Roland SH3A stuck in hold

[Meddler]

Hi.

My newly bough SH3A seems to be stuck in hold somehow. It's not hold at full volume, it's more like the Hold knob doesn't fully turn off at zero. I can adjust the hold to be louder by turning the knob, but I can't get it to turn off.

I've tried disconnecting the hold pot, just to make sure it wasn't a faulty pot. It made no difference.

I'm not entirely convinced that it's the hold function that won't turn off, although it seems logical. When I power on, I immediately get a held note without touching a key. Seems a bit weird.

Anybody have an idea, or a suggestion for troubleshooting?

[rhino]

Try adjusting pot VR258 on the VCA board. I found a schematic, but no picture of exactly where this pot is.

[sam]

One of the top 5 synths I don't like fixing...is it the same note holding and is the envelope open,,?

[Meddler]

It is not the same note holding, whatever note I play it always holds. The envelope might be open, it's a bit diffucult to tell. The preset envs seem to work bettet than the manual ADSR, but that might be another problem.

Thanks for the tip about the trimpot. I've seen the placement of those in the service manual, along with some adjustment instructions (that require an oscilloscope, unfortunately I don't have one): http://www.cem3374.com/docs/Manuals/Roland/SH-3A_SM.pdf
I'll try the pot and see what happens.

[Meddler]

Adjusting V258 did the trick. Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it.

I noticed that I also have some sort of VCO bleedthrough to the main output. It's not very loud, but still noticeable. It follows the last played note and seems to be in about the 2' range, though the waveform selection has no effect on it. Neither does the main out level or the filter, but vibrato, transpose, portamento and sampler do.

I'm thinking it must be the VCO signal before the octave dividers that's bleeding through. Do you guys have any advice on how to get rid of it?

[Sinamart]

Try adjusting pot VR258 on the VCA board. I found a schematic, but no picture of exactly where this pot is.

Sorry to necro, but just wanted to thank you because this tip prevented my hacking into this beautiful synth to try and replace the Hold pot.