Vintage Synth Explorer Forums

my minimoog's rotary switches- the ones that select the different waveforms- are pretty faulty. how do i clean/repair these guys? or is replacement the way to go?

thanks in advanced!

There are a few methods to get it working again.

1) Replace the rotary switch by another one. (Kevin Lightner nor VintageSynth.nl have it in stock)
2) Replace it with a smililar one. There must be something like it in places like Mouser, digikey, etc. . I cannot help much because I never did a research for that part yet.
3) Clean with DeOxit or MGChemicals cleaners.
4) Deassemble and clean the switch with denaturalized alcohol and a q-tip. The thing is that I'm not sure it the switch is sealed or not. Maybe it's not possible to open it.


Try to clean it first. I recommend No-Residue cleaners (like those mentioned above). Cheap-a*s cleaners (like Radio Shack's) do half the job and attract dust over time. You don't want it.

as always, thanks maschinengeist!

from what i've gathered so far, they should be a standard part- nothing custom or out-of-production about the switches (or the pointer knobs for that matter). the idea of replacing all 6 of the rotary switches is pretty attractive given the age of the synth, but what daunting amount of soldering!

I don't believe they can be disassembled, or I should say, reassembled.

Try cleaning like Mass said. It solved my micro's prioblem.