[sdiy] [AH] Custom ARP Avatar

[Ben Stuyts]

Hi Rob,

I’d love to try it with the hex pickup, as you say for the hex fuzz. Unfortunately the pickup is missing from my Avatar. It still has the D and E boards inside, but one of them has the power cable disconnected. So there’s probably something broken there. I have a search on ebay and other sites for the pickup, just in case. Does anybody know of any other hex pickups that would work?

The regular synth part works fine, although it needs lots of TLC for the sliders. I am not looking forward to that… And you’re right, with the cheap and available Barp modules everything changes.

Ben

> On 23 Mar 2025, at 07:17, Rob Secret <rob at secret-secret.com> wrote:
> 
> The Avatar was my second synth. I only had it and the Xpander. No keyboards! I did auto players and controlled the avatar with an electric mandolin (I didn’t have a guitar). With this set up I think I was the first to do a midi mandolin. :P 
> 
> The Avatars are very interesting synths to be sure, even though they are basically just an Odyssey. 
> 
> To me the coolest thing about the Avatar was its Hex Fuzz. Nothing sounds like that, well maybe the Rolands did, but that sound is really cool. You can play more than just 5ths with a very warm tone.
> 
> Synth wise I no longer have the Avatar thanks to a very aggressive evil landlord, but like you Ben I’m going down the bARP rabbit hole. I have some of the 2500 modules, with a bunch more on order (waiting for them to make it through the backorder experience). I also got two of the bARP 2600’s (Brown and Blue). But in addition to this I picked up the Korg 2600m and Korg Odyssey desktop module. The thought process being that the desktop could replace the Avatar. It sort of does, but of course without the Hex fuzz.
> 
> Back when I had the Avatar I seriously considered doing mods like these. Today though I don’t know if I would. Now that there are bARP modules, and Odyssey clones I don’t think I would do it. But every time I see a modded one, even with poor mods, I get excited by the possibilities! It does look like a lot of fun!
> 
> -Rob-
> 
> 
> 
>> On Mar 22, 2025, at 2:39 PM, Ben Stuyts <ben at stuyts.nl> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>>> On 22 Mar 2025, at 20:39, Michael E Caloroso <mec.forumreader at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> > I have a stock (working) Avatar here. Can you tell me more about the mods you are doing?
>>> 
>>> Preliminary plans here http://www.analoguediehard.com/studio/keyboards/arp_avatar/index.html
>> 
>> Ooh, that’s a nice writeup. Thanks for that!
>> 
>> Some years ago I wanted to do lots of mods too but never got around to it. I recently acquired a bunch of Barp 2500 modules. These are quite nice reproductions (although Eurorack is not my fav. format, too small). Together with the Barp 2600 already here, it’s a bit of a mini 2500. This renewed my interest in modding the Avatar, but probably less extensive. It definitely needs additional patch points, so that is probably going to be my main focus.
>> 
>> Ben
> 

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