Help Parastream Support Vintage Electronics
Donation protected
Help Parastream support the repair and maintenance of your favorite vintage electronics and keyboard gear! We service popular electronics that are no longer supported by the original manufacturer. We are a mail-in repair shop. For small and lightweight items, mail-in works great. For large and heavy items, shipping costs can be prohibitively expensive. To reduce these costs by around 90%, we work on the circuit boards in the equipment. This means you don’t have to pay to ship the enclosure, power supplies, speakers, keybeds, and other large and heavy items. This only works if we have our own host equipment we can plug your circuit boards into. This is why we have decided to crowdfund the purchases of host equipment. Your donations help us to purchase these large and heavy electronics and expand our service offerings to other brands and models. You can even make suggestions as to what we will support in the future.
By supporting happy vintage gear owners, we are saving them from having to go and buy the "latest and greatest," and stay with what they like. We're also saving the environment by keeping this wonderful vintage gear out of the landfill. On the other hand, we're not making the manufacturers particularly happy, as they would love for you to buy something new from them.
Please visit our Support page to find out what we currently service.
Why do you need to have your own hardware in-house to be able to fix mine?
Here's the deal. When you want service from your local repair shop, you take it to them and (hopefully) they fix it. When the hardware is no longer supported by the manufacturer, they will probably tell you that they can't fix it. The local shops can't get replacement circuit boards and other parts from the manufacturer any more. We offer continuing service to hardware owners either directly or through their local repair shop. The primary impediment to this business model is the cost of shipping large and heavy hardware like keyboards. Especially to countries outside the US. The majority of repairs can be done to the circuit boards without the need for the enclosure and keyboard. This shipping cost drops from between USD $75 and $150 (each way) to around $10 to $15. This business model depends on this dramatic reduction of shipping costs to work for most customers. When we receive your circuit boards at our shop, we plug them into the host hardware for diagnosis and testing.
What electronic equipment are you looking for?
Our Electronic Hardware Purchases page shows you what equipment we're looking for, and a complete journal of what's been added to the goal and what's been spent to purchase equipment.
How can I make a request for you to support a new keyboard or other hardware?
The easiest way is to simply add a comment to your donation. If you would like to make a request without making a donation, visit our Feedback page. We periodically tally up the requests and update the Electronic Hardware Purchases page.
What will the funds you raise be spent on?
Only equipment listed in the Electronic Hardware Purchases page, and nothing else. In some instances, a new piece of equipment is added to the list and then purchased in a short period of time. If the day comes with the equipment is no longer needed, we will donate it to charity.
How did you get into this in the first place?
When we first began offering support for the original analog Korg BX-3, we used Robert's personal organ as a host. That was OK, since that organ was in bad shape to begin with and Robert wanted it fixed. We decided to leverage what we learned in the process of rehabilitating that organ into a small service business. Over the past couple of decades, we have many happy customers. Lately, we have been getting requests to work on the second generation digital Korg BX-3 and CX-3. In response to this, we invested heavily into rework and video production equipment in order to expand our offerings. But without a reference digital Korg, we are severely limited as to what we can offer.
Who is Robert?
Robert Weatherford is the CEO and president of Parastream Technologies. He originally founded Parastream for his software development consulting business. He is also an avid keyboard player. He plays the drums more now, but still has a passion for the keyboards. After struggling to keep his vintage Hammond clone (a 1980s Korg BX-3) running, he developed replacement parts and kits to keep them running. In the few hours a week he's not working, you will find him in the yard, on a tennis court, or running down the street.
By supporting happy vintage gear owners, we are saving them from having to go and buy the "latest and greatest," and stay with what they like. We're also saving the environment by keeping this wonderful vintage gear out of the landfill. On the other hand, we're not making the manufacturers particularly happy, as they would love for you to buy something new from them.
Please visit our Support page to find out what we currently service.
Why do you need to have your own hardware in-house to be able to fix mine?
Here's the deal. When you want service from your local repair shop, you take it to them and (hopefully) they fix it. When the hardware is no longer supported by the manufacturer, they will probably tell you that they can't fix it. The local shops can't get replacement circuit boards and other parts from the manufacturer any more. We offer continuing service to hardware owners either directly or through their local repair shop. The primary impediment to this business model is the cost of shipping large and heavy hardware like keyboards. Especially to countries outside the US. The majority of repairs can be done to the circuit boards without the need for the enclosure and keyboard. This shipping cost drops from between USD $75 and $150 (each way) to around $10 to $15. This business model depends on this dramatic reduction of shipping costs to work for most customers. When we receive your circuit boards at our shop, we plug them into the host hardware for diagnosis and testing.
What electronic equipment are you looking for?
Our Electronic Hardware Purchases page shows you what equipment we're looking for, and a complete journal of what's been added to the goal and what's been spent to purchase equipment.
How can I make a request for you to support a new keyboard or other hardware?
The easiest way is to simply add a comment to your donation. If you would like to make a request without making a donation, visit our Feedback page. We periodically tally up the requests and update the Electronic Hardware Purchases page.
What will the funds you raise be spent on?
Only equipment listed in the Electronic Hardware Purchases page, and nothing else. In some instances, a new piece of equipment is added to the list and then purchased in a short period of time. If the day comes with the equipment is no longer needed, we will donate it to charity.
How did you get into this in the first place?
When we first began offering support for the original analog Korg BX-3, we used Robert's personal organ as a host. That was OK, since that organ was in bad shape to begin with and Robert wanted it fixed. We decided to leverage what we learned in the process of rehabilitating that organ into a small service business. Over the past couple of decades, we have many happy customers. Lately, we have been getting requests to work on the second generation digital Korg BX-3 and CX-3. In response to this, we invested heavily into rework and video production equipment in order to expand our offerings. But without a reference digital Korg, we are severely limited as to what we can offer.
Who is Robert?
Robert Weatherford is the CEO and president of Parastream Technologies. He originally founded Parastream for his software development consulting business. He is also an avid keyboard player. He plays the drums more now, but still has a passion for the keyboards. After struggling to keep his vintage Hammond clone (a 1980s Korg BX-3) running, he developed replacement parts and kits to keep them running. In the few hours a week he's not working, you will find him in the yard, on a tennis court, or running down the street.
Organizer
Robert Weatherford
Organizer
Alpharetta, GA
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