The Mellotron Group

Photograph and/or diagram everything you do. Keep notes. Be patient. Hound  
Chris.
 
Frank
 
 
In a message dated 7/12/2012 9:40:02 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
unobtainiumkeys@gmail.com writes:

 
 
 
Hello Jean:


I have had 6 Optigans at one time (now down to 4)  and I'm familiar with 
this problem.

It is the idler  wheel.


The rubber on the idler wheel has hardened and won't grab  the disc 
properly anymore.

You need to get the idler wheel  resurfaced.

You will have to remove it from the Optigan and send it  away to be redone.


There are a couple of places you can do it, but  you have to send it to the 
USA for either one of them.

I'll have to  look for the addresses for you. I don't have them here with 
me.


If  you really care for your Optigan, you'll want to do this right and not 
rush  things.

It takes a long time to unscrew everything, take it all apart  and remove 
the idler wheel.

There are hidden screws everywhere and you  have to be very careful not to 
break things when you take them  apart.

These were never meant to be serviced by anyone except Optigan  company 
employees.

You must also keep track of which screws go in which  slots because they 
are not all the same.

I'll see if I can find the  addresses for sending the wheel  away.











On Fri, Jul 13, 2012 at 4:42 AM, Casterman Jean <_jycasterman@yahoo.com_ 
(mailto:jycasterman@yahoo.com) > wrote:


 
 
 
 
Hello guys
 
 I have a big problem with my optigan and I can't find some help  for this 
problem....no response on the optigan forum...I know that some guys  here 
own or owned an optigan...I decided to find some help in the mellotron  group.
Here's my problem:
Since last week,I heard some problem on my optigan:
when I turn on the optigan,I heard a kind of portamento/slide effect  and 
when I played the optigan it was impossible to stay in tune,I can hear  
something like a cycling pop (like a scratch on a vinyl)...Today I turn on  the 
optigan and after 5 minutes,the optigan slow down drasticaly and  
progressively(2 minutes) until it was impossible to play with the optigan  (so 
slow)....I read on the net that this problem is may be an idler wheel  problem 
..Have you heard about the same problem before?It would be fantastic  if somebody 
can help me because I feel alone in europe with optigan  problems...and I 
really want to save my optigan because it's really rare  here in Europe.
I know that's optigans are unreliable and looks like toy but I really  love 
the lo-fi vibes of this machine and it works perfectly with my  mellotron
 
 
Thanks so much for your help
 
Jean
 
PS:Sorry for my english spoken