Vintage Synth Repair

Hi, just a quick thanks to all for the kind welcome. As to my collection of stuff, it's on the "to do list" (umm has been for as long as I can remember..lol)I will try and create a list of what I have and stuff I haven't converted to digital documentation I will try and get to over time. I will keep an eye on the group and when I can help I'll do my best to do what I can.

I can agree with the comments about the value old gear can attract. In my case I had (back in the early/mid 80's) a collection of gear which cost me around 40 grand. As timing would have it, I was busy with work, settling down and saving to build a house. I decided to off load most of it (now I seriously regret that decision) and due to the fact FM (DX7 etc), sampling and early digital synth hybrids were all the rage the old analogue stuff was poorly valued. I think in total the 40 grand equated to a resale value of about $5000.. eeek

The problem nowadays is that for quite a while the old gear was stashed away or dumped. Young music makers were (are) growing up in a throw away society and as such they don't often think of a piece of gear having an emotional or historic value. There is a lot of good new gear available that uses DSP to provide a close emulation of the old analogue kit but I have yet to find any that capture the sound of
"real" analogue with all it's intrinsic unique ability and inadequacies. No two "discrete" analogue synths sound the same. You can put 2 or 3 early Minimoogs or ARP's side by side on the bench, set the parameters the same, yet they will each have their own slight differences in sound. 

This to some extent was changed with the advent of synth chipsets available from the likes of SSM and Curtis but this has lead to another difficult issue. Yes it is true that these chips allowed for some excellent poly synths at a low (ish) price but it also meant that same gear was doomed to the dumpster at some stage. That stage is really near. The chips used are long out of production, few NOS(new old stock)are available and those that are have prices which far outway their initial cost. This means that more and more repairable gear is being gutted and sold off part by part through the likes of ebay (often at grossly inflated value)simply to keep other better maintained gear working. Sad but unavoidable.

Lastly a situation that makes my blood boil are the people (mostly again young) who through their upbringing in the "throw away society" take a perfectly good piece of gear, hack it and bash it beyond recognition for the sake of "circuit bending". Fine take a ten buck toy and thrash the guts out of it, but not old analogue gear!! I've read up on most of the websites relating to these endeavors and it's
my point of view that the vast majority of ppl into it no zero about the electronic's they are dealing with. They tend to use a poke it and see mentality which may work some of the time. I shudder at the thought the damage being done to some much good gear. Not only at the circuit level but to the hardware (casing, front panel etc) as they hack away.

Thats enuff of my little rant. I'll start getting hot under the collar soon..lol

I'll open it up to u guys for discussion

Cheers 

Richard