[sdiy] Korg Polysix Problem

[Tom Wiltshire]

On 2 Feb 2007, at 20:52, Bob Weigel wrote:

> Yeah I third, fourth, fifth or whatever it is now that :-).  I was 
> just FINALLY getting a chance to USE my newly tuned up polysix last 
> night.  Absolutely phenomenal a few of the sounds I came up with.  I 
> did a little demo sequence for my studio page but I have to do a photo 
> shoot and upgrade that whole pic with the CS60 which now has the 
> polysix over it and a P5 over that with an old school triple tier 
> stand w/out the bottom tier which is hanging from the ceiling of my 
> van :-).  But anyway..yeah I'll say.  What a TREMENDOUSLY UNDERvalued 
> instrument!  I've seen disputes over the classic nature of this 
> beast...I mean...c'mon.  First of all it's one of how many fully 
> analog polys with full storage?  Prophet 10/5, OB's, JP8, JP6/MKS80, 
> and Chroma...Memorymoog and that's it I think.  While having less 
> control/facilities than all of those machines, the sound is, as one 
> would expect, flat awesome when it's used right and the price was 
> groundbreaking.  Considering the lack of alternatives to get the 
> sound/response of these machines (I mean...crrrud!  Some of the sounds 
> working with the arpeggiator last night....just incredible depth of 
> character. Totally inspiring.)  I really can't see how they go as 
> cheap as they so usually. A good condition machine should fetch 700 
> easily, a JP6 shoud get 1200 or so and OB's have been way undervalued 
> also often.  The other machines seem to fetch about what they should 
> usually.  Well the MKS80 can go cheap sometimes.  -Bob

I think the key word is "reliability", Bob!

Whilst I definitely agree that the Poly6 is undervalued and can sound 
great (I've had synth strings that make you weep out of mine), it's 
also true that they have some faults. The "backup battery on processor 
board" decision obviously comes at the top of the list, but I hate the 
keyboard they put in them too - another frequent fault on old Poly6s is 
dead or intermittent notes. The buttons are both prone to losing their 
caps and also get broken - either the contacts pack up, or the piece of 
plastic that holds the cap gets fatigued and breaks off.

Whilst none of these are fatal, it all adds up to an instrument that is 
a bit of a pain to keep in fully functional condition, to be honest. 
Compare with something bombproof like a Juno 106 (Yeah, I know, it's 
got...shudder..DCOs!) and you start to understand why the price of used 
Poly6s is so low. In fact, so low that they're probably worth more 
broken for parts - full of all those lovely SSM chips! Shame, but there 
it is.