"Don't be that guy"

Roland CSQ-600: in which the tech replaced the NiCad memory battery but installed the replacement battery in a ziploc bag ziptied to the mains wiring.

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:

Roland Juno 106: an XLR output mod consisting of an open frame XLR jack wired to the female end of a 1/4″ to XLR male to female impedance matching adapter plugged into an open frame 1/4″ jack wired to the board and RIVETED to the panel

Wurlitzer 120: guess which note doesn’t sound quite right


Roland Juno 106: in which someone’s solution to a lost 2-prong power cable was to solder a lamp cord directly to the power inlet. The entire lamp cord is incidentally extremely sticky, for unknown reasons

Farfisa VIP 345: in which a previous tech just gave up after putting in a capacitor backwards (the one that’s bulging) and ignoring the salt-encrusted fuse holder

Moog MiniMoog Model D: in which some wires broke and someone spliced them back together thusly

Rhodes Chroma Polaris: in which I have no idea. None of this is supposed to be here.

This is why you need to take your vintage synths to someone who knows what they’re doing!

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