Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Discussion about the Korg PolySix synthesizer

Greetings All...

I've been lurking for several weeks now, ever since I finally had the
spare cash to purchase a PolySix. I've been wanting one for quite a
while. I used to have a Poly 61 so I'm somewhat familiar with the
guts these things having kept that keyboard assembly working for 15
years and replaced the leaking battery.

So I bought a PolySix off Ebay and as it was described I was
expecting a battery leak to be the main cause of the problems
(described as "I don't know how this works and while it creates
sounds some keys don't work and I think it has other problems"). I
did, however, get it for $125 shipped. The outward cosmetics are very
good, the only blemishes are worn "wood" corners at the bottom rear.
The first thing I did this evening before I plugged it in and turned
it on was to open it up and check out the battery and the general
condition of the insides.

Not too bad ∗looking∗ in there: the battery had already been
replaced, however it doesn't look like it was done thoughtfully:
resistor R91 and capacitor C40 are still there; the new battery is a
lithium battery (I know I have to get resistor R91 and capacitor C40
out of there); and the negative side is attached to the trace that
runs along the board's side with a thick piece of copper wire. It
looks like a few traces may have been hit with some battery acid or
something because they're ever-so-slightly bubbly. All look intact.
The most noticable thing though is that the solder on the holes
around IC31 are corroded, although the legs of IC31 ∗look∗ fine.

Okay, so I'm going to have to clean that up. Or should I bother and
just buy Scott's replacement? Here's why I ask: I closed up the
PolySix because I ∗had∗ to hear it. Upon power up everything looks
normal except that bank buttons A and B and patch buttons 1 and 2
stay lit, although slightly dimmer than the brightness of the other
LEDs on the other buttons (when turned on, of course). It seems as
though I can select those patches and banks, but the LEDs on those
buttons never go off.

Secondly, I can't really hear a difference when I select the
different waveforms, and the octave doesn't change. The PW and PWM
do work, though. Everything else seems to work fine. I checked the
voice chips by watching the little LEDs on that board light up as I
hit a key and they all work. The keyboard needs a cleaning, but it's
not as bad as my old Poly 61 used to get.

Would these problems be resolved after a good cleaning of the buttons
and pots and obviously fixing the crappy battery replacement job? Or
are these issues more ominous and it would be less hassle to get
Scott's board?

Whew! That's a lot of typing. Thanks for reading and thanks in
advance for your advice!