years ago, when the joystick failed in my SFX-6 and it was out of warranty, they sent me a new one. replacement involved a bit of soldering work, but wasn’t super difficult. and well before that, they similarly sent me a Machinedrum pot to replace myself. so they are open to the idea of letting customers do their own repair work. because, as you say, the shipping is what kills you. both of the instances above, they had zero US representation, so I would’ve had to ship to Sweden. 
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