Korg Poly800/EX800 Users

hey folks

just received a 'for parts/not working' ex800 from ebay yesterday.  LED lit up but made no sound.  after a couple of hours of head scratching, RTFM, MIDI channel fiddling and loading the preset patches via .wav, it works!  hot damn!  preset 65 is like a hug!

i figure the battery needs replacing and have bought a CR2032 and clip-in holder to that end.  not sure if it can be done without soldering by salvaging the existing contacts but if needs be i will solder it.

couple of issues i wanted to check about:

• all the buttons are sticky ranging from useable to not working at all.  many thanks to this group i have found the cleaning guide and will try that tonight.  the two sequencer buttons are outright missing, cleanly de-soldered from the board.  previous owner had started cleaning them years ago and they are long gone.  
  

i've seen that syntaur is selling replacements, here: https://syntaur.com/Items/5232.html

was wondering if anyone had tried these, or knew of any substitutes?  looking around on aliexpress.com there are a whole lot of push button tactile switches which could work but just getting the right height and horizontal measurements would be an issue.  another thing i was considering was rebuilding that entire PCB from scratch on a bit of custom perspex or similar, allowing for height adjustment, and 3D printing caps.  seems like a lot of work but would be fun.

• secondly, the sound is all good but there is a 'white noise' under each attack, minor and warm but noticeable.  my experience with old synths is minimal, so i didn't know if this was just normal or a sign of a sad capacitor somewhere.  assuming it's standard but thought to check.
  

many thanks for any help! 

 

 

hey folks

just received a 'for parts/not working' ex800 from ebay yesterday.  LED lit up but made no sound.  after a couple of hours of head scratching, RTFM, MIDI channel fiddling and loading the preset patches via .wav, it works!  hot damn!  preset 65 is like a hug!

i figure the battery needs replacing and have bought a CR2032 and clip-in holder to that end.  not sure if it can be done without soldering by salvaging the existing contacts but if needs be i will solder it.

couple of issues i wanted to check about:

• all the buttons are sticky ranging from useable to not working at all.  many thanks to this group i have found the cleaning guide and will try that tonight.  the two sequencer buttons are outright missing, cleanly de-soldered from the board.  previous owner had started cleaning them years ago and they are long gone.  
  

i've seen that syntaur is selling replacements, here: https://syntaur.com/Items/5232.html

was wondering if anyone had tried these, or knew of any substitutes?  looking around on aliexpress.com there are a whole lot of push button tactile switches which could work but just getting the right height and horizontal measurements would be an issue.  another thing i was considering was rebuilding that entire PCB from scratch on a bit of custom perspex or similar, allowing for height adjustment, and 3D printing caps.  seems like a lot of work but would be fun.

• secondly, the sound is all good but there is a 'white noise' under each attack, minor and warm but noticeable.  my experience with old synths is minimal, so i didn't know if this was just normal or a sign of a sad capacitor somewhere.  assuming it's standard but thought to check.
  

many thanks for any help!