[sdiy] 606 Individual Outs: Complete!!

[James Elliott]

Alright! I've completed the individual out mod on my 606!

All in all it was a pretty easy mod to perform. The hardest part, for me, was closing the case after installing all of those individual wires.

Here's what I did (for each drum part):
1) I attached the drum's jack to the back of the top half of the case. I positioned the center of the jacks 8mm from the bottom of the case, centered between each volume pot - starting from between the accent and bass drum pots (this way you don't end up with a jack over the trigger outputs). I first drilled the hole using a 5/64" bit and then finished it off with a 15/64" bit.
2) I unsoldered the end of the resistor connecting the drum's volume pot to the main mix. I then bent the unsoldered lead away from the hole it was pulled from towards the back of the case and straight up.
3) I soldered a scrap lead to the newly liberated hole. I made sure that the "free" end was level with the end of the resistor's "free" lead.
4) I soldered another scrap lead from the volume pot's ground pin and, once again, made sure that the "free" end was level with the end of the resistor's "free" lead. **Note of Interest** The ground line on the PCB where the volume pots connect to are on the edge of the PCB. The hole drilled for the pot's ground pin was centered on this edge. Literally on the edge - you can see the whole pin from the body of the pot all the way to where it is soldered to the board. So, I was able to solder the scrap lead to the same solder pad that the pot was soldered to - without having to unsolder the pin! ie the pot was essentially untouched during this whole process! I certainly don't know if it is like this on all 606's or just the batch that mine was created in...
5) I wired up the jacks to the three leads using 3" 26 gauge wires. You >have< to make sure you have enough slack so you can assemble (dissemble) the 606. I used heat shrink on all connection points.


Anyway, some lessons learned:
1) I should have completed this mod the day I got my 606!
2) I should have taken some pictures during this process! (If I open it up again I will)
3) I never want to have to open the 606's case again as it is a major pain in the ass to reassemble it with all of those additional wires!! (However I think it may happen soon as I would like to install some momentary switches to mute the individual drum parts - provided I can find some super teeny tiny ones  that look halfway decent.... and I would also like to midi'fy it)
3) Do not use a solder sucker on old/cheap PCB's. They have a tendency to completely remove the solder pad from the board :(
4) The Kobiconn 16PJ012 jacks were a >PERFECT< fit!
5) The individual outs no longer go through the main amp on the 606, so you must use pre-amps to boost their levels beyond what their individual level pots provide: No big deal.... "new" allen&heath GL2200 32ch mixer on the way :)
6) Don't use hosa 1/8" (stereo) to 1/4" (mono) cables. The tip and the ring on the 1/8" end is connected to the tip on the 1/4" end. The ring on the 1/8" end connects to ground in the jacks: thereby throwing the signal away if plugged in...... 

Everyone with a 606 and extra mixer channels should perform this mod!

-Jim





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