If you decide on the Juki, make sure that your local dealer is an authorized dealer for Juki. If he is not, Juki will not ship parts to him. Many shops can clean and do general maintenance, but if ever you need to replace a part, you need that authorized dealer.

I should have mentioned that the newer Jukis have built in stitch regulators.

well that’s a reason to go with the George instead. Though Sewing machines plus is an authorized dealer.

I have a Juki and I really like it. However, I have found that Juki is not great in terms of customer service. It took three emails to get an answer to a simple question from them. Having said that, my dealer is excellent but they are 1300 miles away. That makes shipping a little expensive. I learned the hard way that it is important to have an authorized dealer close by. Good luck with your decision. Choosing a new machine is not easy.

Good news for me. It’s the encoder. A relatively inexpensive part While I would love a new machine I can’t justify it. $6000 can buy a lot of fabric though. :)

Great news!!!
Hope they fix it quickly for you, and can get back to using it very soon.
Yes, indeed, treat yourself to some new fabric. A good excuse!!!! :)

Now for my question ..... what does the encoder do for the machine?
(I have a S16, so it's all relevant to me)
Thanks!

Great news! And.... if you wanted to get into better stitch regulator than the "puck" HQ used for the SS originally, they are now selling a table with the sensors in it. It's called the InSight table - retails around $1500 but they have run a couple of sales on it. It's the same table technology that the Capri uses, just has a cutout to fit the SS instead of the Capri.

well he told me but it was a few hours ago but here it goes. It encodes the message from the screen into something the motor can deal with. So if your screen is lit up but the machine won’t go when you press needle down or press the door pedal consider the encoder. Mario thought it would be $50. I guess Probably closer to $100. He says he’s not charging me labor. Probably feels bad that he didn’t believe me about the problem since it was intermittent. Understandable. He has to wait until HQ sends him the part and then he’ll fix it right away. Two weeks.

Thanks for the extra info.
Good Luck ... hope you get it back sooner.

Time to get something ready so you can use it as soon as you have it back!!

Good to hear! I have an older Sweet Sixteen that I bought used, and I love it. I think it's well worth it to get yours fixed- you can always look at getting an insight table for it if you decide you want stitch regulation.

Rob