Here’s a PSA about something we learned from a Buchla Music Easel (the new version) that we didn’t end up having to fix. We were told this Easel had an issue where sometimes, one or two of the keys on the touch keyboard just wouldn’t work. Continue reading “new Buchla Music Easel – intermittent or “dead” touch keys?”
Check out my latest article on Reverb.com to read about the process of repairing and restoring a Mellotron M400!
I’m psyched to have been invited to do some writing about vintage gear repair for Reverb.com… here’s my first article which is all about combo organs!
I finally finished restoring the Mellotron M400 that’s been here for a while and decided to make a video where I explain how it works! Check it out if you’re curious about this wacky old instrument.
A Moog modular restoration is a very unique and specific kind of restoration experience, which I’ll try to show mainly in photos because it’s less boring for you. It will be like a vacation slide show with a fun anecdote to accompany each picture. Continue reading “Moog Model 15 Modular”
I would say that desoldering is much harder than soldering. It took me a couple weeks to get good at soldering and several years to get good at desoldering, partly because I didn’t used to do it as often when I first got into electronics, just building circuits from kit PCBs and schematics. Working on old synths though, I have to desolder all kinds of things constantly from different kinds of boards and have refined my techniques pretty well, so I thought I’d share some of what I’ve learned here. Continue reading “Desoldering Tutorial: Tools, Techniques and Helpful Tips”
This is a really fun synth! EML was a lesser-known American synth company competing with Moog and ARP during the 1970s and made some unique instruments. The EML-101 is a semi-modular duophonic synth similar in structure to the ARP 2600 and very unique and powerful. The bulk of our work on this involved designing and installing a circuit that allows the synth to accept standard 1 volt per octave-scaled CV via its “SEQ” input, as its oscillators have an unusual scale of 1.4 V/octave with a 4.6-volt DC offset. Continue reading “EML ElectroComp 101 – 1 volt per octave conversion mod”
The Jupiter 6 is one of Roland’s two most beloved 80’s polysynths, the other being the Jupiter 8. While I was looking for service documents for the Jupiter 6 though, I came across some absurdly aggressive forum posts from people who don’t like this synth and are pointlessly mad that a lot of other people like it a lot. Continue reading “Roland Jupiter 6 – calibration tips”
I keep hearing and seeing people referring to DCOs as digital oscillators, which is not correct, and a sad insult to DCOs in my opinion as a lover of DCO synths. So I decided to fight misinformation by making a post here explaining the actual difference between VCOs, DCOs and digital oscillators. Continue reading “a DCO is not a digital oscillator”