Faulty Synth Voice Deluxe

[Lunoxx]

I've ordered a Broughton Synth Voice Deluxe from Canada last year with the intention to pick it up from a friend's house in the US, but due to some delay I just got it a few weeks ago. 

 

While it worked perfectly fine in the beginning, at some point it stopped producing any sounds. When the pedal is bypassed, the signal goes through perfectly fine, but when engaged the pedal doesn't make any sounds. The LED is still working (so it's not fully broken), and I definitely didn't fry the pedal by using a wrong power supply. 

 

I've been in contact with Josh from Broughton, and he said that most likely static charge fried a chip or two. So I ordered the potentially fried chips, which arrived today, and exchanged them, but the problem still remains. 

 

Josh then offered that I can send the pedal back to him and he'll repair it, so basically now I have two questions to the basschat community:

 

1) Did anyone of you ever send a pedal back and outside of the UK for repairment? If so, how does this work in terms of import taxes? As I already paid for the pedal last year, and the repair service will be for free, there is nothing to be taxed, and according to the internet I don't need to pay import taxes. Can Josh therefore just declare the pedal repair with $0 on the declaration form and it will go through customs without any questions, or is there a specific way these types of repairs need to be handled? 

 

2) To avoid any potential problems with 1), is there someone in the UK that could repair the pedal? Unfortunately, I don't know anything about electronics and PCBs and changing the chips was probably the only thing I could have done on my own. 

 

It would be great if you can share some tips how to handle this the best, or share some experience you've made in the past! 

 

Thanks, Chris 

[itu]

The first thing to do is to contact local customs. They tell you the details to this particular case. It should be no costs (nor VAT), because this is about repair, and the only company is out there to be able to fix your dear effect.

 

If there is something you have to declare or anything, my experience has been positive with them. If the first contact does not work, call another office. At least I have had good discussions and gotten good piece of information. It may be good to have the serial number, manufacturer, and the model at hand while calling.