For about 2 years now, my prized Mono Evolver Keyboard has been dying.

One encoder after another started misbehaving. They would jump wildly to different values, or pin to the maximum value without moving. First the filter cutoff encoder went, then the Distortion encoder, and after that more.

So last week I reluctantly emailed Dave Smith tech support and asked them what it would take to get my keyboard working again. I was fully expecting to have to ship the entire synth to DSI in the US, at great expense.

To my delight, that’s not how it works. For $100, DSI sends me out two new encoder boards. When I receive them, I simply swap the boards with my faulty ones (no soldering required) and send them back the old boards. When they receive the old boards, they reimburse me $75, bringing the total cost of the repair to a staggering $25. And the synth never leaves the house.

Impressed I am. (insert your best Yoda impression here)

I had been considering a post warning potential Evolver buyers about encoder failure. My Evolver is not old (although it is out of warrantee) and has not been gigged. Instead I’m posting to tell you how impressed I am with Dave Smith tech support. Even if you do suffer from poorly synth syndrome, it’s likely to be a very reasonable cost, and be of little inconvenience.

Dave Smith FTW!