Took about 4 months for the maestro (if you know you know LOL) to bring my white star fav. back to life. Was so pumped when I received my narrated YouTube video of the boards back in action!!!!

It’s a bummer there’s not a quicker process but considering Cliffy is backed up even longer for some bent metal or I waited 7 months for a repro backglass it’s not too terrible.

Happy new year and hope you’re up and running soon!

A quart of JD and I fixed the ribbon cable traces on a System11 board and still played it before I passed out. I think I could beat the half hour that took today.

They should quote you a time even before you send them to them. 2 months and no communication is unacceptable.

Indeed. You have a right to be pissed. I always use Clive from the Coin Op Cauldron. Hope we’re not speaking about him here.

It’s one thing to be able to repair boards and that’s all fine and dandy but you damn well have to be able to communicate and that is where some fall way short. If you can’t communicate don’t take the work.

Yeah I know but we all get busy. It does not take long to give an update. Period. No one is that busy unless their kid or spouse just got killed.

Sorry you’re having issues.

I’ve never used Clive, but one thing I always hear is he shoots you straight even before you send him anything. That’s paramount.

I've found you are more likely to get a response from a direct message here on Pinside. My board was February to July of 2022.

I’ve almost exclusively used Jerry Clause. He’s worked on Bally Stern Williams and Gottlieb for me. I haven’t sent him stuff in over a year, but his turn around time is always less than 2 months. Sometimes less than a month. But same deal. Great communicator and always diagnoses for free if you’re unsure on the issue. And will always tell you repairing is not worth it if that’s the case. If it’s too far gone and new boards are an option, he will recommend that.

Communication is paramount. Sadly many these days either don’t know how to do it or just don’t care.

My business demands that I stay on top of the communication angle. If somebody asks a question they want an answer in a reasonable amount of time. Not unreasonable. I would want the same thing.

I learned about Clive from Steve young. Used him ever since and has never let me down. I’m sure there are others that are good like this. When I find someone who knows how to couple great service with being able to communicate, well you had me at hello!

G

Maybe it would be beneficial to start a list for board repair that really highlights the best out there. Why bother dealing with someone who cannot meet reasonable expectations. Give the business to those who are deserving and have demonstrated they deserve it! Of course this would leave out the folks who are not so great in both disciplines unhappy. Oh no!

It will take months. That’s just the reality.

I sent my boards to a well known person who was less than cordial when I asked for an update. I was polite, and the response was like “Don’t bother me, do you realize how busy I am, etc.” Yeah, never again.

Clive was much, much better, and my go to for any future repairs.

we should be happy we have so many capable talented people to repair our 20+ year old boards , plus we have DumbAss that are making stellar replacement products !

if you cant wait buy a replacement and have the old boards repaired ... then you have a spare !

You're giving him business I understand they might be overwhelmed but if you can't take a minute to say "Working on it I'll get back to you as soon as I have any updates thank you for your patience" hell you could keep that in Notepad & copy and paste it every time. To be somewhat non-responsive is a dick move IMO.

Anything over 4 weeks is unacceptable. I am not sure I have ever waited over 2 weeks.

I’d say 25% over the discussed turnaround time would be “too long”.

if you do the list they will get swamped lol

It can be a challenge as sometimes I send client boards out for repair and repairs take longer than expected. This puts me in the middle between my customer and the board repair person.
On the flipside with the huge uptick in pinball popularity and scarcity of pinball board repairers I can understand how it can be very overwhelming for them at times.

Some boards can take hours to fix, you have customers that claim you didn't fix the board when in fact their game has a fault which is damaging the board. An illness or hand injury can set one back weeks or more. the boards are piling up. Shipping issues as well. I recently sent 2 system 11s for repair and box looked like it was ran over. Thankfully they made it.

There's a guy on facebook who spams the pinball enthusiasts group daily with his offers for board service...and another guy on there trying to steal his customers. Its almost like there is a glut of board repair guys now. It got annoying enough I had to block him on there.

Typical back log for GOOD board repair guys is 3 months. Thats 3 months for it to get ON the bench.

I had a fella do 2 of mine...first was a RD 9211 with sound problems,...quick fix. 2nd was a horrible acid damaged sys11 ...He turned them around in a week!

Goes by D. R. Pinball on youtube. not to be confused with dr pinball restoration. His channel is only board repairs

acid sys11 (resized).jpg

acid sys11 repaired (resized).jpg

He’s newer, but I’ve heard good things from others about him. I believe he does these full time, so might be a good option for those that need a quicker turn around. Dylan Ramey is his name I believe.

Super Great guy. Great communication. Keeps you updated on progress(with pics too)...and shipping etc. Very friendly personable person. I highly recommend him.

I know board repair can get expensive, but we also need to acknowledge this is an important service to have access to. And yeah it takes time and for most pinball people time be movin' a bit slower when a new game is on a truck or a board is out for repair.

Man I'm glad I've been able to do all my own board repairs. I can't imagine having to wait or be at the mercy of someone else. Some boards are just unobtanium and having it possibly come up missing would be horrible.

I'd give whoever it is the benefit of doubt. Yeah communication isn't some people's strong suit. Holidays mixed in there too isn't helping I'm sure. I have games here to shop out for other people but I told them up front I'm not even looking at them until after the first of the year.

Yep, I'd never done any work like that before owning pinball machines and have fixed every single one that needed repair since then. Some seriously roached. All the years working on cars, we just replaced them and rarely lifted a soldering iron.

Everybody's got to know their limitations though.

I have always done my own board repairs. The only time I sent one out it was on a Bally 6803 game, a system I’m not that familiar with .
After several months of silence the guy sent the board back and said he couldn’t diagnose the fault let alone rectify it . I say ‘the’ board ….. I’m 99.9% sure it wasn’t the actual board I sent him …. genuine mistake or on purpose ?
It also didn’t work . The game was sold ‘as is’ shortly after so I didn’t actually pursue him over it.

Transistors, bridge rectifiers, connectors: me

Serious logic / chip work, battery corrosion damage: a professional.

I’ve been using Clive for 20 years and I usually expect it to take up to 4 months. Patience is a virtue.

Same here. I'm no expert, but I'm a pretty good student. I've learned allot from the TOP series as well as other Clay resources over the years. And when I get stuck, the great community here almost always points me to a solution. So far, I haven't ever sent a board to be repaired. Wait, sorry, had to send a cabinet node to Stern and their repair was a replacement. Lol

Yeah I guess my limitations stop at node boards too. I had one not work from day 1 and Stern had me send it in and they just replaced it. They probably have a huge dumpster behind their factory full of bad node boards as I'm fairly certain they're not fixing them either.

List of the “good guys “ board repairman

1. Jerry Clause. [email protected]

2. Clive Jones Coin Op Cauldron

3. Dylan Ramey. D.R. Pinball on YouTube
4. Chris Hibler

5 Brent Butler. Ontario CA. [email protected]

6. Rob Anthony. [email protected]

Chris Hibler

Brent Butler in Orillia Ontario Canada

I've only sent out boards twice, and both times I used Jerry Clause. I sent him boards in January and June of this year. Both times the turn around time was about a month. He only communicated through email, but he replied quickly each time. He does great work, is reasonably priced and is willing to help troubleshoot.

I only had one minor issue, one of the times when I got the boards back, everything worked but the flippers (Williams system 6). He helped me trace it to the flipper relay on the driver board, they weren't lining up....most likely knocked askew during shipping. He then walked me through how to fix it. (He offered to fix it if I sent it back but I was easily able to do it with him walking me through it.)

I love how he takes the time to help me learn. If you’re willing to learn, he’s willing to teach.

For sure, he's very knowledgeable and patient. I think we went back and forth for about 2 hrs with him walking me through several different things to try, test, check before he figured out that the relay was the problem. I like to do as much of my own repair work as possible, but next time I decide to send a board out he'll be the first person I contact.

I enjoy fixing my own stuff. But then i don't have all the test jigs and years of experience. Board guys can do a lot of the repairs quick because after a 50 to 100 times of the type of board its like a bike and they have many of the parts on hand. As to me order the parts then spending hours here and there over days.

Five is good. Anymore?

Please include email addresses. Otherwise, a person still has to do some digging for information.

6. Rob Anthony - [email protected]

Far as I know, Jerry is only on Facebook. I never heard of Brent nor Dylan.

here is his brent butler's email
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Jerry Clause =
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However, the question of the thread is how long? So, perhaps it should also be noted that some of those guys turn around boards in less than a month and some take 6 months.

It's not me. All emails are promptly answered, phone is sometimes difficult to get to if I'm in the middle of a repair ir with a customer but customers have never been left intentionally hanging.

Clive

I'm assuming you're talking about one board? This shop receives 10-20 board batches from well known vendors/customers/game restoration specialists on a regular basis in addition to single board repairs (which move through the shop more quickly as these repairs are inserted between multi-board repairs).

Clive

Regarding the list I’m compiling. Really want to highlight the fellas that are good at their craft and know how to communicate on a timely basis. Those are who I want to see get the work. If there are any errors on that list please let me know and I will correct it asap

You have always done right by me Clive

George