At 11:33 PM 3/23/2009, you wrote:
Mike,
Is there a way to date my 500? I've read somewhere that "pot codes" are a way of dating electronic equipment. what are they? Can you direct me to a site that explains this?
Rich
Sorry I don't know about the pot codes. The codes would probably only tell you when the pots themselves were made. They could have been sitting in the parts bins at the factory for a while before being used so it wouldn't be an exact way to date.
You can see one EML 500 in the photo section with a very different paint design on the control face, altho the control layout is the same. I think that's a later version, maybe from not long before they closed down. Yours has the more typical design (except for the missing brand name) that was more commonly seen from the beginning.
As far as I can tell, the slider cap colors have little or no significance either. They likely used whatever was on hand and might run out of one color or another before ordering more of them. I've seen a few of the sequencer models (which use a lot of sliders) with multi colors, black only, blue only, a mix of black and blue. I don't think it means much.
Sure would love to find a stash of spare slider caps somewhere, I could use a whole bunch.