Canada’s National Music Centre (NMC) has announced that synth guru John Leimseider has died:
The National Music Centre team was absolutely devastated today to hear of the sudden passing of our dear friend and colleague John Leimseider (JL).
JL was an incredibly kind, talented and gifted person. He was one of the world’s most sought-after electronic instrument and equipment technicians who had serviced instruments for many of the most celebrated musicians of our time, and had been NMC’s Electronics Technician since 2002. He was also a talented veteran musician who still performed regularly in and around Calgary. Throughout his 40-year career, he was a mentor to countless technicians, engineers and musicians.
NMC mourns alongside the music community in Calgary and with many that knew and loved JL from around the world.
Leimseider had an international reputation in the world of synth repair, working out of Calgary as JEL Keyboards. Composer and synth designer Peter Grenader described him as “the best synth repair guy ever hatched.”
“He was a friend and a mentor,” notes composer Drew Neumann. “He kept all our old synths going long past their ‘sell by’ date and was full of brilliant advice on keeping them running.”
Leimseider had recently completed restoration of the unique TONTO modular synthesizer, and was scheduled to present on it as part of the upcoming TONTO Week.
He is survived by his wife, Laura, his son, Noah, and daughter Zoë.
Very sad to read this news. 🙁
Very sad to hear of his passing. Definitely a raw deal. Seems like he was cheated out of the TONTO Celebration.
Sweet wonderful most genuine nice guy I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet…. will miss John.
Huge loss. The National Music Centre in Calgary is amazing and I got to meet John when I visited in 2016. He personally took us around and showed us the museum (including TONTO) when it was under renovation. He was just a wonderful guy with lots of stories and an impressive career as a keyboardist with Iron Butterfly and as a world renowned synth tech. He will be missed…If you can, go up to Calgary and check out the awesomeness that is the National Music Centre and raise a glass to John Leimseider when you are there.
I met JL when I lived in L.A. back in the 80’s and 90’s. He worked at Music Tech in North Hollywood. After he moved to Alberta, I still sent him synths to repair. Ironically, he had been working on my OBXa when he passed. He called me three days before he passed away and said “it was close” to being done. Fortunately his son Noah, helped get the Xa back to me. I truly cannot believe he is gone. He was a very sweet and generous person. He will be missed by many.
I knew JL from the 80’s in L.A. – I worked in the recording, songwriting, touring and manufacturing sides of the industry and we became well acquainted – great guy and really would go above and beyond to treat everyone respectfully. He gave me an incredible surprise gift by rescuing my prized 1979 Oberheim OBX – which had vanished in the 90s as MusicTek went out of business. Many years later after trying to recover it unsuccessfully – JL found it, fixed it up and returned it to me in 2013!!!! Amazing generosity, integrity and honor.
JL was the best synth tech ever period! When the company I cofounded Synthesizer Systems Technologies (SST) in 1987 JL was the only tech that worked on our equipment. We worked with all the top synth players in the world and I would get asked all the time who takes care of our 100s of synthesizers I would tell them JL was hands down the best you could get. Because he was a player himself he loved what he did and he could fix anything! Because he was always working on our instruments I asked him several time to come work with us. He was always very polite and just smiled and said I’ll think about it. He was so dedicated to everyone in the synth community and I never heard anyone ever say anything but how incredibly gifted and polite he was. He treated everyone the same because it was all about the instruments and not who walked in the door with them. I think I spoke with JL almost every day for 25 years. SST would certainly not have been the top synthesizer and computer rental company without his incredible technical abilities backing us up on a daily basis. I loved going over to Music Tech where not only JL worked but also his wife Laura and go to his shop room that looked like a mad scientist lived in it. It was awesome to watch him reach down into a pile of parts and say this is the part and solder it in, test it and bam you were on your way to the session. Sometimes afterwords he would just hand you the same part and say here now you know how to fix it when it breaks again (smile). No one at that time came close to his ability and maybe know one will ever take that spot again, at least not with the passion he had for it and everyone in the synth community. When he told me he was going to Calgary I was very sad and very happy for him, Laura and his children. If anyone deserved the opportunity to build a new life with his family and help them build the incredible museum they were working on it was JL. I missed him from the day he left LA but i’m so glad he did it because there was no one on earth better fit for the work that lay before him. TONTO was his greatest and final gift to all the synth world and his memory will live each and every time it’s played. I’m glad I found this place to express my thought’s about a very special friend. To Laura Noah & Zoe please know if you ever want to reach out I have a lot more to tell you how incredible JL was to work with and how much he meant to us. [email protected] (323)229-1799