the "one of these days im gonna fix up that ol'..." thread

[digthisbigcrux]

post pics of your long lost gear that has been shuffled to the back and nearly forgotten.







an old guyatone (or guya) ga 620.  it got set aside when i couldnt find any information at allllll on this amp.  it works but hums so loud that you can hardly hear the notes you are playing.  somewhere down the line someone did a sort of awkward job of recapping it and bypassing the cans.  reverb works and is weird and awesome sounding, tremolo doesnt.  i need to get back into this amp.  just never knew where to start with tracing down hum.

[blooze_man]

This thread might do better in the Pictures section.

[antisolo]

digthisbigcrux... is that a Minutemen reference?

[DougH]

I'm finally getting around to doing some repairs on my Korg CX-3 drawbar organ. Found a contact for replacing a missing drawbar and broken key. Need to fix the percussion control too but this is a start.

[Mark Hammer]

I have 5 things eating away at me:

1) Restoration of a Heath TA-16 amp I picked up recently.  Got most of the recapping done, but have to re-grill it and fabricate a back panel.

2) Get a keyboard into a Sequential Circuits Pro-1 synth.  I bought this from the estate of late former member Peter Snow.  He had accidentally dropped something heavy on it and destroyed the keyboard, even though everything else seems to be fine.  I recently bought some bare organ keyboards from a guy and have to turn a 44-key thng into a 37-key that will fit in the pro-1 chassis.  Then there is the small matter of soldering on all those the diodes.

3) Rebuild, and transform a late-60's dual 6V6 amp into something like a 5F11 Vibrolux.

4) Finally finish my PAiA Hyperflange that has been haunting me in a semi-finished state since 1992.

5) Do something about the busted Juno-106 in my basement.  I only paid $50 for it, and all the chips in it (a pair of MN3009, six of the epoxy modules with two BA662 and an IR3109 in them) are worth far more than that if safely extricated.  But the chips are a big part of what makes it sound so good.  Repair or cannibalize?  Still mulling that one over.

If I can get that done, then maybe one day I'll try out the Tascam 38 I bought 4 years ago (but have never turned on) and see if the motors do need replacing like the vendor said.

You know I had ever planned on ever retiring from work, but I think I'm eventually going to have to at least take a year sabbatical to fix up and finish all the stuff lying around.  I better get cracking on it.  My late buddy Peter has an entire basement of stuff he had planned to get around to until cancer took him.  The Pro-1 was one of those.

[oldschoolanalog]

GOTCHA'!
Told you I'd bookmark this one!

Okay.  My turn.  And it's a biggie....REALLY big.
By the end of this year, I'm going to finish building that PAiA Hyperflange I bought in 1992, and have it functioning.
There. I've declared it publicly, and if I fail to hold to it, you can feel free to shame me relentlessly.  (As if I could feel more shame than I do right at this moment.)

The whips & chains are out...

[Mark Hammer]

Oh I know, buddy, and I figured someone would remember I had posted that (and glad you did, because I need the pressure. ).  I'm not planning on taking any vacation time this year OTHER than time devoted to that.  If I have to pay for a go***mn apartment for my older son myself, just so he'll get the hell out of my garage and basement, I'll get it done.

[digthisbigcrux]

digthisbigcrux... is that a Minutemen reference?

yes!

[antisolo]

digthisbigcrux... is that a Minutemen reference?

yes!

Sweet!

[edvard]

post pics of your long lost gear that has been shuffled to the back and nearly forgotten.

No pics, but...
- Boss CE-1 "Chorus Ensemble" (one of the old, huge grey ones)
Needs a LED bezel, slide switch and it's possible the power supply tranformer is dead (evidence of previous repair attempts on the wiring).

- Univox Echo Chamber
Needs tracing down the signal path until I find out which transistor is burnt out.

- MXR Stereo Chorus
Needs a whole lotta TLC...

- Maestro Sustainer
The original board was potted and the potting cracked through, so I (stupidly) threw it out thinking I could find a schematic somewhere.
Then somebody told me that it was possible to un-pot the things (forehead -> brick wall; repeat).

an old guyatone (or guya) ga 620.  it got set aside when i couldnt find any information at allllll on this amp.  it works but hums so loud that you can hardly hear the notes you are playing.  somewhere down the line someone did a sort of awkward job of recapping it and bypassing the cans.  reverb works and is weird and awesome sounding, tremolo doesnt.  i need to get back into this amp.  just never knew where to start with tracing down hum.

Hum is usually power supply somehow getting into the signal path, so start there and track down.

I acquired a Guyatone head from a friend of a friend a long time ago, and it would do nothing but blow fuses no matter what I did, so I gutted it.
Two months later, I discovered the power supply rectifier tube had one diode burnt out, the other tubes were fine... (once again, forehead -> brick wall; repeat)

[Mark Hammer]

Oh I know, buddy, and I figured someone would remember I had posted that (and glad you did, because I need the pressure. ).  I'm not planning on taking any vacation time this year OTHER than time devoted to that.  If I have to pay for a go***mn apartment for my older son myself, just so he'll get the hell out of my garage and basement, I'll get it done.

Well, he hasn't gotten a job or moved out, but he did rent a dumpster last week and we used the long weekend to throw out a huge pile of crap, freeing up an enormous amount of benchspace, and allowing me to rediscover things sitting under the workbench that I hadn't been able to get to.  I've sanded and painted about 10ft of the workbench (it's about 16ft long), and when the paint dries, I move everything tot he other end and sand/paint the remainder of it.  THEN I can get down to work again.

[culturejam]

I've got a Carvin Legacy 100 that's got a burned out power sub-board. Probably won't ever actually fix it. I'm hoping Doug H will see this and offer to let me ship it to him. 

[BDuguay]

Oh boy, let's see. An A/DA flanger, Yamaha Chorus, Common Sound Tremulus Lune, Tokai Chorus, Guyatone Delay, and a few I can't recall.
If and when those are troubshot and working again, then it's on to a Traynor Guitar Mate re-build and AC30 Re-furb. That oughta take me well into my golden years....
B.

[fluoreszenz]

Three things, stay in the dark... and i guess they will remain there 

Noisy Cricket amp... fully assembled, boxed, but i cannot get it working. (---> put it in the dark locker corner)

DIEFET: PnP'd, etched, drilled (see pic) and also already fully populated...ahh, no sound 



And my old Petersburg amp needs new tubes, the old ones are red plating and nicely microphonic.  
And then i need to figure out how to bias



 

[Mark Hammer]

So the companion question to this is: "What stops you from getting around to fixing up that old...?"  Is it:

• something new and shiny, and seemingly far more assured of success, comes along and distracts you
• waiting for those last few needed components to come along inexpensively
• a trouble-shooting challenge that has eluded you or that you shy away from
• stupid family/work/health/life/money
• I would need to figure out the wiring of the damn perf/vero board all over again so that I can pick up where I left off
• just lost interest
• the failure of government to pass legislation on the 8-day week and 28hr-day
• need to learn some more first
• lack of tools or other equipment to do the job (e.g., scope, rectangular hole punch)
• waiting for the right chassis to come along and say "You want me!"
• ran out of parts

[wavley]

5) Do something about the busted Juno-106 in my basement.  I only paid $50 for it, and all the chips in it (a pair of MN3009, six of the epoxy modules with two BA662 and an IR3109 in them) are worth far more than that if safely extricated.  But the chips are a big part of what makes it sound so good.  Repair or cannibalize?  Still mulling that one over.

What's wrong with your 106?   I have two, one working and one parts, if it's the modules, I've successfully repaired them by soaking them in acetone to get the gunk off and then re-soldering all the legs on the chips... there were solder breaks everywhere.  Now, my parts one is waiting to find a couple of keys and be put back together.

My thing that's eating me is a MCI JH-110 1/4" 2 track and a JH-110 1/2" 4 track that seem to develop a new problem every time I fix the current problem. And an Oliver PA100xr that needs to be re-capped and new tubes.

[Mark Hammer]

It was partly a previous post of yours regarding how to effectively de-goop the modules that got me thinking about using it for parts.  It powered on when I bought it, but never really fully booted up or responded to all button presses.  And to tell you the truth, it has been socked away in a corner for several years now, and I've plum forgot what it would and wouldn't do.  I do know that I never got a sound out of it, but never really put it through any sort of rigorous testing, or preliminary troubleshooting.

That being said, the Hyperflange is standing at the front of the line right now, and has been waiting longer for my attention.

Thanks for the offer, though.

[MoltenVoltage]

maybe one day I'll try out the Tascam 38 I bought 4 years ago (but have never turned on) and see if the motors do need replacing like the vendor said.

Don't bother if you don't have some dbx modules.  I recorded a couple albums on one of those and there is a lot of hiss if you don't have some noise reduction.

The only thing I miss about it are the VU meters and watching those reels spin around.

Sometimes sound quality needs to trump nostalgia.

[GuitarlCarl]

Morley EVO-1 oilcan echo... Bought it new in 77' or 78' it had the BEST spacey stereo echo... Its been dry for years, I'm hoping some oil from that cat on ebay will do it...

[mistahead]

From R.G.'s site:
http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/oil_can_delays.htm

My "Have to get around to that" is a Rangemaster from parts mainly salvaged from an old broken hifi found in a farm shed and a NOS tin can transistor, really annoying that I haven't gotten around to it as the cicuit works perfectly and definately has a home in my rig, its probably just the jack/power wiring I need to fix...

Why haven't I done it? Most recent reason is that I've misplaced it in a house move...