Roland Juno 106 Service Packages

Roland Juno 106 - sold

Because we work on so many Juno 106s and we get so many people contacting us asking "how much will it cost to fix my Juno?" we've developed a couple of comprehensive service packages to address the certain issues we see over and over in Junos and those that all vintage synths share. Typical turnaround times for these standard Juno 106 services are 3 weeks or less!

A note regarding Juno 106 voice chip "restoration:"

We do not "restore" or "refurbish" original voice chips, and only replace them with Analogue Renaissance AR80017 clones.  After seeing many, many Junos come in with chips that were refurbished by other shops several years ago but were acting up again, we have reached the conclusion that refurbishing the original voice chips only solves the voice chip issues for a maximum of a few years. We want to be able to hand each synth back to its owner feeling confident that it will continue to work reliably for many years to come, and due to the fact that the original chips were manufactured with materials and parts that have aged very poorly, they simply cannot be restored to our standards of reliability.

Replacing the Juno's voice chips with clones truly turns the clock back 35 years and replaces them with something more reliable than the originals, which we can testify sound truly identical. Furthermore, based on our experience selling Junos, replacing the chips with clones only increases a synth's resale value.

Juno 106 Essential Service – $580 (parts included)

This package addresses the issues that a Juno 106 is likely to have even if it has been pretty well taken care of, and includes the following:

All new Analogue Renaissance voice chips –  Issues of crackling, hanging, intermittent, missing or otherwise nonworking voices are very common and in fact inevitable in the Juno 106. It comes from some combination of capacitance developing in the black resin that coats each 80017A voice chip SMD daughterboard, the SMD solder joints drying out and moisture infiltrating the sand resisters thereof.

So that you never have to worry about voice chips again, we replace all six voice chips with Analogue Renaissance clones. These have been the gold standard of Juno 106 voice chip replacements for over 10 years. They sound identical to the originals except that they offer *superior* temperature stability on the filters, meaning you can play the filters musically like an oscillator!

Patch memory battery replacement – The next step is replacing the soldered-in patch memory battery. We will externally back up whatever patches you may have saved on there now and then restore them once the new battery is in. The new battery will be installed in a battery clip so that when it has to be replaced (in 10-15 years or more) you can just pop it in yourself without having to desolder anything.

Roland Juno 106 power supply with new filter capacitorsPower supply update – As is the case in any synth of this age, it’s time to replace the power supply filter capacitors which are way past their intended life span. In some cases they are even physically leaking onto the board. We replace them with high-quality, long-lifespan new ones to make the synth less noisy and reduce stress on the circuits that can cause all kinds of problems. We also reflow the solder on the heatsinked transistors and regulators that are susceptible to cracking and causing issues, and replace them if one or more show signs of being compromised.

Optional: Power Connector Swap – Replace Roland power connector with standard IEC power connector so you don’t have to worry about losing your special Roland cable.

Other details – We’ll also clean the often very crackly volume pot, bender pot, tuning pot and output level switch, clean the exterior surfaces and replace any missing or incorrect hardware.

Calibration – The final step is to recalibrate the voices, chorus, etc to Roland specs. The importance of this step cannot be undersold! It will give a new vibrance and brightness to the sound of your synth.

Juno 106 Full Front Panel Service – $200

Many vintage Juno 106es have at least a few issues with their panel controls, and some have quite a lot! These most often include buttons that are unreliable, hard to press or that double trigger and sliders that are noisy and cause sudden jumps in parameter values (jitter) due to being dirty. Our comprehensive front panel service package both eliminates and preempts the most common front panel control issues and includes the following:

  • Thorough cleaning of all sliders.
  • Replacement of ALL tactile (button) switches with new ones
  • Replacement of crumbly slider gaskets with new ones
  • Cleaning all button covers and slider knobs

If you only have a few bad switches or sliders, some fraction of this can also be done.

This price includes up to 1 replacement slider. If any more need to be replaced, they will be charged separately at $10/each.

Noisy Chorus Chip Replacement – $50

The third most common problems we encounter in Juno 106es are chorus circuits that have become very noisy due to the degradation of the MN3009 bucket brigade delay line (BBD) ICs used in the creation of the chorus effect. When these chips start to go bad, the chorus will have a prominent “oceany” sound in the background that is audible even when notes aren’t being played.

Fortunately, after being very difficult to find for many years, the MN3009s are being remanufactured again by Xvive. Replacing them is a simple step than can really clean up the sound of your synth.

During this step, we also can optionally perform a simple modification that converts the “patch shift” jack into an external input so you can run other instruments through your Juno’s chorus. It’s pretty fun!

 

Other issues

While these are the most common issues with the Juno 106, these are not the only things that can go wrong in these old synths.  We test every synth thoroughly and can troubleshoot and repair any other issues that your synth may have to get it back to sounding as good as new again. Work on other issues is billed at our standard hourly rate.