Although it is not the easiest way to make synthesizer modules, all from Verbos Electronics are designed, assembled, tested and packaged in our shop in Berlin, Germany.

The state of the art in electronics is surface mount technology. In the original synthesizer days, all electronics were through hole. In fact, printed circuit boards were a relatively new development in the 1960’s. Despite what you may read on the internet, the electronics inside these parts are the same, just surrounded by more or less plastic. One advantage of surface mount is that it is smaller. We are able to build our modules with a single PCB that has the panel controls on one side and the electronics on the back. Classically, connectors are the most common failure point, so it is a huge advantage to eliminate them. 

Surface mount PCBs are assembled by a Pick ‘n’ Place machine. This is a robot that is programmed to pick up all the parts set up around the perimeter and place them down on the circuit board where ever they should be. The biggest advantage of automated assembly is that once the machine is set up, all the circuit boards are the same. If a circuit is built by hand with through hole components there is just as much chance of a mistake on each one. These machines are big, expensive and difficult to operate. But, if you have one of these machines you don’t have to ship placed circuit boards around, likely from Asia. Verbos Electronics has one of these machines. 

Although we cannot control the fact that all electronic components are made far far away, we do everything we can locally, most of it in our shop. All of the surface mount parts are placed by Bertha™ (our pick ‘n’ place machine), then the panel components and front panel (made in Europe) are attached and soldered, then the module is cleaned, then it is tested, then it is boxed (in a locally made box) and messengered to Alex4 distribution (in Berlin).

Is all of this saving the world? No, but it means that everybody that is working on the module actually knows what it does. It means that it didn’t get shipped all over the world.