Vintage Synth Explorer Forums

Hi everyone,

So I noticed that the shifty looking grounding cable from the Quik Disk drive (the one that is secured with a screw like a ground of a turntable) is like only 3-4 fibers of cable left.. before it detaches completely.

I just wondered if it's something that might hurt the machine if it ever severed. I wonder if the threads left are even enough to matter.. ultimately I need to fix it, but I just wondered if I really need to as it means I gotta open up the cartridge thingy and frankly I don't want to

I figure maybe it might introduce some kind of hum perhaps? Of course I'm also worried that it might be harming the S612 if I leave it as is.

Thanks,
Caleb

Hi Caleb -

My first sampler was an Akai S-612 with the MD-280 drive - got it in about 1990 or so. The ground strap on mine was frayed a bit like yours, except mine was next to the chassis of the drive. I had lots of bad reads/writes to the drive. I took it in and the service guy grabbed his soldering iron and connected both sides of the frayed cable with a big blob of solder. That fixed all the issues I was having.

I'd try the same "repair" on your and you shouldn't have to worry about it.
Kirk

Jesus I just saw this reply! I've had no problems so far with that, but yes I agree it needs to get fixed as I'm sure it wasn't there for no reason.

It would have been nice if they could have made a more elegant solution, but i bet it was a last minute fix to something that was discovered well after the hardware was well established and probably even in early production.

Ha - it's still less than a year since I posted it!! Glad it's working for you.