Remember the Synthwood Prophet 5 restoration for Mike McKnight? Title link takes you to more shots of the finished product. Amazing.Synthwood
Update via Stephen in the comments:
"- Nearly all tantalum caps, especially on the rails, were replaced with electrolytics
- power supply caps were replaced, regulators solder joints were resoldered and old thermal paste was removed and replaced with new paste. PS was calibrated
- analogue board was scaled, weak solder joints were retouched
- digital board DAC was adjusted, ROM upgraded, memory expansion installed, MIDI installed (MIDI jacks were installed in the sequencer interface holes
- control panel switches and pots were cleaned, replaced where needed. Solder joints on the pots were retouched or leads were fixed where needed.
- keyboard was complete disassembled, keys were washed in warm soap water. Crusty bushings were cut off, keyboard was cleaned, new bushings were installed. J-wires were aligned, resoldered where needed. Pitch and Mod wheels were adjusted
- Chassis/control panel, keyboard/mod wheel mountings were fitted to a synthwood.com black walnut case.
- new Prophet-5 and Sequential Circuits nameplates were installed.
I scrubbed this thing and I'd eat my dinner off of it."
Yes this is Mike McKnight's P5. The digital and voice boards were improved by Greg Montalbano, the control panel, keyboard and power supply were improved by me. The black bad ass walnut case is SYNTHWOOD.COM
ReplyDeleteI just read the original post with the devo/monkey comments and I'll outline what was done
ReplyDelete- Nearly all tantalum caps, especially on the rails, were replaced with electrolytics
- power supply caps were replaced, regulators solder joints were resoldered and old thermal paste was removed and replaced with new paste. PS was calibrated
- analogue board was scaled, weak solder joints were retouched
- digital board DAC was adjusted, ROM upgraded, memory expansion installed, MIDI installed (MIDI jacks were installed in the sequencer interface holes
- control panel switches and pots were cleaned, replaced where needed. Solder joints on the pots were retouched or leads were fixed where needed.
- keyboard was complete disassembled, keys were washed in warm soap water. Crusty bushings were cut off, keyboard was cleaned, new bushings were installed. J-wires were aligned, resoldered where needed. Pitch and Mod wheels were adjusted
- Chassis/control panel, keyboard/mod wheel mountings were fitted to a synthwood.com black walnut case.
- new Prophet-5 and Sequential Circuits nameplates were installed.
I scrubbed this thing and I'd eat my dinner off of it.
I'm not very impressed by this "bad ass" case. If you look at the photos you can see a definite vertical indentation in the wood just above the keys at the far left and another gouge at the right of the piece above the keys, as though the woodworker had a problem with the planer. But worse than that, joints at the upper left and lower left are extremely uneven and don't even match up. Overall it's a close approximation of a Prophet-5 case, but it just makes me appreciate all the more just how great a job Seq. Circuits did back in the 70's.
ReplyDelete...in other words,its not a genuine P5 anymore! hahaha...
ReplyDeleteit are indeed bad ass cases,look on there site the demo minimoog case proposed,look closely the joint at front right,also the woode piece above the kb as 2 angles,thats ok,but if you look it from the side the angle of that piece doesn't match of the one from the side panels (that has shifted)
I think its wiser to restore an original case instead to replace it with an amateur made one.
I thinks theres another brand that makes much more better finisched cases...
haters will always hate...
ReplyDeleteHmmf, looks like the P5 power cord has been replaced with one from a Korg. I mean that's fine if you want to harshen up the Dave Smith sound with inferior power delivery (Korg power leads only have 10 twists per foot instead of 18+ from DSI) but don't call it a synth, call it a "keyboard product". kthxbie
ReplyDeleteEvery stock prophet~5 I've seen had a differently fitted wood case with differences in coloration of the wood stain, over and under hanging of the wood on the chassis and differences in how the keyboard was lined up. I'd say the synthwood case looks pretty good compared to those stock cases.
ReplyDeleteIn other words Greg did all the hard work and Stephen provided an average looking case.
ReplyDeleteGreg did the work on the digital and analogue boards which I sent to him seperately. He has done some great work for me and I highly recommend him to *anyone* who needs P5 work done. As far as I'm concerned, he is the only tech I trust.
ReplyDeleteI did the rest of the work on the chassis, power supply, control panel and the keyboard. My father did the wood working. He has never claimed to be a professional wood worker. He retired from telecom in the late 90s. Wood working, mainly furniture building, is a past time of his.
Why troll anonymously? If you want to throw punches at least be do it without shame. Are you Wes Taggart or something?
I just looked at the pix of the prophet and think the case is damn nice. I'm shure if you took a micrometer to it you could find some descrepencies as you wood in an original P5 case. Screw the nay sayers mate, you did a nice job there.
ReplyDeleteI am Mike McKnight, the proud owner of this reworked prophet 5. I owned one back in 1982 when they were new, and always regretted selling it, this one absolutely looks and performs as well if not better than the one I owned back then... The quality of work and attention to detail is outstanding and frankly I don't understand why anyone would attack anything about this. People that do work of this caliber should be appaluded, not attacked.
ReplyDeleteI realize there are always going to be people who negative opinions or wanting to make snide remarks in comments or in email. My father is in his 70s and I'm just happy to see him active and doing something he enjoys. He's making people happy and he's enjoying life.
ReplyDeleteguys, don't let the haters get you down. they're usually either competitors or losers with nothing positive in their lives. misery loves company.
ReplyDelete