Rhodes Chroma Polaris

Hello Chroma Group! Winter sucks!

I'm reaching out to see if anyone could help me identify a problem that Ive recently noticed with my Polaris 2. I'm not sure if heating would cause this, because it never seems to get that hot but i noticed last night after a few hours that the volume dropped significantly(80%?). this occurred with both high and low outputs. the level jumped around a bit, and after letting it rest for about 20 minutes it started being a BOSS again. does anyone know why this would happen? i have basic soldering skills, but I'm very weak when it comes to troubleshooting.

the other question i have isn't too impending, but how do identify voices that have gone out in my Polaris? i know that two are out, but I'm not sure how to safely go about finding and replacing the voice chips (is it that simple?). I love my Polaris to death, and if anyone could save me a drive to Minneapolis to Good Guys Audio Repair I would be beyond thrilled.

Thanks much in advance,

ianb

> From: Harvey Peekar
>
> I'm reaching out to see if anyone could help me identify a
> problem that Ive recently noticed with my Polaris 2. I'm not
> sure if heating would cause this, because it never seems to
> get that hot but i noticed last night after a few hours that
> the volume dropped significantly(80%?). this occurred with
> both high and low outputs. the level jumped around a bit,
> and after letting it rest for about 20 minutes it started
> being a BOSS again. does anyone know why this would happen?
> i have basic soldering skills, but I'm very weak when it
> comes to troubleshooting.
>
> the other question i have isn't too impending, but how do
> identify voices that have gone out in my Polaris? i know
> that two are out, but I'm not sure how to safely go about
> finding and replacing the voice chips (is it that simple?). I
> love my Polaris to death, and if anyone could save me a drive
> to Minneapolis to Good Guys Audio Repair I would be beyond thrilled.

If you have an intermittent problem, the most likely cause is a dirty
contact on a connector somewhere. Try unplugging and reseating everything
inside (with the power off).

As to finding the bad channels, read this:

http://www.rhodeschroma.com/?id=polarisserviceadjustmentscheckout

As to fixing bad channels, you don't just blindly replace "voice chips",
especially when they're Curtis Electromusic chips that cost a hundred
bucks a pop on eBay. However, since the ICs in the Polaris are socketed,
you can try swapping various chips between a good channel and a bad
channel (with the power off), to see if the problem moves. But not all
problems are caused by bad chips. You might get lucky this way, but you
might not.

--

Ciao, Paul D. DeRocco
Paul mailto:pderocco@...

I have both the VCO and VCF chips for a good bit less than "$100 a pop" so let me know if you need any.