WASP SPECIAL SYNTHESISER SN 10015

Wasp Special Demo

YouTube Uploaded by 1224Johnmac on Feb 3, 2012

"Here's a little demo of my old Wasp Special vintage mono synth from the 1980's. I'm trying to use all of the knobs to show they are fully functioning. This is a rare model of Wasp with a real wood case. It is serial number 00015 which suggests it was one of the first built. I'm using a modified Epiphone Valve Junior amp to play it through. The sound is being picked up by the built in mic on the Vado camera I'm filming with so the sound reproduction isn't great. I hope you find the video useful. I will be parting company with the Wasp soon."


via this auction

Some details from the listing:

"I don't think they made many of these so I reckon this is number 15 and the first '1' isn't relevant (I may be wrong). It's written in pencil(!) on the base. It was on there when I bought it new in Cambridge Rock (a long lost and much missed music shop) in the early 1980’s. I was after the plastic version but they only had this one so I bought it anyway for more money (now glad I did). It has only ever been used at home and never gigged. I probably don’t need to tell you much about the Wasp as it already has it’s place in music history. The original EDP Wasp had a plastic case but this is the Special, so they gave it a real wooden case and a proper mains supply rather than battery. It also lost the inbuilt speaker. This one has the logo ‘Wasp Synthesisers Ltd, Oxford, England’ on the fascia. This is not an EDP Wasp but the even rarer Wasp Synthesiser Ltd model (rarer, as quoted on Wikipedia). This company was formed by Adrian Wagner after a bust up within EDP, again according to Wiki. This new company lasted for about a year so probably not that many instruments were made.

The colour scheme of the Special is much more subtle and grown up. Black and gold rather than the bright yellow and black of the 'common' Wasp. It’s got the usual Wasp touch sensitive keyboard (adjustable sensitivity), 2 oscillators and a headphone socket (noisy since new! I once had words on the phone with Mr Wagner about the noisy ‘phones socket. I’d sent it back to them as I wasn’t happy with the hum and when it came back to me, it was no different to when I sent it (and they’d kept it weeks). He claimed they'd mended it. They hadn't and it still hums to this day!

OK, less waffling, more details. The wooden case has a crack on the back end of the right hand cheek going crossways (see pic6 ). The right hand side has some scrapes (pic 5) which actually look a bit worse on the photo than in real life! The rest of the case is sound (but see Tony A’s recommendations further down) . The fascia is in very good condition. All the knobs work. I’ve posted a video on You Tube to show everyone all is well."

None of the pots are scratchy as you can hear on the vid. I used every knob to show they work. The sound quality of the vid isn’t up to much due to the camera microphone being rubbish. The playing isn’t up to much due to me being rubbish! All the notes on the keyboard work. It comes with the original manual (photocopied A4 sheets stapled together, typed on a Commodore 64 or similar I reckon!! It didn't come with a proper box either. Tight budget obviously!

It has had a repair job done (not the OS Ltd ‘repair’). The Wasp had suffered from a dead oscillator for years but because ‘Waspy’ wasn’t in use, I didn’t bother about getting it repaired but eventually, 4 years ago I took it upon myself to get it to the synth doctor (Oakley Sound Systems in Cumbria – Tony Allgood, top man who knows his synth onions). He cured it and did a few other jobs that needed doing which I have listed below. Since it was repaired I haven’t used it apart from making the You Tube vid.

Oakley Sound Systems work:

Repair to dead oscillator.

Repair to Filter modulation section.

Clean pots.

Repair to side mounting batten.

Test headphone output!!

The parts he used were 1 x 4016 and 2 x LM3900 plus screws, solder and solder mop. I have no idea what these parts are!

Tony and I agreed not to replace any other parts to keep the Wasp in original state. Tony also made some recommendations which were not carried out at my request with a view to keep Waspy as authentic as possible..

Reinforce the side cheek by glue and screws to maintain strength of case.

Improve or replace the headphone amplifier circuit with something quieter (see, I was right!).

Fit an IEC power socket or mains grommet to ensure mains safety.

Fit an indicator light and proper mains switch at the rear.

Earth the metal front panel to reduce noise and improve safety.

Tidy up internal wiring.

Replace some of the larger capacitors with newer devices.

Replace some of the more worn pots.

You may wish to have these jobs done if you become the new owner. I chose not to. I have given you the whole story, so now you know EVERYTHING about old Waspy."