[sdiy] Korg Polysix Problem

[Nicholas Gregorich]

On Feb 2, 2007, at 3:43 PM, Tom Wiltshire wrote:

>
> 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.
>
>

Isn't the 80017a problem big enough to not call the Juno-106 bombproof?

Nick.