Most satisfying piece of gear you had self fixed/repaired?

Starscream · 2023-01-14T04:28:19.166Z

From time to time, we come into posession of faulty pieces of gear we wanted to use/try. Did you manage to fix up one so good that its subsequent use became more satisfying than getting new

Matthewsavant · 2023-01-14T06:04:26.112Z

My Monomachine stopped working one day, it was working well the day before then the next day when I turned it on it became stuck in a boot loop, powering on booting up, shutting down again and again. I was panicking because other than Elektron themselves I’ve never heard of anyone repairing “vintage” Elektron machines. So I cracked open a beer steadied my hands and cracked open the Monomachine, it was a harrowing experience just opening the fucker but once I got it completely apart I checked everything I could with my very limited knowledge of electronics, while doing so I reseated all the cables and noticed once of them was slightly popped off. I carefully closed it all back up and that was that it was running perfectly again. I later realized that the cable coming loose was the result of the screw length of an after market 2 tier stand I had bought for the Monomachine and MachinedrumUW, I always put the MnM in the 2nd tier and when I was about to put it back in the stand with the knowledge of what the insides of the MnM looks like I found that the bottom right screw lined up almost exactly with that cable and was slightly too long.
I documented the whole opening it up process in some of my early posts on this board.

2nd to that was when I traded a broken Korg polysix for a Roland sh101 (in red!) when I got the 101 it was disgusting, it had weird black gunk all over it and several of the keys didn’t make sounds. I cleaned the whole thing, opened it up and cleaned the key contacts they all triggered perfectly after that and under all that goo was an absolutely Mint condition 101, I don’t know what the gunk was but it didn’t damage anything it ended up looking (and working) like museum quality.
I’m sure the guy that I traded with had a good fixer upper story about the polysix too because although the battery had opened and leaked onto the board (as they all do) the amount of battery acid that’s was on the board was super minimal, there was one very small contact that needed to be soldered but at the time I knew nothing about soldering. But in the end both of us ended up with a damn fine trade.

A sad fixer upper story is my damned Alesis Ion, which one day just didn’t power on, similar to the MnM the Ion was working perfectly once day then the next day it wasn’t, nothing happened to it I just powered it down the day before and then went to power it on the next day and it never woke up. I opened it up completely, cleaned anything that needed cleaning, reseated all the cables, I even tracked down the schematics to see if there was something wrong that I could see but to no avail. It’s a shame too because the Ion has a special place in my heart as it was one of the first synths I saved up to buy back in the day when they first came out.
I still have it in the hopes that I can save it one day or maybe scavenge it for parts if I ever happen across another one for sale that needs keys or a screen or something.

That’s about it though, I’ve bought and sold synths since the early 2000a vintage and modern and have only ran into a few repair issues.

Microtribe · 2023-01-14T06:37:39.939Z

Yeah. Rescued a supposedly dead
SH101, MS20 and Korg Mono/Poly.

Just needed some TLC.

SH101 now has midi, which I fitted.

Got them for free. Score.
I sold the Mono/Poly, kept the other 2. I use them all the time.

Starscream · 2023-01-14T07:57:20.608Z

I had a bad Roland Juno-106. It came with a broken key on arrival, some dirt and a group of voices not sounding. So I took the entire thing apart, cleaned/washed the keys (got a replacement key from eBay), internal parts, membrane assembly, traced the circuit to solder back the connection for the voices, gave it a new fuse and wipe. Voila! Very happy playing the synth (but it was sold since).

ccr · 2023-01-14T09:39:15.480Z

Small problem, but very satisfying outcome: when I got my Qu Pac mixer some years ago, the tip of my headphone jack broke and got stuck in the mixer’s headphone out. I found the recommendation to pull it out with a screw gently driven into the hollow part of the broken tip. This worked perfectly and really made my day.

Also: installing the simple pad spacing sheet sent by Elektron for my AR2 and seeing all pad problems gone…

pumpkin_head · 2023-01-14T11:04:52.224Z

I recently got a PSS480 , plenty of buttons were not functional. I was lucky enough that a week before a guy posted a video about how to fix this. I opened it, remove the 34 years old dust in it, and glued smal pieces of aluminium paper in the back of the faulty buttons. Works like a charm now. I had to fix 37 of them ! In the end it was a fun evening doing that.

darenager · 2023-01-14T11:48:43.469Z

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This was in a bad state, no CPU, missing components, damaged PCB, damaged casing.

Repaired it and put in new RE-303 enclosure.

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Bunker · 2023-01-14T13:30:24.303Z

Hard one, all my classic gear was bought with one or a number of faults. Memorable ones were my Godwin String Concert, Korg Lambda, PolySix (Repair and KiwiSix conversion) and JX3P but the best in terms of satisfaction and sound has prob got to by my pair of Jupiter 4’s. Ones still carrying a long term injury and the other has a new niggles. It’s still got a huge sound tho

chaocrator · 2023-01-14T14:38:54.956Z

E-Mu Command Station MP-7.
bought one for parts, but managed to repair.

hyperstationjr · 2023-01-14T14:51:56.252Z

Rescued two dead Ensoniq ESQ1s from a repair shop. One was totally unresponsive, the other had dead keys and no screen.

After a good bit of cleaning and part swapping, I had it fully functioning. Very proud of that one.

I made the mistake of selling it some time ago and have regretted it ever since.

Bunker · 2023-01-14T15:57:02.271Z

Funnily enough I did something similar. Built a worker from a broken one and a fire damaged one. It was particularly satisfying as I’d had the broken one some time

Kosmology · 2023-01-14T16:08:44.266Z

A little bit off track but I’ve had a Corsair M65 pro for years & it developed the double click when single clicking problem a couple of years ago, it was mostly liveable until this year when it was doing it constantly. I almost bought a new one but the problem is really common & last year the rubber coating went sticky & I removed it & it’s nicer without. So a couple of months ago I tracked down a decent switch & replaced it. I know it’s silly but it fills me with happiness every time I use it now, I’ve only just got rid of the expectation that it will double click at anytime.

Not very exciting.

I have an HR-16 that needs attention, it doesn’t remember anything. I replace the soldered battery with a holder/new battery but it didn’t fix it. There is a circuit that apparently is partly responsible for memory, so at some point I’ll have a go at tracking down the parts & replacing them. I’ve had it since 1992, though a mate had it for most of that time. Great for early orbital stuff.