ARP Omni Synthesizer - Fully Restored - With Flight Case SN 2698

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"Up for sale is a fully restored ARP Omni Mark I with an Anvil flight case. This Omni has been restored to full working order, and all of the official ARP Field Service fixes have been applied.

More Photos available here: http://1drv.ms/1g91C3x

Every single one of those craptastic blue tantalum capacitors have been replaced with brand new electrolytics. All failing or suspect IC’s have been changed, and a higher performance OTA (CA3046) has been used in the VCA. Don’t worry, this only improves noise and bleed through. All of the sliders have been cleaned and re-lubed. New slider caps have been fitted to the synth controls.

This thing sounds awesome, and can produce some serious Joy Division, Cars, New Order, Kraftwerk and Disco. I’ve played and repaired many string synths, and to me, nothing really compares to the Omni (short of a Solina.)

It includes the strings that sound very similar to the famous Solina, and a polyphonic synth section with the ARP 4075 filter made famous by the Odyssey and the Quadra. The original 4075 suffered from a resistor miscalculation that resulted in a reduced filter sweep range (only to 12KHZ.) But don’t worry, this one has had the standard fix applied to restore the full filter range. And it sounds wonderful.

Also included on the Omni is a monophonic bass synth. The Omni 1 was unique in that the bass is routed through the 4075 filter. (The Omni 2 has a boring preset filter for the bass.) So, this thing can also produce big, usable, analog bass sounds.

And it’s fully polyphonic. Well actually, paraphonic…meaning the filter in the synth section is retriggered for all notes on each key press. This actually results in a chord pulsing effect that’s hard to produce on a standard poly synth. Joy Division’s Decades is a good example. The strings of course don’t go through the filter, so that portion is full poly.

All functions work. Every key works. No ghost or drone keys are present that usually plague these units. And, you don’t have to worry about them ever cropping up like you would with a non-restored Omni. The Omni generally has a bad reputation for reliability, mainly due to over 100 cheap tantalum capacitors, and a poor power supply. These items have been addressed. The power supply has been modified and reduced to 13.5 volts per ARP’s recommendation. Every tantalum has been replaced with reliable electrolytics.

The wood sides have been refinished back to the original luster. This thing looks and sounds great and is ready for the studio.

But, as good as it is, some there’s some things that were left alone, or only partially fixed. These are:

1) On the left wood side panel, at some point, the previous owner installed a U bolt security device by drilling two holes in the wood panel. This allowed them to lock the synth with a chain or something, but of course it put two holes in the case. I chose not to fill the holes while refinishing, since you’d be able to tell anyway. And, who knows, maybe the new owner wants that U bolt lock re-installed. I’ll include it with auction, just in case.

2) The two push button switches for Viola and Violin had been damaged beyond repair. These are patented push buttons that were abandoned with the introduction of the Omni 2. I couldn’t find originals anywhere…and they’ll probably only surface from broken Omni’s. To maintain the look, the original switches were gutted, and a modern tactile push button was inserted into the original mechanism. The result is a working, reliable switch, but with a slightly different feel from the others. It doesn’t affect the sound or the look of course, but it is noticeable to the user pushing the button. I’ll even go one further: if one of the other buttons that are currently working break sometime down the road, I’ll fix it for free like I did the others. Just desolder the broken switch and mail it back to me. I’ll modify it with a new switch and send it back to you ready to be re-installed.

3) There are of course surface scratches on the metal case. This thing includes a road case, so you know it was gigged. And no gigged instrument from the 70’s (or musician for that matter) is free from the scars of bad decisions on the road…

4) The Omni has a Pratt-Reed keyboard that would normally need new bushings. I couldn’t confirm that this had been previously serviced, but the keyboard on this thing is in excellent shape. It plays like a dream, and as you can see in the photos, the keys are very will aligned. (The obvious sign of worn out bushings are keys resting at grossly different heights, yielding a wavy keyboard.) As such, the keyboard bushings were not replaced.

5) The Anvil flight case has not been restored, or modified. It’s got all of the 70’s musty funk smell you could ask for, and some cracking plastic on the shell. But it has a big ARP sticker on the front. Doesn’t get any cooler than that.

If you want an Omni that will look and sound at home in the studio and will not need repairs, this is the one for you. I doubt you’ll find another Omni on Ebay more studio ready than this one..."