[sdiy] Repairability of modern analog synths

[Antti Pitkämäki]

Hi,

What is the opinion here on the repairability of modern analog synths? I
mean stuff like the Arturia Matrixbrute, the new Prophet stuff and the Moog
One. Have they been designed to be repairable like vintage synths (yeah I
know some vintage synths are easier to repair than others…)? Is it just a
matter of learning to work with SMD components or could there be some
problems not associated with vintage gear?

One thing that is scary is the possibility of having a broken trace inside
a multilayer PCB. I have no clue whether this would be a common problem or
just a theoretical one.

So what do you think, will these modern SMD based synths still be
repairable after 30 years? I have the understanding that Alesis Andromedas
are particularly nasty to get repaired, but maybe (and hopefully!) other
”new” stuff is better in this regard?

I have an old Farfisa Compact Duo organ from 1965, and it will likely
outlive me (although broken tuning coils can be a bit of a problem in
those). I like the idea of instruments that are meant to last. I hate the
idea of throwing away a 20 year old synth just because it’s broken beyond
repair. I don’t care if it’s cheap to buy a new one, I hate the thought of
wasted resources and the resultant unnecessary negative environmental
impact.

Long post, but with all the interesting new analog synths I started
wondering about this…

Any opinions and comments would be much appreciated!

Best regards,
Antti
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