn't putting out a solid 5V to the rails. They rebuilt the power supply and tossed in a beefier battery. The total bill was ridiculously reasonable. I am so glad that I chose to take my synth in to this place. To think that I was considering selling it for parts....ugggh. They have a customer for life. read more

Portland Custom Shop has several departments, but this review refers to the guitar tech, Brian Watson (Sick String), who did an absolutely abysmal (yet expensive!) job on the two guitars I brought in. One was a Taylor 314 acoustic, which needed a simple set-up and restring. When I got it back, the intonation was considerably worse, and there was widespread buzzing -- like, literally *every* single fret on every string up until about the 6th fret buzzed horribly, and certain strings buzzed more or less all the way up the neck. This had never been a problematic guitar, and had played just fine before (and since) his "job." The other guitar was a Japanese Strat, which also needed a basic set-up, and which also came back with poorer intonation and buzzier frets. I had also asked him to try to alleviate some of the excessive hum typical of Strats. Afterwards, I didn't notice any audible reduction in the hum, but a few months later I did start to notice intermittent clicking and loud popping, and when examined by my new tech (can you blame me?), we found that Brian's solution to the hum problem (which cost me a pretty penny) was a ghetto-rigged "re-shielding" consisting of crumpled tinfoil attached with electrical tape. We removed this and the popping was gone, and wouldn't you know it -- it now hummed a bit less too! I run a studio, and both of these guitars were out of commission for extended periods given the extra repair work needed after receiving them in unusable condition from Brian. Not cool. And on top of all this, his were some of the priciest set-up jobs I have paid for. Some folks asked me at the time if I ever gave him the chance to make things right by bringing the guitars back, which I admittedly did not, but honestly, would you? I'll bring stuff back when the work is in the ballpark with some minor oversights. This was just, as I said, abysmal. read more

Brian did some mods and tweaks on my early 70's Ampeg V4 and I could not have been more impressed with the whole experience. He really knows vintage ampeg. He is METICULOUS with his work and it shows both in his repairs and his own amps he builds. Super nice guy, not a pretentious douche like some amp techs can be, and the most knowledgable person I've met on vintage ampeg amps. My amp is not only properly biased now, but is better tailored to my type of playing thanks to his tweaking. Very pleased. When this amp dies, I might look at one of his Soursound amps. Thanks Brian. read more

We're incredibly happy with the work done on our vintage synthesizer by Synapse Audio. Tim worked on our 1977 Korg PS-3100. It had been in storage and needed several kinds of work, from replacing capacitors to recreating corroded circuit traces. Tim was able to take it on very short notice and was very accommodating while we were passing through Portland. He gave a detailed account of all the work, including pictures and descriptions. With regard to pricing, Tim was extremely fair and even didn't charge for some of the extra time needed to research this synth, which is a beast. As a result of the work, we've been able to really enjoy this heirloom. In short, we absolutely couldn't be happier with Tim at Synapse Audio. read more

Was sold a defective voice chip for my Juno 106. Tim never responded to my email or texts for like 3-4 days. I had to show up myself in person and request a refund. We agreed on a refund but he didn't offer me full price for what my previously installed and working Analogue Renaissance chip worth, nor did he offer enough to cover buying a new one. He offered me $55 and its at least $70 to get a new one. Not to mention price of calibration which I paid him in labor costs for apparently no reason. I'm not going to squander over $15... but I will leave an honest Yelp review! Also paid him to fix an intermittent LFO switch. Well, you guessed it, $197 later it is still intermittent and now I have a broken Juno 106 for which I am still waiting for a voice chip to arrive in the mail so I can fix it myself. Also sold me a Prophet 5 that supposedly was ready to go and 'teched out'. Turns out once I took it home it would freeze and crash hard. He did offer to fix it but never responded to my polite and professional messages via email text after he had it almost 2 weeks when I was asking for an update... Once I called him and he actually picked up he wanted to keep it another week. I am done waiting while he puts me on the back burner. A friend told me about the Prophet guru Greg M. in SF fixing and returning ovehis fully dead Prophet in 3 working days. *Update... now the LFO doesn't work!* *New update... two IC's bad which caused bad LFO. Sent it to Greg M. and now it is finally singing. Opened it up myself and saw that none of the caps especially in particular the tantalums, had been replaced except for maybe one or two that had previously exploded and caused major damage to the circuit board. I found old, ancient 35 year capacitors all throughout the circuit boards including power supply and voice boards. Like a bunch of little ticking time bombs waiting to go pop! Did that work myself. Shouldn't have to be that way since this synth was supposedly 'teched out' and 'ready to go'. This guy is so full of shit and a flat out liar it is unbelievable! Oh yeah, I also fixed the freezing problem myself with a little diode trick I learned from another (competent) tech. Seriously, with customer service like this I have no idea how they got such a good reputation. I am a professional musician. I perform and produce for some heady cats I sure you have all heard of. Not to toot my own hornbut to say, in this business I am a professional and I know what it feels like to be treated professionally. Try someplace else! Apparently they are 'too busy' (direct quote) to reply or come through with good customer service. This is coming from someone who consistently gets nothing but 5 star reviews on my Reverb, eBay, and Amazon shops. Customer service is EVERYTHING! read more

Holy shit, don't take your amplifier or synth to this place (Soursound)! Since my experience I have talked to several people who have had shady dealings with Brian. Don't trust the good reviews from his buddies here or anywhere else and don't trust this guy with your gear or your money. My guess is that the good reviews are from his "friends" who he doesn't rip off and who's amps he probably doesn't stand on, reverse engineer or improperly reassemble. It took him (Brian - Soursound) almost two weeks to get my amp back to me for "new tubes and bias"... "That's weird" I thought to myself. I could have and would have biased the tubes, in less than 30 minutes myself, had I not been too stupid to check the fuse. Diagnosis: Blown fuse from blown tube. Yes, I was stupid for not checking for a blown fuse first and apparently he took me for a real moron with more money than common sense. The weirdness had only just begun... The amp is imported from Italy, I took it to Brian at Soursound because it was brand new, sent from Italy by post and I feared the worst when the 100W power section suddenly stopped working (Epic facepalm!) - the amp has two separate power sections and it was new to me, it blew a fuse. When I finally got the amp back, there were footprints on my amp cover and a footprint on top of the amp head tolex... Was he using it for a step aerobics class? Was his foot stool too short? Maybe he didn't have a Matamp, Bogner or Soldano to stand on... The day after I get the amp back foot-switches in the foot controller start breaking at the nut where they were tightened into the case. Three foot-switches failed in a matter of three days. This amp was two weeks old, brand new, hand made, with no prior signs of poor workmanship besides a blown fuse! I used the amp daily for two weeks prior, with no sign of switch failure. I sent the foot-controller back to Italy to be repaired. Brunetti said someone took the foot controller apart and re-assembled it improperly... I was dumfounded. I had to send the foot controller back to italy to be repaired, it cost me over $150 in shipping alone. I was head-tripped over this incident for a LONG time. Who should I trust? Why would ANYONE disassemble that footswitch, for no reason? Why would Brunetti lie to me? Why would $oursound $crew me? I could not find a single online account of this happening to anyone else. Brunetti has a good name in Italy and throughout Europe for his build quality, integrity and knowledge (Brunetti amps are handmade like Fryette, Soldano, Rivera, Bogner). My amp was custom modified by Marco Brunetti, I had a high gain switch and a resonance control added so I know he personally worked on it and I paid for it with money I had saved for a LONG TIME. The switches used in that foot controller were top quality and I could not find any reference to early switch failure like I had encountered after my amps visit to Soursound. Now, every time my amp so much as glitches or farts I get that feeling in my gut, think of Soursound and wonder if he reverse engineered more than the foot switch... I learned three things from this experience: 1. Never import a custom built amplifier from a foreign country without local warranty tech service 2. Always check the fuse FIRST! 3. DON'T EVER TAKE ANYTHING TO BRIAN @ SOURSOUND! - Especially if he has never seen one before and there is the potential for him to reverse engineer it and poorly re-assemble it - Especially if you want it back QUICKLY and not broken! Yeah, the guy builds his own amps...whatever. I wonder where he gets his ideas from? Books? Reverse engineering things he's never seen before? It should never have taken so long to retube and rebias any amp and why did foot switches suddenly start failing the day after getting the amp back from brian when the foot-switches worked fine prior to brian having the amp in his possession? AND WHY DID MY AMP HAVE FOOTPRINTS ON TOP OF IT? The footprints aren't even the crux of the matter, I understand that when a ladder is not available you use somebody elses gear to stand on, it's the obvious thing to do, but it shouldn't have taken so long to get the amp back for a re-tube. Not to mention the fact that he got to keep 4 brand new Svetlana 6550 tubes that cost almost $150 a quad AND he got payed to perform the re-tube and bias - He told me all four 6550's were blown when the fuse blew, I knew different, they were two weeks old! It's possible ONE was blown but not all four. If I can ever afford a nice amp again I'll buy a Rivera or Soldano and I won't EVER take it into soursound. If for no other reason, even if you think my problems were a coincidence or my fault for not checking the fuse, don't take your equipment to Brian @ Soursound because he takes forever to do the work, overcharges, he might rip you off (royally) and treats your equipment like his own personal stool. read more

I contacted this shop wanting to replace the LCD screen on my Korg Wavestation EX, which Tim retrofitted with an LED screen that looks fantastic! Parts and labor were also very reasonable, and my overall experience was great! read more

Great staff of well experienced techs who are love what they do obviously. Doesn't get better.

Tim is more than a reasonable businessman. What he cares most about is getting your gear back in working condition at affordable prices. Sometimes the repairs and parts are expensive, but sometimes they are not. He does all sorts of things but he repaired 3 synths for me which includes replacing battery and factory reset. read more

Holy shit, why would you ever go anywhere else for your gear-related repair needs? These dudes have a tight game, solid solid solid. I've been going to Sours for a few years now, and he keeps my amps in top shape. Watson's attention to detail has pretty much resulted in a completely new guitar playing experience (including rewinding a faulty humbucker that I thought just, well, sucked). Tim has been gracious with my friends' and their solid state gear. I haven't ordered anything from Jeremy yet, but I would LOVE to have one of his cabs. Or two. Or ten. Preferably to go with the Soursound head I have yet to buy... Dreaming a little... Hands down, best shop. You are lucky if you are a guitarist living in Portland and have these guys at your disposal. And if you are not using their shop, you are just hurting yourself. So stop hurting yourself, dummy. ***AMPEG OWNERS: I do not think you will find someone who knows their way around a V4 better than Bryan Sours. Maybe Dennis Krager, who designed the temperamental beasts, but he lives in frickin' Jersey. read more

Brian Watson did a beautiful (and fast) job installing a coil-split Seymour Duncan bridge pickup in my 1978 Ibanez Musician. It sounds better than it ever has and I'm having a great time playing it. Now I'm definitely coming back to him for more in the future. read more

They guys at Portland Custom Shop do good work. I switched to them after dealing with a sub par amp repair man who overcharged me. Brian's rates are a little high but I think they're worth it. I've brought my amplifier in more than once to have a repair or modification done and was very please with his work. He even showed me all the lazy shortcuts the previous repair guy had made. The one thing I am somewhat dissatisfied with is turn around time. I got my amp 2 weeks later than expected. If he fixed this issue I would give him 5 stars. It is somewhat to be expected though. I've experienced this with most musical repair shops. The ones that do get it back to you on time or sooner usually charge premium prices. read more

I've had to the occasion to take my amp in for service with Portland Custom Shop two times in the last year. Whenever I had dropped off my amp with previous shops, it was an exercise in paying way too much and waiting way too long... Not so here. Seriously the best repair service I've ever had. They're into what they do, they do it extremely well, and they do what they do fast. Five stars alone does not do them justice! read more

Brian Watson's work at Sick String can't be beat. Both guitars I've brought in, a 1967 EBO Gibson bass and a 1967 Rickenbacker 450/12, were given amazing attention and care. All around solid work from a solid dude. Highly recommended. read more

I picked up a wreck of a JX-10, and wanted some midi sysex mods done that I called in all over town and did not get any kind of response. Tim was very enthusiastic about taking on this somewhat unique modification, as well as went the extra mile to restore it to its previous glory. The timeframe was excellent, communication superb on exactly what was going on through the project, and I couldn't ask for a better overall result. I will never take a synth anywhere else. Thanks again Tim read more

I took a BC Rich mockingbird and my Fender strat for a full setup and change of pickups. I went to this shop because of their website and the blog that Brian writes for some of the work he has done. You can really feel how passionate he is about what he does. And you can tell by the quality of the work he has done. The mockingbird now is a true beast, while the custom texas specials and the setup with .13 strings on the fender have given a whole new personnality to my favorite guitar. Great work and fantastic people ! read more

i literally signed up for yelp so that i could share my experience with tim @ portland custom shop. first day into a short west coast tour my moog minitaur somehow shorts out and all of a sudden 1/3 of my set-up is unusable. after a couple frustrating shows i call around and am led to tim @ PCS. i call him at around 11 am and he says he's real busy but he'll have time to give it a quick look. i hop in the car and am there in half-an-hour. tim sets aside his lunch and pops it open, and despite the fact that he's admittedly "not as familiar with the newer moog models" he's quickly identified the problem. a few moments later he's fixed it and he charges me a completely reasonable price (frankly, a bargain considering the short notice). tim, you saved my tour and i'm super thankful. yelp readers, i heartily vouch for this man (and don't bother subscribing - it's only truly exceptional service that could ever get me to stoop to writing reviews on the internet)! read more