[sdiy] Any tips for "restoring" mini-korg (or any synth from the70s)?

[Julian]

If you want to get practiced at removing components, as Graham said, best not to start on somthing you want to keep, however, that 
need not stop you....

I cant think that it would take you long to find a bit of old circuit board that is otherwise junk - you can practice on this, and, 
if youre happy with the results, then move onto the things you care about.

Your basic tools are, of course, the soldering iron, and then some solder braid, and a hand held vacuum solder pump (the spring 
opperated ones).

Some jobs are better with the braid, some better with the pump, and some a mixture of both.  Practice will show you.

The main trick to not pulling traces is making sure the component leg is completely solder free.  If you 'flick' the leg with, say, 
a scalpel blade, or a small watchmakers screwdriver when its cold, and its solid, that meens theres still solder in there.  If it 
kind of twangs, then its good to move.

The bigest problem (before surfacemount) is multi pin dual inline devices (think general ICs) that are soldered into old dual layer 
boards.  It may be easy to do one side, but removing the solder from both sides is more difficult.   But this is beyond general 
service work - you wont need to remove ICs unless the device is dead anyhow.  Caps and regulators are generally easier.

But, again, practice on somthing you dont mind wrecking before going onto the item you want to make better!

Julian