AN1x Surgery! (Loose Knobs and Ribbon Controller) By Elson Trinidad Originally posted Winter 2001.

Tonight I performed a minor surgical procedure on my AN1x :) For a long time, knob #4 has been loose, to the point where I had to stuff paper bit into the knob just so it can depress. It got so bad that even the slightest vibration made the value go schizo from 0 to 127...not good. Also, in an unrelated malady, the ribbon controller had a tendency to be hypersensitive. So I flipped it upside-down, got out the power screw (which I highly recommend unless you want carpal tunnel syndrome REAL badly), unscrewed the whopping 33 screws on the underside, and popped the bottom metal lid off... Yamaha did a very good job in making this as non user-serviceable as possible :) If you have any broken keys, be prepared to dismantle everything to replace them. Actually I've seen worse (Ensoniq ASR-10, for example.) To Yamaha's defense, the thing had zero dust or dirt inside after 2 1/2 years of service. Man, I wish I had a digital camera so I can show you folks...there's lots of wire spaghetti, there's even these bondable rubber-insulated wires whose sole purpose is to clamp down bunches of wires. The main board (with the battery) is clearly seen towards the right. There's two screws by the side where they fasten into the keyboard assembly. The main board section lifts off, but there's lots and lots of wires that limit its movement. I had to unfasten the aftertouch "AFT" cable and unscrew the mini-board where the keyboard wires attach to (4 screws.) Now I can get at the knob assembly. There's two "card strips" (like small versions of PCI cards in your computer of which 4 knob pots are attached to per card. One was tight, the other loose. I was contemplating gluing one down when I decided to go further and unscrew the metal plate that's below the knob pots. I was able to free the knob section, and - hello, what's this? A small hex nut has come loose below the knob 4 pot! So I screwed it on back tightly, as well as the other 7. That's what's been plaguing me all these years! As for the ribbon controller, the ribbon *cable* connector seemed to be loose, so I pushed it down. Then I put all the wires and screws back where they belong, and I had a good-as-new synth. - 30 - : . elson trinidad, los angeles, california, usa : . elson@westworld.com : www.westworld.com/~elson : . groove to the futurethnic beats of e:trinity at www.e-trinity.org and www.mp3.com.etrinity