Analog synthesizer repair, parts, sales, and innovation. I buy broken synthesizers!
I show you around the inside of an Oberheim OB-8, and we take a look at a dead oscillator which is causing autotune to fail for one of the voices. Then, I install my power supply rebuild kit, which replaces the power supply capacitors and beefs up the bridge rectifiers.
The kit I’m installing is:
I started rolling the video camera when I repaired a very sick Oberheim OB-X. Turns out it suffered some damage from the corrosive effects of mouse urine. We also see the dangers of leaving the old tantalum capacitors in synthesizers. I track down a memory retention issue causing the synth not to store patches correctly. I also show how to rebuild the OB-X power supply and change the battery.
Look for a full set of products in the shop to get your OB-X running smoothly and safely for years to come.
Here are the factory patches for the 120 preset version of the Oberheim OB-Xa as a WAV file for importing via the cassette interface:
oberheim-obxa-factory-patches-120
Here’s a short video showing how to import this WAV file into the synthesizer:
I’ve made a video series showing a repair/partial restoration I did for a customer’s Oberheim OB-Xa. In the first part, I show what’s wrong with this keyboard and rebuild the power supply and voice cards:
In the second part, I rebuild the Pratt-Read keyboard and change the bushings. I also repair a broken switch on the bender assembly:
And finally, I calibrate the power supply and voice cards:
I sell kits for everything I restored in this video (power supply, voice cards, and key bushings). If you’re not comfortable with a soldering iron, I can also perform these services for your synth, just drop me a line.
