I wish there was some sort of professional solder/repair service

[movinginslomo]

More alesis MIDIVERB II woes as I think the output pot is dying. As I unfortunately found out on my first attempt replacing/resoldering the pots (I still have replacements) is crappy business. Or I don't have the proper tools to get the parts off cleanly. I wish I could just send the daughter board with the replacement pots have someone with a professional set up replace them. building pedals/rewiring guitars is in my realm, but repairing old electronics is not. Doesn't anyone own 1-800-solder4U?

[Drew Hallenbeck]

Might consider tossing the whole daughter board assembly and replacing the pots individually.
There should be more than enough slack in the wires to remove them from the pin header and solder directly to the pots.
Just make sure to check the traces on the board and label the wires before tossing the board so everything gets connected back up the right way. 

If there was a decent market for it, you could have new daughter boards produced for you. Solder on the pots and the header and sell them as a drop-in replacement assembly!

[Zerro]

Very usefull (I believe neccessary) instrument is solder pump - getting hot tin away from point. Not allways will clean everything, but it is far easier to get pin out from hole. Practice is necessairy, but it comes quickly. And solder-iron with temperature setting. The best pistol solder. More handy for such a work.

[movinginslomo]

If there was a decent market for it, you could have new daughter boards produced for you. Solder on the pots and the header and sell them as a drop-in replacement assembly!

As this is a COMMON failure point on these units, there just night be a market... hmmm

[movinginslomo]

Very usefull (I believe neccessary) instrument is solder pump - getting hot tin away from point. Not allways will clean everything, but it is far easier to get pin out from hole. Practice is necessairy, but it comes quickly. And solder-iron with temperature setting. The best pistol solder. More handy for such a work.

I have both suction AND heated desoldering pumps. The issue was that with the through hole PCB solder has secured the pin on both sides of the board. You'd reheat the old solder on one side, but it would not wick through to the other side, which was still securing the part. I was able to cut apart the pots and desolder the pin stubs but after lifting multiple traces trying to get the pin stubs out I gave up. I still have the second parts unit. With an (old) machine soldered PCB with old solder, even copious amounts of flux wasn't helping. I watch guys restore old 80's computers and they have similar issues. Are there professional desoldering devices, us mere hobbyists don't have access to?

[Zerro]

That's the problem - two sided solder points. The most problematic way of making pcb desks. When we consider, that some details are only socketed, and rest is in such a holes, it doesn't give a sense. I suggest to etch your own pcb without those two-sided holes. It has no use in such a machines. This is not something from Space Shuttle equipment.

If there is not other way, try to solder desk only with little amount of tin at first, from that copper track side. After trial you can add some tin anyway.