Vintage Synth Repair

I have my equipment in a storage place that does not have climate 
control. I have keyboards, roland guitar synths, effect pedals, guitar 
procssors. tascam recorders. all mostly chips. I know the cold does 
not harm them, but to make sure, does anyone how what degrees in the 
cold weather it gets before it ruins your equipment..I was looking to 
move around and I put it in aplace before the cold weather came in, if 
anyone knows about this get back to me. have a happy newyear to all. 
Gerry

I have my equipment in a storage place that does not have climate 
control. I have keyboards, roland guitar synths, effect pedals, guitar 
procssors. tascam recorders. all mostly chips. I know the cold does 
not harm them, but to make sure, does anyone how what degrees in the 
cold weather it gets before it ruins your equipment..I was looking to 
move around and I put it in aplace before the cold weather came in, if 
anyone knows about this get back to me. have a happy newyear to all. 
Gerry

plastic, rubber parts etc.. not so sure they don't weather in such a place
as you say ..
sunlight being a nasty thing to both for sure....

dale

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----- Original Message ----- 
From: Gerry

I have my equipment in a storage place that does not have climate
control. I have keyboards, roland guitar synths, effect pedals, guitar
procssors. tascam recorders. all mostly chips. I know the cold does
not harm them, but to make sure, does anyone how what degrees in the
cold weather it gets before it ruins your equipment..I was looking to
move around and I put it in aplace before the cold weather came in, if
anyone knows about this get back to me. have a happy newyear to all.
Gerry

sunlight is much worse than cold, but beware of damp, especially if
the instrument has any exposed metalwork (like if the paint has
started to come off a control panel for instance) as it will quickly
rust. also likely to suffer from damp are the foam insulation
materials like you would find under the control panel of a rogue, or
pretty much any synth with slider controls. 
occasionally, a build up of condensation on a board will cause
problems when you move a synth out of cold into a warmer environment;
let it acclimatise.
other than that.... have you any instruments or other studio equipment
with moving parts? I have had problems with 1/4" decks where the
capstan refuses to turn because the oil in the bearings got too cold.
this can lead to power supply &/or servo problems down the line. so
always try turning any such part by hand before powering the device
after storage.
if you own a mellotron or a hammond, the same things apply. my m400
has to be kept in a reasonably warm place or it seizes up.
hth-
duncan.

Storing gear in such an environment doesn't sound like a good 
idea.  It wasn't designed to tolerate such conditions; for example, 
plastic parts may contract and crack, and moisture in the air will 
precipitate out (when the temp drops below the dewpoint), potentially 
causing corrosion problems (esp. in switches and pots).  Also, there 
are hidden dangers, about which I will relate a short story.

When I was in graduate school some decades ago, I was privileged to 
take an electronic music course in my university's music 
school.  This gave me access to the school's Buchla and a very 
customized Scully recorder, among other things.  Nice stuff, in the 
middle '70s.

Over Christmas break, the university decided to save some money by 
turning off the heat on campus, including in the music 
building.  Near the end of break, heat was turned back 
on.  Unfortunately, it was steam heat.  When turned off, steam in the 
pipes condensed and collected in pockets.  It then froze during an 
unusual cold snap, creating ice plugs in the steam pipes.  When the 
steam was turned back on, the blockages caused the pressure to build 
up and pipes to rupture, on of them in our studio.  The Buchla was 
wiped out, and the Scully substantially damaged.

This is the sort of mistake that only gets made once, but it only 
takes once.  There is always a real risk of getting caught by the law 
of unexpected consequences when you start cutting corners.  Whether 
the risk is worth the reward is up to you.

Yup good advise.  I currently am in Montana and it's fairly dry here
usually but gets real cold.   I set up a portable studio with a rack
of MKS7, 10, 30 and a Kawai XD-5 along with a peavey SI board and
WS/AD rack and a computer for sequencing.  It's a pain to pull things
out since they're all fastened in so I just pray that everything is
ok.  CHips in general are rated to run ok down to the coldest temps we
get and if it's not running hey by the time I want to use it it's warm
enough again so I don't care if the chip works at those temps usually
:-).  Just that it doesn't get damaged.

The problem is expansion/contraction always and if you have something
that is already weak then this is the way to ensure that the problem
is more likely to manifest itself. -Bob

--- In vintagesynthrepair@yahoogroups.com, "ferrograph632"
<ferrograph@...> wrote:

>
> sunlight is much worse than cold, but beware of damp, especially if
> the instrument has any exposed metalwork (like if the paint has
> started to come off a control panel for instance) as it will quickly
> rust. also likely to suffer from damp are the foam insulation
> materials like you would find under the control panel of a rogue, or
> pretty much any synth with slider controls. 
> occasionally, a build up of condensation on a board will cause
> problems when you move a synth out of cold into a warmer environment;
> let it acclimatise.
> other than that.... have you any instruments or other studio equipment
> with moving parts? I have had problems with 1/4" decks where the
> capstan refuses to turn because the oil in the bearings got too cold.
> this can lead to power supply &/or servo problems down the line. so
> always try turning any such part by hand before powering the device
> after storage.
> if you own a mellotron or a hammond, the same things apply. my m400
> has to be kept in a reasonably warm place or it seizes up.
> hth-
> duncan.
>