Category: ARP

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.

The pedal is for sale if you are interested, please contact me.

It’s not just your vintage synths that need love from time to time, it’s also their accessories. I service a Rhodes Chroma dual footswitch by replacing the damaged plug, cleaning the switches, recapping the switch, and polishing the brass. Result is a pedal someone will be proud to plug into their Rhodes Chroma.

I repair an ARP Pro/DGX Mk I with a bad slider and certain voices that sustain indefinitely.  And experiment with video editing and speeding up the video so you can see me solder!

I show how to disassemble an ARP Omni 2 and remove all the circuit boards and the power supply.  You can send your boards to me for recapping, service or repair so you can have an expert repair your synth without having to ship the whole heavy thing!

In this video, I give a demonstration to show the features and sounds of the ARP Omni 2 polyphonic analog synthesizer.

In this video I repair a broken ARP Omni 2 where 2 of the 8 voices were broken (Violin and 4′ Synthesizer). I show how the synthesizer works and where common problems are that can cause dead voices and dead ranges of keys. We track down the problems on this keyboard with the oscilloscope and bring it back to working order.

I begin the restoration of a very rare (one of ~35 made) ARP 2600 Grey Meanie. I bought this ARP totally dead and intend to do a full restoration of it before I sell it.

Its previous owner thought the power supply was broken, so we check it out and locate the real problem. But, as should be done with every vintage synth, we rebuild the power supply.

If you’d like me to make more videos as I repair and restore this ARP 2600, please let me know!

I restore Tim’s broken ARP Omni 2, rebuilding the power supply, replacing all the polarized capacitors, enhancing the filter, adding my LED sliders, and refurbishing the keybed.

Join me as I restore a broken ARP Omni 1.

In this first part, we evaluate the state of this Omni 1, and I discuss a little bit about what’s under the hood and my plan of attack for restoring it.

In the second part, we replace the aged tantalum capacitors in the synthesizer and visually inspect the boards for other signs of damage.

In this third part, we repair the power supply which had a few components go up in smoke, and we correct shoddy wiring left by the last person who worked on this.

In this final part we do a lot.  We replace the old and gross sliders with blindingly bright blue LED sliders, perform an enhancement on the voltage controlled filter (VCF), replace some faulty switches.  We also repair the strings not sounding stringy with a fix to the Phaser board.

Restored Omni synthesizers, parts, and repair service are available through my website.  I’m also happy to answer any questions you may have about fixing your own synth.