"Welcome to my pages on Vintage synthesizer restoration. On these pages I aim to have information on synthesizer restoration, links to parts, manuals, schematics and so on. I have been reading electronics sporadically since way back in the 90´s and I always was the kid who fixed my neighbors TV set or VCR. So naturally I started to open up my synthesizers as well and started investigating how these machines worked and what parts they used and so on. My interest in restoring these machines does not stop at getting them back to life, I also like to cosmetically enhance these instruments either back to their original state or to do some custom work on them."Title link takes you there. Walkthroughs and tons of shots. Pretty cool. Man I want a PPG after seeing this.
My own personal take on restorations is that it's a hugely abused word. Like Mint is.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe it IS possible to restore a unit until you have experience with many, many of the same units. The reason being, without such experience, it's difficult to know what the unit was like as stock, what changes were made by the factory through years of production, what's missing, what's been changed, etc. Open just one or two units and it's very hard to say that an insulator is missing, a mod was done by the factory, etc.
The schematics for almost every synth I've ever seen have errors too.
I never had the balls to even say I restored Minimoogs until after my 350th one and I'm STILL learning differences between the models and revisions.
My 2 cents worth. No slam to the person with this site.
Well, someone else apparently has the balls. So why rain on their parade? :)
ReplyDeleteI don't think Kevin was raining on it, or at least I didn't read it that way. This is honestly a discussion on the meaning of a word, not the quality or value of someones work. It doesn't lessen the work in my opinion. Heck it might even move the work one up. Kevin does a lot of mods and additions to synths that keep them from being true restorations, yet brings them a step up with new functionality and sheen (lighted mod wheels synced to LFO anyone?) The same thing came up with the Novachord Restoration Project. You can't deny the beauty of the work, and it's not a restoration in the true definition of the word. Again we are just talking about the definition of a word. Note it and move on. It doesn't lessen anything. I've heard no two minis sound exactly the same. If this is true, then restoration is somewhat of a moving target.
ReplyDeleteWhat word would Kevin use, then, to describe what this person is doing & documenting?
ReplyDeleteRepairing, cleaning up, fixing...?
Also, did Kevin ever do the LFO-to-lighted-mod-wheel thing? All I remember is that article where he said he planned on doing it after he got the clear wheels to change color with position (damn nice). If so, I wanna see the video!
I don't have video of the mod wheels but I do have these shots. Also check out this Arp AXXE video for another one of his mods.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if Kevin ever did it for the mod wheel but the Oberheim SEM + keyboard of his that I got has a lovely LED showing three colours for LFO speed and the two EG levels. Looks like a witches brew
ReplyDeleteI would also like to know "What word would Kevin use, then, to describe what this person is doing & documenting?".
ReplyDeleteKevin, you may not have wanted to "slam" this person, but it seems obvious you wanted to "rain on their parade" and detract from their effort.
Can you tell us why?