Discussion about the Korg PolySix synthesizer

Hi,

I've been on this list since 2008 but this is my first post here. I saw Ken's request for a new moderator and thought this might be a good idea to give something back to the community for a change. Ken suggested to send an introduction to the list. I've done some moderation in the past on a small closed list. I understand from Ken that there's not too much work involved in moderating this list, so if there are no objections I'd like to give it a try.

I'm a hobby musician (keys, drums, bas) with a home studio. I play bass in a band and I do recordings of classical and rock music. I enjoy analog synth gear, and have a collection of about 25 synths plus some other related stuff. The collection varies from small monophonic synths to the bigger poly's and a home-built modular (MOTM style). Some of them in great working condition and some are fixer-uppers. I restore them myself. (Electronics, software and hardware engineering is my daytime job.)

I used to fool around with a Polysix back in my university days. No way I could afford to own it back then, but I liked the sound and setup. After university, I got more interested in other things, and unfortunately missed out on all the analog gear going out of fashion and being dumped at the side of the street. Since about 5 years I got into the collecting habit.

I have two Polysixes, both with battery damage. One I'm repairing the old fashioned way, cleaning the board, removing oxidized traces and pulling new ones. The other I might build a new KLM-367 for. I got my first Polysix a while ago thinking it was in pretty good shape. No visible battery damage, and it played fine. But when I got it home and took a closer look, I saw that the battery was already leaking, so I took it apart, cleaned the KLM board and set it aside for a while. Now it's mostly done, I just need to pull the last few traces and put everything back together. The other (dead) Polysix was a bargain, and came with another synth I bought. It has major battery damage, not sure if the KLM board is salvageable.

Kind regards,
Ben