One interesting thing about restoring vintage synths is that almost every instrument that we work on has been worked on by another tech at least once before. And it seems that more often than not, those other techs were… not great. We see a lot of bad work, but my favorite examples also feature a very special element of absurdity. Here are some recent highlights:
This is why you need to take your vintage synths to someone who knows what they’re doing!
too funny. thanks for sharing. y’all were great with my MS2000!
Ever have a transformer hot glued to the side of the case? That fix didn’t last long.
One of my “favorites” was the person who put foil between Moog modules to shield them.
Hot glue! OMG that’s ridiculous.
Check out my ‘Hall of shame’
http://www.ampguy.co.uk/hall%20of%20shame.html
Its a reed not a tine. Lost any credibility right there for me.
Oops, you’re right! Luckily I know the difference well enough that I haven’t ever tried to tune a Wurlitzer reed by sliding a spring up and down on it or tune a Rhodes tine by filing down its (nonexistent) lead pyramid.
C’mon, chill out my guy.
I once had a 1960s tube synth in where some of the tubes were loose so someone had hot melt glued them into their sockets. My jaw hit the floor!
I restore vintage audio. Once had a Marantz 250 come in with a welding rod cut to fit the fuse holder. Probably had a small issue before he turned it into an arch welder. I was able to restore it but was not cheap. Love your work!!
wow, that is amazingly terrible!
A short story on this topic if you’ll indulge me. I bought a TG77 off of Craigslist. I’m sure you’re familiar, it’s a frankenFM beast that you’d probably find Stevie Wonder playing in the 90’s, and is capable of absolutely absurd complexity in the Frequency Modulation range of sounds. The screen backlight wasn’t working but I bought it anyways, I’d read thta was a common fix and the parts were available. I got home, ordered a replacement backlight and when it arrived, opened up the synth to install it. When I installed the backlight according to instructions it wasn’t working. I followed the circuit and something had been modified, the power just wasn’t available to the backlight. Looking further, inside the case was another totally different screen, which was still partially wired to the machine! They had given up or something and duct taped it inside the synth. So I removed the original non-backlit but still working screen, and after looking up the model that was taped inside, I still wasn’t able to get it on, even installed correctly. Apparently someone tried to rewire it and I just assumed the power rails were desconnected somehow and I couldn’t figure out what to do. I googled the issue and a gentleman in Germany who does work much like yourselves had a blog post about how to install a new OLED into the TG77. His istuation was close but not exactly like mine so I messaged him on facebook. He got back to me almost immediately! Using my video camera on my phone, he had me zoom into some areas on the left of the inside of the synth, and he said “Go get your soldering iron!”. I had to trust the guy, he clearly knew what he was doing but it was just so funny and blade runner futuristic of a moment. So I got my Hakko, and some small gauge colored wires as he requested and came back to the video chat. He had me confirm the power supply of another area inside the TG77, it’s either unnecessary, or unused, and it measured the exact same output voltage as the screen required. So I clipped the wire, routed that to the old scren that was duct taped inside the machine but that I’d reinstalled, soldered the connections, placed everything back safely, plugged in the synth and you wouldn’t believe it. Perfectly bright brand new OLED and the synth has been wokring like a dream ever synth 😉 I literally yelled out in joy when it went on and did a dance around the living room while my kids and wife laughed at me. It’s hard to describe the feeling, it seemed like such a ridiculously long shot that it could work, but boom, it was like magic. Had they not left that old screen in there I may never have gotten it working. I wish I could find that person and tell them I got it going!
Trying to find this German blog. I need to fix my TG77 (and Wavestation A/D) displays due to dead EL backlights. Are you sure it’s an OLED display? Do you have a link?
Hi! I didn’t reply because I was trying to dig up his information but I found it for you isn’t that great! His name is Jurgen Driesen and hes the man. Knows the TG77 very well. I will say though that I sold mine and I bought an o p 6 and it is really really really deep and absolutely wonderful. https://instagram.com/jurgendriessen?utm_medium=copy_link
I’m guessing the CSQ memory battery is in a plastic bag, and removed from the PCB to prevent it from leaking all over the circuit board when it gets old. I don’t know how well this would work, or if post-80’s batteries are still liable to leak in old age. But it’s probably not hurting anything, and the person likely lost a loved one to battery leakage; I can empathize.
I had a Hammond C3 with a PR20, fresh off eBay, here in the UK in the shop for a make over. It worked but hummed so turned it off and put a scope probe earth on the chassis for an initial triage. On powering back on the whole workshop RCD blew!. The mains plug into the multiway had been mis-wired with no earth and it had 240V on the chassis. What was even more worrying was it had a very badly constructed headphone modification fitted meaning that any user had high voltage wrapped around their head!!!!!!