[sdiy] PAiA 2720/R rebuild

[John Speth]

I too drooled over the affordable PAIA goods as a teenager.  My paper
route was not enough to fund my desire.  But I'm sure you can forgive the
poor build quality.  Whoever built it was learning what we've all
developed passion for.  I still have some of my first-built stuff from 40
years ago (the ones that actually worked).  They're far from high build
quality too. :)

My hat's off to your for tackling that project!  Nice work.

JJS

> Yeah, poor soldering on DIY kit. I was restoring Formant once (well, I
still
> am) and literally every solder joint on every board had to be sucked and
> resoldered. All panel wiring removed and redone from scratch as it was
sooo
> wrong it hurts.
>
> Anyway, great job on your PAiA! I can imagine how tough that was.
> But I miss "before/after" photos, they make any restoration report
great.
>
> Roman
>
> W dniu 2014-10-27 00:30, Dave Brown pisze:
> > He didn't on this one.  I've never seen so much flux all over
everything.
> > Leads extended through quite far, were bent over, and about 3X too
> > much solder was used.  I don't think it was acid core solder but it
> > had about that much flux on it.  I ended up sucking every pad and
> > resoldering and fixing the pads that had lifted.  I think the sheer
> > weight of the solder on the underside was enough to lift the pads!
> >
> > Dave
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > Wow!  Looks great!  That was on my Christmas wish list from the age of
> > 12 (I turn 50 on Wednesday).  Santa never brought it.  I did try to
> > build a Gnome with a friend in 1976, and failed utterly (he actually
> > bought it, and was too impatient to use flux with the solder - every
> > solder joint was stone cold).  I didn't attempt Synth DIY again until
> > 2008.  Now, of course, I look at the PAiA stuff, and can't believe how
> > cheap it looks and how simple it is.
> >
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> In case anyone is interested, I just was given a PAiA 2720/R synth
> >> that I decided to restore.  A lot of the work was improving the
> >> construction techniques of the original builder and dealing with the
> >> general degradation of the electro-mechanical parts over time.  There
> >> is a list on the site but the biggest issue was rebuilding the Pratt
> >> and Read keyboard which meant everything had to be disassembled.  The
> >> wood cabinet needed some TLC but the only improvements that I made
> >> were the increase in PS filter caps and the replacement of just a
> >> handful of parts.  Most all the wiring and soldering though had to be
> >> redone and it required a lot of cleaning.  The keyboard S&H could
> >> benefit from a modern op-amp but I decided to keep it original.
> >>
> >> Photos and information at
> >> http://modularsynthesis.com/paia/2700/2700.htm