Re: Synth Defects - Ticking Time Bombs
Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2015 10:01 pm
All good points. Cheers!
Synthesizer Discussion Forums
http://forum.vintagesynth.com/
The PPG back-up batteries are quite as bad. They happen to be the same blue VARTA variety and cause quite as much damage.rschnier wrote:[...] The Polysix's battery type seemed to be among the worst for emitting the vapor, as luck would have it.
Heh, this is rather ironic coming from you since your response to my post about the dangers of old tantalum caps in the Help forum was to stop spreading "myths"...madtheory wrote:Brilliant analysis Dan. The synth community is lucky to have someone with your expertise, love of the instruments and and the willingness to share!
Yeah, I've still got a functional Atari ST, from '88 (or '89?) - but every single PC/Mac I've bought since then has died. Most of my gear I bought way back when, and in large part, still running. I've had an Emax SE die on me, and an Akai AX 73 - other than that, I've had good luck, but I was taught from a young age to respect and care for my instruments. I don't eat or drink near a keyboard, and I wash my hands before I play.HideawayStudio wrote: In truth it often amazes me how reliable most music gear is but with most vintage synths now being 25+ years old frankly there is a potential ticking time bomb in every one of them - after all, how long would you expect the other electronic gear in your house/studio to operate without fault?
Any display with electroluminescent backlight does, that counts for most of synths from the 90's (Akai, Kurzweil, Korg, Roland and Yamaha and not limited to Kawai). And, to be honest, it doesn't affect the synthesizer performance - so hardly a bomb of any kind. And, BTW, DON'T remove the metal tabs - that was my mistake during first backlight change - aligning contacts back will take ages. Only a handful displays (never encountered any in a synth) would require disassembling this way. The EL foil slides in between contacts near PCB.cornutt wrote:Kawai K5/K5m/K5000
You can say "c**p" in public. It's from someone's name. Thomas Crapper, who invented the modern ballcock flush toilet. No, I'm not making it up.Hybrid88 wrote:Ensoniq Fizmo, the regulators in the power supply c**p out.
And the original tactile switches in the 303/606 and V-Synth don't last very long.
Please check your sources again.gridsleep wrote: You can say "c**p" in public. It's from someone's name. Thomas Crapper, who invented the modern ballcock flush toilet. No, I'm not making it up.
I think I prefer the myth...fh991586 wrote:Please check your sources again.gridsleep wrote: You can say "c**p" in public. It's from someone's name. Thomas Crapper, who invented the modern ballcock flush toilet. No, I'm not making it up.
http://theplumber.com/thomas-crapper-myth-reality/
Never saw it noted here, but the GR-700 also uses those.coastalscrub wrote:
- Roland Juno 106 / MKS-7 / MKS-30 / HS-60 - the voice chips have an epoxy coating that eventually short the chips resulting in dead voices.