synthchaser

Posted on September 11, 2017 by synthchaser

Synthchaser #078 – Oberheim OB-8 Voice Board Repair

A customer sent a broken OB-8 voice board in for repair. We locate and repair a damaged trace, replace an incorrect capacitor and test it out in one of my OB-8’s.

Posted on August 26, 2017 by synthchaser

Synthchaser #077 – ARP Omni 2 Phaser Repair

In wrapping up the restoration of an ARP Omni 2, I noticed the sound was ever so slightly off. Together we track down the problem and repair the culprit delay line on the phaser board of the synthesizer.

Shows the importance of replacing all of those tantalum capacitors with my kit:

ARP Omni 2 Capacitor Replacement Kit with 4075 VCF rebuild kit

Posted on August 22, 2017 by synthchaser

Synthchaser #076 – ARP Omni 2 Wood Side Panels

I was restoring an ARP Omni 2 and one of the leather sides was damaged, as they often are, so I made some replacement side panels from hardwood. In this video I pop them on we see what it looks like when it’s done. My video camera is lousy, and doesn’t do the wood justice, but you can see the panels better in the stills at the end.

I don’t currently plan on stocking these, but if you’re really interested in a pair, contact me, because it turned out so nice, I’m sure I’ll be making more.

Posted on August 22, 2017August 22, 2017 by synthchaser

Synthchaser #075 – ARP Omni 2 Repair – Bass Note Problems

I troubleshoot and repair a couple of problems with this ARP Omni 2. First the lower bass voice is dead. Second, a weird problem with the low note priority circuitry of the bass notes is seemingly allowing more than 1 bass note through at a time.

Posted on July 10, 2017 by synthchaser

Synthchaser #074 – Yet Another LinnDrum Repair – Troubleshooting Dead Drum Sounds

In case you didn’t get enough LinnDrum repair excitement last week in Synthchaser #072, I’m back at it again, firing up a customer’s “Wildcard” LinnDrum, which was purchased in unknown condition and without a power supply. We troubleshoot and fix some dead and incorrect drum sounds and give yet another LinnDrum a chance at life.

Posted on July 7, 2017 by synthchaser

Synthchaser #073 – ARP 2600 Tonus Logo Repair – Sliders & Connectors

The greatest synth ever, the ARP 2600, is beating the heat in the Synthchaser workshop and getting a little love and minor TLC. I replace a broken slider and identify and replace some bad connectors that were causing the keyboard control voltage to glitch or be dropped.

Posted on June 26, 2017 by synthchaser

Synthchaser #072 – Fried LinnDrum Repair

Two customers bought LinnDrums on eBay and sent them in for service/repair. One customer got a good buy, the other got a nightmare! It was a hacked mess of wires and modifications and the circuit board was blackened all the way through from heat. When most people would consider something like that a “parts machine”, our bold Synth Chaser forges ahead. Will he bring it back to life, or has the Synth Chaser finally met his match?

Posted on June 12, 2017 by synthchaser

matrixsynth.com’s Oberheim OB-Xa repair video series

For your viewing pleasure, I present Synthchaser #069 and #070… A 2 part video series where I repair an OB-Xa for Matrix of Matrixsynth.com.

One voice card is dead, and others are failing autotune and sounding really inconsistent from voice to voice. In the first video we take a look at the state of the synth, and troubleshoot and repair the dead voice card.

In the second half, I continue the repair by rebuilding the power supply and voice cards, and get the synth in tune and sounding consistent from voice card to voice card. I also show you a common defect with the voice cards that prevents proper calibration. Lots of time lapse soldering with looping music.

Posted on May 19, 2017June 2, 2017 by synthchaser

Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 Restoration & Repair Video Series

For my next few videos I’ll be showing the restoration & repair of a Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 (revision 3). While in pretty good cosmetic condition, except for a broken pot, the synth doesn’t work (all LEDs light up, “88” shows on the 7 segment display, and no output or response from any controls). As I release the videos I’ll add them to this post. Be sure to subscribe to my Youtube channel to be notified when new videos are added.

https://www.youtube.com/c/SynthChaser?sub_confirmation=1

Part I – Introduction

We peek at the insides of a Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 that we will be restoring.

Part 2 – Power Supply Rebuild

I show you how to remove, test, rebuild & calibrate the power supply of your Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 synthesizer. We also stumble across evidence of a really good reason why you will want to do this to your Prophet 5.

Part 3 – Capacitors, Battery, Switches & Pots

We recap the remaining circuit boards of the synthesizer. I show you how to test and replace the battery, clean the switches, and clean and replace the potentiometers.

Part 4 – “Dead” CPU Repair

We troubleshoot and repair the dead Prophet which is non-responsive and stuck with all LEDs on and “88” on the display.

Part 5 – Keybed Refurbishment

We yank out the Pratt Read keybed, and I show you how to change the key bushings to get a nice quiet action to the keyboard, and we clean the buss bar and adjust the key contacts to fix dead/re-triggering keys.