Unbelievable. I had a very bad experience with CAE sound. I dropped off my Sequential Circuits Prophet 600 that had a bad voice. They explained it would be 1hr labor for an estimate. I waited over a month and finally called for the estimate status. They said they had repaired it and the bill was $465! They DID NOT CALL ME and DID NOT RECEIVE authorization for the repair but would not let me have my synth until I paid. I looked into small claims court, etc to get my money back but $465 is too small of an amount to bother. I finally paid their ransom and got my synth back. They did not calibrate anything, clean it, etc. Just charged me $465 to fix one voice with NO APPROVAL. BE CAREFUL -- these guys will tell you "oh yeah, we'll fix call you before we do anything" and then they won't. If anyone is an attorney out there, please contact me. And to the others who've received the same treatment, we should get together and file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. They've done this to too many of us -- we must stop them! read more

Called this guy up to track down a part for a Roland RD700. He was too busy to talk to me on the phone, so he asked that I send him an email. He never responded to my email and I ended up tracking down the parts elsewhere. read more

Poor customer service. Would never think to call over there again. Found a much more reliable business in the area that is accommodating, accessible and helpful. If anyone asked for a recommendation on CAE, it would reap a big NEGATIVE. read more

CAE is listed on the Line 6 website as offering repairs and replacement parts. I called them today to order a couple parts and was told that unless I wanted to pay extra for the owner's time, he wasn't willing to even look up the part numbers and place the order. Totally rude. What a jerk. read more

Peter Miller is a living bay area legend. This guy has worked with EVERYBODY (take a look at his client list on his website; it reads like the who's who of rock n' roll for the last 30 years) He's a very affable dude with loads of creativity and expertise. I highly recommend him for anyone who is interested in any repair work, but especially for custom audio work, there is no one else! read more

I have read all the negative reviews and frankly I have found that many musicians themselves are unreliable and flakey. I have had CAE Sound repair and rebuild several of my items to my complete satisfaction. Among them is a Leslie 147 speaker cabinet modified to run as a 122 from my Hammond B3. It now sits on stages at Yoshi's in SF. As for warranty work, to be stuck in the middle between customer and manufacturer is a hell I would only wish upon only my worst enemy. Most of the manufacturers of musical instruments regarding warranty work just sucks and they either don't pay or the pay so little that no one is motivated not to mentioned that one would go bald merely trying to communicate with them. read more

My Egnater Tweaker quit working on a friday night. Called CAE first thing on monday morning and brought it in. Got it back that friday all repaired and good to go for the session that I had the following week. I was very pleased with the service that I received and I got my amp back within the requested time frame. Peter is obviously very knowledgeable and experienced, and I was delighted to have access to his expertise when my amp needed fixing. read more

I have used CAE sound probably 6-8 times over the past 10 years for guitar amps and PA heads. Their service has great, and I'd recommend them to anyone. My experiences have been consistent with every visit. At each visit, I receive an estimate and an explanation as to their policies and expectations. I've never been surprised. I can't comment on price, since I have little to compare against. Also, my repairs have always taken 2-4 weeks, occasionally longer. I've read the other reviews, and am puzzled by the poor ones. I can confidently report only on my own experiences, which as I said have all been very good. read more

I took my Roland synth here to replace the LCD screen which had gone dark. It took several months but that was due to the part having to come from Roland Japan, it was out of stock. They are reasonably priced and very straightforward about the process. read more

Extremely poor communication & customer service Long story short: I took a keyboard to them to be cleaned after being leaked on. The keyboard was mostly cleaned but Peter didn't clean thoroughly between the keys and two were stuck together (I later cleaned myself with a wet whipe just with what I could reach and got it full of gunk in a matter of seconds). I explained my frustration (fairly calmly) and stated honestly that I felt like he just hadn't done what I paid him to do, and at that point he said I was "full of sh*t" and launched into a tirade about how their service agreement states blah blah blah. Good luck with that attitude. Net net: definitely not an company that was interested in me being a satisfied customer. Avoid. UPDATE: I called Yamaha service and bought a copy of the service manual for my keyboard for $16. I disassembled the keyboard and cleaned completely each key. Took me like an hour and it was actually fun and easy. With I had done that to begin with. read more

I just wanted to say that I got my D-50 back in great shape and I'm having a lot of fun with it. Peter really does take his craft seriously, and he really did pull a rabbit out of his hat on this one. So there you have it folks - I have a well maintained ARP 2600, Yamaha DX7 and Roland D-50 that have all been serviced by CAE. I'm satisfied with the work and how I was treated by the people there. The work was not cheap, but I didn't feel in any way taken advantage of. I think it was a fair price for work done well. Besides - in the eternal triangle of good, fast and cheap, you can never have more than two. I'll be bringing another unit in for a tune-up next time I'm in the neighborhood. read more

They quoted me a hefty price but reasonable considering I needed it done right away and it was a pretty specialized fix.... but then when I picked it up the price was way less and he said it was a pretty easy fix. Love the honesty. I'll definitely recommend CAE to anyone looking to repair a specialty instrument. read more

CAE is the one of the BEST Hammond/Leslie repair shops in America. I can't talk guitars and other musical equipment ....but B3's and leslies? This guy knows his stuff. CAE loves working on B3's and associated equipment! They won't rush and they will charge accordingly. But your Hammond-Leslie will NOT have to return to the shop for years. Custom work, specific requests, big or small- CAE can do. They are meticulous and thorough. read more

I'm so impressed with their efficiency and professionalism. I dropped off an extracted keyboard out of a Yamaha Clavinova Piano and they ordered and replace the key-weight felt in less then a week. Peter did warn me that he couldn't test it because it was just the keyboard. I got it home and it worked perfectly. As in some reviews, you can expect to be treated as you treat them, they were exceptionally nice and I really appreciate the excellent job and communication by phone. Thank you read more

Wish I could give them no stars... Took my '62 Fender Deluxe in for a noise problem. When I can back they had replaced all my NOS vintage tubes (which I had recently tested because of the noise issue, and confirmed were all in good condition) w/ Groove Tubes, said they threw the old tubes away. Right! they threw away $300 in NOS tubes - Can you say RIPPED OFF!. Then they made me pay for the #$% ^*(! Groove Tubes. And of course, it made absolutely no difference in the amp, still made the noises. Did get it fixed eventually by a much more reputable tech. You have been warned! read more

I took my vintage Minimoog to CAE Sound. At Harmony Central's KSS forum, I was warned of CAE Sound. Rumor was that his business management and ethics are askew. Another synth repairman knew of peter, declined to offer specific details, but did support the notion that CAE had several unsatisfied customers. CAE is the only shop around. I dropped off my mini. I am told i should authorize them to charge my CC should there be any additional charges for repairs and i was assured that turnaround time was "about " 3 weeks and no repairs will be done without consent. 3 weeks go by, they say that they're busy and haven't looked at it. I understand. I ask them to send an estimate asap. A few weeks later: same story. I politely say i need it now its been over a month. They say they'll get to it this week. I call back again: same story. That same day, 4 hrs later, CAE calls and says repairs are done, it took 3 hrs, and cost X $. Upset, I ask what about my estimate, what about my approval, and they say and i quote, " oops i guess we forgot to call you". I know im screwed now. I go to CAE's disorganized shop to pick up the synth. On the invoice I see repairs for things I didn't ask for and it was waay 2 $$! I also now have a new issue with my mini courtesy of Peter. THE WORST PART: CAE put a piece of tape on the WOODEN part of my mini right above the keys. This is during a week long heatwave. The tape glue melted onto the mini's finish and as he roughly peeled off the tape, he tore several chunks of my finish off. I said "you just fkd up my finish! why didn't you put the tape on the plastic keys" and he says "oh wow, Ive never seen that before" I ask to see peter to talk about rectifying this situation and to complain. After waiting 10 mins, his assistant returns and says "Peter offers his apologies" -THATS IT!! I told them I will not be coming back to CAE and to read my review online overcharged, misled, made to wait, bad repairs, bad service: DO NOT GO TO C.A.E. Sound read more

I've got to agree with those who warn against trusting this shop with your gear... unless you want to deal with a place that won't listen to your desires or concerns, performs services without your consent, charges you for their mistakes, and never even acknowledges that they could have handled their business better much less apologize. If you like being taken advantage of, this is definitely your repair shop :) read more

I brought in a older digital keyboard to CAE sounds for repair, they kept in for a several months and did not even do anything to it. They kept telling me they were trying to get the systematic from the manufacture everytime I called. They finally told me that they couuld not get the systematic and to pick up the keyboard. They charged me $125.00 anything even though they did not do a dame thing..... read more

I had a really bad experience with them, they went hundreds of dollars over the estimate (to fix one bad note on a farfisa!) and didn't call me to ask if that was ok, just handed me a nearly $400 bill. It was a very unpleasant transaction, I left with such a bad feeling about the whole thing. I'll go to guitronics or Haight Ashbury music for now on! read more

Your review helps others learn about great local businesses. I drove 90 minutes from Sonoma, to drop off my mixer after talking to Mackie and being told to just bring it to my nearest warranty center and they would take good care of me. CAE is the only warranty center in the Bay area. When I got there and described my issue, Peter spent 30 minutes telling me about how little they were paid by the manufacturer for doing the warranty repairs. He even showed me 2 invoices where he was paid less than 10 cents. He keeps them pinned to his board. He explained that if they had to spend more than 15 minutes to find a problem then I would have to pay for the extra time at their normal shop rate. I told him I did not want to get a call telling me they couldn't find a problem and that I owed them a payment for extra time. I did say that if they would fix the problems and they were not adequately compensated by Mackie, I would work something out with him. I left feeling like I had just been conned into something, but I decided to wait and see if they fixed it. It would be worth it just to have my board working properly again. 3 weeks later, I saw that they had changed the status on my mixer to progress, I waited another week or so to see if the status would change again and it did not. I found that I could click on the order and see more detail and then found that they had put the mixer on the bench for 15 minutes but did not reproduce the problem. I guess they were waiting for me to find the detail and call them, when they should have called me to let me know, in my opinion. I called them and after a totally unsatisfying talk. drove back down to pick up my board. They tried to get me to sign a form which said I acknowledged the quality of their repair and parts and told me I was just signing that I had received my board. I said I would be happy to sign it if they let me cross out the part which said they had actually provided parts and repair and they refused to let me do that. In the end I just picked up my board and left. On my way out Peter told me to never call them about my mixer again. He did not need to tell me that, I would never bring him anything else, ever again. It's been several weeks since then and my board is still not working properly. I had bought the mixer from www.sweetwater.com and it finally occurred to me to call them and ask what to do. If only I had called them first. They sent me a Fedex shipping label and are covering the cost of shipping, both ways, and will perform the repairs under warranty, themselves. Thank you Sweetwater, thank you so much.on't review this business if you received a freebie for writing this review, or if you're connected in any way to the owner or employees. read more

This place is absolutely terrible. Showed horrible customer service, didn't fix what was wrong with my digital keyboard, and charged me hundreds and hundreds of dollars. I had no option except to pay up if I wanted my keyboard back. They get incredibly mean spirited if a hint of conflict arrives. Do not go there! Mean, expensive and incompetent. read more

If I could give this place more stars, I would. This is the 2nd place I contacted to get my JBL EON speaker repaired. This place was more kind and respectful on the phone than the 1st place I contacted in Berkeley (per JBLs website). The repair gets a lot of business but is under paid but a majority of these brand name products. When you get your equipment fixed here, please be kind and tip them. Thank you for the wonderful and kind service! read more

NO stars if I could. Butchers. Don't let them near your equipement. I once got it back worse than when I brought it in. They replaced a drive in one of my keyboards (without my knowledge) which put all of my data out of commission. When I asked the tech (forget the name, not Peter) about it he SCREAMED "WHY ARE YOU POSING SUCH A QUESTION TO ME!" They were good for one thing, inspiring to learn how to fix it myself. BUTCHERS. read more

I ordered replacement knobs from CAE Sound. They sent the wrong type. The process of getting things sorted out was remarkably uncomfortable and unreasonable. I have been a active collector, restorer and rebuilder of vintage musical instruments for 35 years. This company CAE Sound was by far the worst company I have ever dealt with. AVOID them if you can read more

Just would like to Thank CAE for helping me with my Peavey PR15D repair services. Im a Zumba instructor from the east bay and without sound system I can not transmit the effect of music or energy needed to run a class. Peter is obviously very knowledgeable and experienced. I on the other hand know nothing about electronics lol...but I totally trusted Peter to handle this problem. Sure enough he made it happen! Im the happiest person now after picking up my speaker and with no questions would recomment anyone who is having any kind of trouble with any musical instrument/sound system to bring their bussiness here and be a HAPPY customer just like me. Thank you Peter for everything..CAE is the best! read more

I brought in a blown PA speaker, and Peter sat down, checked it out immediately and let me know right there that the repair would't be under warranty. He then spent about 30 minutes talking over my bands setup and the likely reasons we blew the speaker. I found Peter to be knowledgeable, friendly, and all around cool guy. I'd definitely bring audio gear here for repairs in the future :) read more

I ordered a tube amp with reverb online (what could go wrong). Reverb was broken in shipment. Peter at CAE was nearest warranty place, not that close, but that's not his fault. Dropped it off, used his website to track repairs and picked it up a week later. It works fine now. Thanks read more

Great service and great people. I took my Roland Jupiter-8 there, like, 15 years ago and got it all dialed in. (They still had me on file, too!) They just fixed my Lexicon LXP-15 that thought was a goner. I was so happy with getting that back I decided to try my luck with an Ebay disaster in just purchased: a Synare 3. Peter said he hadn't seen one in a long time. This made me nervous until he pulled out a schematic for it! They continue to amaze me! read more

Be sure to get a written estimate with CAE. I was told over the phone it costs $30 to fix a short on a channel on an equalizer so I went for it. Used Rane ME15 are going for $70 on Ebay. When I picked it up, I was told the bill is $150. I got it down to $125 but it was a crappy feeling! No referral or repeat business for me. read more

The first time I brought my IORIO Series H to Peter, He mentioned that he had limited experience in repairing IROIOs (but had worked on Cordovoxes). He was willing to give it a shot. So, I learned later that he had ordered the schematic and, thanks to his 40+ years in the electronics business, he successfully located the problem and resolved it. This was almost 10 years ago. I brought the accordion back in November with a separate problem. Again, he managed to isolate the problems (amp, foot pedal, generator) and now I have an instrument that responds to my commands as a Ferrari responds to its owner. As with any perfectionist, patience is required with Peter. Don't expect to get your instrument or amplifier or electronic device back in a week because 1) he has clients all over the world and, more importantly 2) he is very methodical and passionate about his work. I can tell you from experience: your patience will be rewarded in the finished product. Thank you, Peter. You are clearly the best!! Joe Simoni Accordionist read more

I recently bought a rare vintage sequencer on eBay in mint condition that was apparently "serviced" here for $135. The unit showed no signs of being opened. The seller trusted that CAE would service the sequencer and pack it properly prior to shipping it to me. The sequencer would power up, but it was stuck with row #6 lit up and wouldn't run. The seller wanted me to take it to a repair shop to get it fixed but my nearest tech is 2.5 hours from me. So I took a risk and opened it myself to see if anything was disconnected. Right away I noticed that one of the resistors (underneath row #6) was bent completely sideways, touching the resistor next to it. This was the reason it was locking up. Either the tech was extremely careless, and bent the resistor when they put it back together, then didn't even bother to turn it on to test it before returning it to the seller, or the unit was this way from the factory. I'm inclined to think the latter as it did not appear that any solder joints were touched inside the unit. When CAE packed up the unit to ship across country, they packed the power cord on top of the sequencer. During shipping, the sharp metal from the power cord scratched the gray paint on what used to be a mint vintage sequencer. Granted the seller should have checked CAE's work, but this is a rare sequencer, in mint condition. A good tech would have known not to pack a power cable on top of a vintage unit like this. I wouldn't trust this tech with my vintage gear. read more

I took a Peavey DPM C8 controller in to CAE in 1996, and remebered that the repair time was lengthy, but the repairman told me in advance, and so I Ieft it with no expectations of a speedy repair. I had dropped the keyboard and had damaged it to the point where I thought it may be irrepairable. So, I was fairly surprised when I got the call to come pick it up, and even more surprised to find that it was competely repaired. Skip forward 17 years. I bought a beat-to-crap Wurlitzer 200a electric piano knowng it would need a lot of repair. After searching for places near and far, I decided, again to go to CAE. I explained that I wasn't sure how far I wanted to take the repairs on the thing - but at the minimum, I wanted it working. I gave them the requested 1 hour labor up front, and was asked for a card to bill parts against - I was given a 1 week estimate to have it looked at, after which I'd have an estimate. I gave him the go ahead, and a few days later got a call. It was working, but had problems. Did I want him to go further in cleaning it, to find the source. I did - but put a limit on it. I got a working Wurlitzer - cleaned, and the knowledge of what was left to be done to it. My card was not billed until I gave them the approval. The bottom line is that, IF you want a fast turn around and a pretty shop, don't go here. If you are willing to wait, and want it done right - go to CAE. But, state your expectations, and Peter will give you an honest answer. I wanted to know what it would take in time and money to get it working. He told me, and that's what I got. I then needed to say - okay, how much more to take it to "this" level, and how long, and that's what I got. He is fair. He is honest. He is good at what he does. He has lots of fans, and there are people who don't like his style as well. I think the guy is great, and I'm very happy with the job on my Wurlitzer. Yes - he spent a lot of time on the keyboard - more than I anticipated, but he had to basically disassemble and clean the entire unit to find out what was wrong with it, and then fix each issue as he reassembled it - while calling me to give me status and time/cost estimates. I have no complaints. read more