Salvaging Parts

[dfx_pedalpcbs]

Anyone know of any old equipment good for salvaging some vintage parts, What about electric organs, is there anything worth taking from them? Do they have any IC's etc

[mozz]

Anything up till about 1980. You can get lots of ICs but many are useless. Organs, older the better, are a landmine of old parts. Just last week I got a old phono mono preamp. It was kind of small so I figured germanium transistors or early silicon's. It was loaded with a matched pair of 12ax7s long plates from 1952, so I'm happy with that. Much old test stuff has dakaware chicken head knobs, bought many a old scope from the 50s for $10 just to get the knobs and 6sn7s.

[anotherjim]

Somebody gave me an early '70s portable record-player to see if I could fix it up. Sadly, its problem was mechanical & I got it going. It was loaded with Germanium with transformer coupled stereo power amp. Part of me wanted to call if FUBAR and strip it for parts.
The smaller electric organs, the ones with chord buttons, were more often electrically blown reed organs and no electronics at all. There were some solid-state versions that are worth a look. My own electronics adventures began by hacking a '70s Bontempi example. If you can manage them, the older home console organs can yield a lot of good stuff, if only the speakers. As said though, it would have to be pre 1980.
Even if the tubes are missing, old tape/gramophone machines might still have good transformers, especially the output transformers.

[Mark Hammer]

1) Avoid anything that uses double-sided boards.  You'll only end up destroying parts, using up all your solder-wick and wasting your time in the process.

2)  Older stuff too often has lots of caps, but the caps are too big to fit anywhere on current layouts predicated on smaller components.

3)  Surplus and recycling places can sometimes have stuff worth rummaging through.

4) Sometimes you can find oddball component values that are hard to find these days.

[dfx_pedalpcbs]

I see. So many people near me often give away organs, one i saw recently was Siel brand. fairly old looking.

[ThermionicScott]

It's really easy to end up with a basement or attic full of junk this way.  I would do research (look up schematics) for anything you see listed before succumbing to temptation.   

[vigilante397]

Anything up till about 1980. You can get lots of ICs but many are useless. Organs, older the better, are a landmine of old parts. Just last week I got a old phono mono preamp. It was kind of small so I figured germanium transistors or early silicon's. It was loaded with a matched pair of 12ax7s long plates from 1952, so I'm happy with that. Much old test stuff has dakaware chicken head knobs, bought many a old scope from the 50s for $10 just to get the knobs and 6sn7s.

Huge +1 to this. There are so many organs out there that aren't worth anything (*cough* Lowrey *cough*) but if you're looking at older things they can be excellent. I scored a bunch of 12AX7 and 6BQ5 (EL84) from an old Baldwin organ. That being said even newer ones with useless ICs can still have decent sounding speakers, they can be worth salvaging.

If you're looking to remove a bunch of components from a PCB I would recommend a hot air station over a soldering iron, makes the process a lot easier and less likely (in my experience) to damage components in the process.

[anotherjim]

I'm not familiar with Siel organs although they had some well-known synths. They seem to have been started to exploit the appearance of highly integrated/special chips in the early 80's, so you might find there isn't as much in them that has general use. That said, those chips were often fitted in sockets and there is a market for some for restoration work (they are long obsolete now).
As said, try to find the model number and from that find a service manual if it's not a well-known one.

[GibsonGM]

I've picked up quite a few old germanium transistors from the early transistor radios...most have been fairly leaky, but they make good boosters, range masters...

[willienillie]

There was an older Baldwin organ at a nearby Goodwill store a few years ago.  $15.  I wanted it, but it was too big to fit in my vehicle or even through the door at home.  I couldn't lift one side of it.  I doubt the store would've let me raid it for parts there on the sales floor, lol.

A buddy gave me a pair of 1960s Japan-made walkie talkies.  They had 5 germaniums transistors each, I've used at least 4 of those in pedals, a fuzz factory and a fuzz face for the dude that gave them to me.

[digi2t]

My top two organs I look out for are 70's - 80's Yamaha, and 70's Farfisa. They are transistor goldmines.

[garcho]

Most old electric organs have an oscillator per key, lots of transistors. I recently repaired a Farfisa VIP 600, there's one PCB per key, fitting into a slot like a tape machine or eurorack. They're hanging upside down with little support; any time you move the (super heavy) organ at least one of the damn cards falls out. Lots of water tower/ufo TO-106s.
Watch out for old dirty toxic boobytraps, and spiders. The dangerous ones like to live inside old junk.
I think the idea that old stuff will provide unobtanium is a little unrealistic.
+1 on not being a hoarder, you will just throw most of it away all over again.

[Mark Hammer]

There was an older Baldwin organ at a nearby Goodwill store a few years ago.  $15.  I wanted it, but it was too big to fit in my vehicle or even through the door at home.  I couldn't lift one side of it.  I doubt the store would've let me raid it for parts there on the sales floor, lol.

A buddy gave me a pair of 1960s Japan-made walkie talkies.  They had 5 germaniums transistors each, I've used at least 4 of those in pedals, a fuzz factory and a fuzz face for the dude that gave them to me.

Best Rangemaster I was ever able to make used a 2SB172 salvaged from the Mitsubishi transistor radio I bought in 1965 with my summer job money.

[amptramp]

We should include enclosures in our salvage operations.

Think of all the routers, modems and stuff that get tossed when more up-to-date things supersede them.  I have one effect I made from a slide projector controller taken from a hotel conference room - there were about half a dozen of them at A-1 Electronics (all gone last time I was there).  I picked up two of them for $10.  They had some interesting electronics as well as a four-position pushbutton switch, a pot with knob, a bunch of metal-cased small signal transistors and lots of other stuff.  It had an unusual idea for a power supply - a normal line cord came into the box but it went to an internal wall wart with the plug cut down to the minimum length for soldering.  Not sure it would meet UL/CSA/VDE but it was one way to get the job done.

I have often wanted to build an amplifier in a car engine cam cover.  The oil filler cap can be replaced by a big round power meter.  You have a huge amount of aluminum heatsinking available.  It wouldn't get warm until you were in the triple-digit watts.  It would look interesting sitting on top of a speaker enclosure. and the shielding would be as good as die-cast aluminum boxes once you put an aluminum plate on the bottom and you might be able to get one for $15.  Ric Ocasek would be an ideal customer - might as well have car parts for the Cars.

[duck_arse]

.....  Ric Ocasek would be an ideal customer - might as well have car parts for the Cars.

..... would have been ....

[rutabaga bob]

Agree with Ron about enclosures...have built several effects in old data-switch boxes.  They are also full of 26ga. stranded wire.

Am always on the lookout for old tube phonographs or tape recorders!

[amptramp]

Just to show you what I am talking about with enclosures, at top left, there is an extruded aluminum modem enclosure, at top right a printer switch, at lower left an effect built with the enclosure on the right.  The enclosure is 8.75 inches wide with the tape measure shown for scale.





Beside the effect (called Here Come the Fuzz), there is the ±12 VDC supply and the item in the middle between the effect and the slide controller is the backside of the front of the controller.  I replaced the front panel with a sheet of aluminum cut to fit the sloping front of the panel.  The backside shows a metal-case 2N2222A, some DIP relays and on the front view, you can see the green four-position momentary switches with LED's in the switch keys.  There is also a pot and three toggle switches.  The round item next to the original unit is a piezo speaker that gives indication of slide movement complete.  The power is from a wall wart (visible touching the printer switch) that was tucked inside the box and had the plug cut down to take female slide-on terminals.  The two of them (the unmolested one and the one that has been converted into an effect) were $5 each at A-1 Electronics.

The effect isn't finished yet but it will be the ultimate fuzz with eight controls.