Taperssection.com
Gear / Technical Help => Ask The Tapers => Topic started by: ts on July 27, 2022, 10:28:24 AM
-
Anyone have any recent experiences with this cost wise? They won't give me any estimates over the phone. It's a AK 50 cap that needs mechanical and cosmetic repair. Thanks.
-
Anyone have any recent experiences with this cost wise? They won't give me any estimates over the phone. It's a AK 50 cap that needs mechanical and cosmetic repair. Thanks.
I never sent in my AK40s or AK20 but if they are anything like Schoeps they won't quote repairs sight unseen because they don't want to be held accountable for underquoting a repair.
I really dislike it and would at least prefer a repair cost "range" so I don't pass out when I see an invoice but I think that you have to go in thinking it can't cost more than the price of a new cap and hope for less. Range = Cost of shipping to Retail price
I had a CCM4 hit a wood floor HARD when a lady kicked my stand over at a cello concert. It cost me a couple of months without a mic and $900 to repair. I literally had to sit down for a bit after opening that invoice.
Also, I was told by Germany that if the cosmetics do not affect the sonics they won't rehouse the guts because of aesthetic blemishes/dings/dents.
Good luck!
-
Anyone have any recent experiences with this cost wise? They won't give me any estimates over the phone. It's a AK 50 cap that needs mechanical and cosmetic repair. Thanks.
Also, I was told by Germany that if the cosmetics do not affect the sonics they won't rehouse the guts because of aesthetic blemishes/dings/dents.
Good luck!
Howdy rigpimp, fwiw I once sent a really ratty ass nickel capsule to schoeps for work and checkup/refurb. I specifically mentioned that I’d pay for a new shell if that was available and they did it. I remember paying like $175 or $200 all included. I can’t remember what I needed to have done but the capsule came back with a new nickel shell and the base plate was swapped from the hand etched model/serial number to the silk screen printed model/SN. This was like ten years ago though, so based on your post this might not offered anymore. Might be worth asking if new shells are available for a price though, especially if the capsule is really beat to hell.
-
Anyone have any recent experiences with this cost wise? They won't give me any estimates over the phone. It's a AK 50 cap that needs mechanical and cosmetic repair. Thanks.
Also, I was told by Germany that if the cosmetics do not affect the sonics they won't rehouse the guts because of aesthetic blemishes/dings/dents.
Good luck!
This is good to know and definitely worth asking Neumann. I asked and Schoeps said NO to the new CCM shell back in 2013 for me. Honestly, for my cost of repairs, I figure that one should have been included.
Howdy rigpimp, fwiw I once sent a really ratty ass nickel capsule to schoeps for work and checkup/refurb. I specifically mentioned that I’d pay for a new shell if that was available and they did it. I remember paying like $175 or $200 all included. I can’t remember what I needed to have done but the capsule came back with a new nickel shell and the base plate was swapped from the hand etched model/serial number to the silk screen printed model/SN. This was like ten years ago though, so based on your post this might not offered anymore. Might be worth asking if new shells are available for a price though.
-
I don't think Schoeps will repair anything older than 10 years any more. They changed their Service approach and right before the change offered huge discounts to send in old gear to be exchanged for new gear.
To note they may not repair discontinued items either - i.e. KCY, VMS, etc
Again not totally sure on this...
-
I don't think Schoeps will repair anything older than 10 years any more. They changed their Service approach and right before the change offered huge discounts to send in old gear to be exchanged for new gear.
they certainly do, for current products. i have some 20+ year old caps in there now. pricing tiers are based on age. they actually do a lot to bring gear back to spec, not just the bare minimum of repairs. if they were a matched pair they will go as far as trying to restore the match, which they can do to some degree
I had a CCM4 hit a wood floor HARD when a lady kicked my stand over at a cello concert. It cost me a couple of months without a mic and $900 to repair. I literally had to sit down for a bit after opening that invoice.
Also, I was told by Germany that if the cosmetics do not affect the sonics they won't rehouse the guts because of aesthetic blemishes/dings/dents.
damn. they probably treated that ccm as if it was a two-part piece for which they get 300-400 each in their pricing/ or perhaps the ccm itself has extra costs due to design
-
Sorry I didn't see this thread sooner. Last thing first--yes, at Schoeps a CCM is treated for service purposes as an amplifier plus a capsule, so the age-dependent flat rate is applied twice. The rationale for this is that electronics and capsules are separate departments, and the unit has to go through all the procedures in both departments (never mind that they're right next to each other on the second floor). Either repair might be classed as major or minor and billed accordingly, but a hard drop could cause major damage to both main components of a CCM.
I'm sorry that this happened to you. I've dropped a few capsules myself, and I still remember the awful feeling.
--Schoeps no longer offers service for products that predate the Colette system. In 2024 the Colette series will have its 50th anniversary (!). During that time many individual product types have come and gone, and the supply of spare parts for certain products has run out--three-pattern capsules, sadly, being among them. But service is definitely available for all current products and some older, discontinued types--just not all of them.
--What was said about product service and (basically) product renewal is true. All repairs at Schoeps are made by the same people who build the regular, current production in both departments. [Edited later to add: Actually this is not quite true any more with electronic products, which are sometimes repaired now by a person who does only repairs and doesn't build new units.] The main reason for the tiered price structure is that older products, especially capsules, tend to need more new parts and more time, labor and expertise to install them. This isn't done when they feel it wouldn't matter, though, and in each of the three age categories, there's a lower fee if the repairs can be considered minor, e.g. just replacing some small, readily accessible parts and checking everything, as often occurs.
--Neumann technically calls the whole assembly a "capsule head" and the innards a "capsule", while Schoeps calls the assembly a "capsule" and considers its housing and innards to be components of that. I'm neither a spokesperson for Schoeps nor obviously for Neumann, but to the best of my knowledge Neumann USA doesn't repair capsules at all--they replace them if they're defective, period. But in Germany, while Neumann microphones are all made at the Sennheiser factory now, they also have (or at least until a few years ago used to have) a small repair facility in Berlin that does specialized, one-off kinds of work. They have some parts on hand for "vintage" models there, though by no means a complete stock.
So officially Neumann's policy is that they're willing to try to repair any microphone that they've ever made, at least to get it working again--even if it can't necessarily meet its performance specifications. But if a microphone needs a part that they no longer have, sometimes they can make more or less adequate substitutions and sometimes they can't. There's a limit to how far any policy can go when the means to carry it out aren't on hand.
--best regards