You will find many other synths and outboard of the era have the same thing. Indeed I have. I guessed it had something to do with their perceived reliability, I just wish they were more... consistent. Seems like when I'm fault finding it's always the chip that isn't socketed :evil: Check out an Emu...

It's odd how they socketed some chips but not others.

Well yeah. I'm not going to argue that there's any inherent virtue in it but that in all honesty I would probably grab the bargain.

Might feel too guilty if it was for a charity sale though.

Yeah, I'd be greasy and take it as is. Frankly, I've lost s**t loads over the years on this kind of stuff so I'm not going to turn down a bargain.

Well usually on older Japanese electronics they have a heavy layer of PCB lacquer, pretty common to have that looking yellowey/brown and go gummy with solvents. The flux (if there is any) is usually just little spots here and there. Yeah I hate that stuff. After 30-odd years of dust and (usually) c...

Oh, I see. Looks like the earlier boards used a regular 100KΩ resistor instead of a 100KΩ variable. Just to be clear, have you checked the VCO-1 waveform selector switch electrically, i.e. if there's a low impedance path between the noise generating circuit and the rest of the board when there shoul...

Have you tried adjusting VR3 yet?

It's this one on the jack-board:

Kewl! Seen these now and again but had I no idea what they actually sounded like. Mind if I ask how the thryratron envelope generator works? The 2D21 is a heated miniature thyratron used as a threshold device resetting an RC timer in this case. http://i61.tinypic.com/2eycck4.jpg A trigger pulse is ...

Since the problem emerged after you had cleaned the switches I'd try going over the wave-form selector on VCO-1 again to make sure the some residue or dislodged dirt isn't to blame.

Kewl! Seen these now and again but had I no idea what they actually sounded like.

Mind if I ask how the thryratron envelope generator works?

Really couldn't say. I did notice however that in the Solus' service manual at least the offending resistors are the right value. This site says the Solus went into production in 1980 a year before ARP's bankruptcy. The Mk III odyssey was still being produced during that last year so I imagine the p...

Yeah looking at the service manual it appears they do. I've recently finished a cloned 4075 (with appropriate resistors) and I think it sounds fantastic. Don't know what the earlier ones were like though.

Thats a great comparison, guyaguy. I can totally hear that. My mind is pretty much made up - the P600 is what I'm going to go for. Thanks in part to this thread, I've had a bit of an epiphany. I need to stop fighting against my instincts when it comes to this stuff. Yes, my instincts are almost alw...

After the BEEEEEEooooooowwwwww, the faint drone responds to patch changes and keys on the keyboard and over MIDI. Hmm...I remember experiencing this back when my OB-Xa was dead. I think that problem was beyond my skill level...Or, is it oscilloscope time again? Afraid so! The 3p's boards do have lo...

Actually, come to think of it the clackety, cheapo keybed probably lay behind much of my ambivalence toward the p600.