Razmo's Gear Rant Thread...

[Chris Abbott]

I don't think manufacturers of anything ever ask themselves that sort of question

[Razmo]

Well thank heaven you can fix it Razmo, otherwise it would be one more for the refuse tip I suppose.

I also suppose if the equipment isn't used much then the bits inside it are more likely to last a while longer. My 1975 Electone is still fine and the only thing wrong with my Hammond (also around the same vintage) is that it is starting to sound a little distorted. I would have had that repaired but I like it.


Just one thought - what did the manufacturers of these organs think the owners would do after the capacitors stopped working? Get the units repaired? Or did they think owners would have already thrown them away or died by then? Even the Mellotron was originally marketed as a home organ for your granny to sing along with.

I bet they thought it would have been thrown out before that 20 year period had passed... Anyway, I don't believe they would have been able to do much about it... it is the nature of electrolytic capacitors to dry out over time... they may last longer, but there are several factors that influence the life span, and the most prominent one is that of heat.... heat will dry them out faster.

That is why in more than 90% of electric machines failing, it is in the power supply, because that is where the most heat are generated, and any electrolyte capacitor located near very hot parts are doomed to have a shorter life span... this is also why most technicians always test the power supply as a first when trying to analyze a failing piece of machinery.

Many manufacturers really don't THINK when they place caps in their machines, and thus place them too close to heat... but in power supply's it's almost impossible to do otherwise as this is where the largest electrolytes are needed, and to save space on the power supply curcuit board, they place everything closer together... unfortunately.

[Marcel Donné]

Did the organ not have any problems? ... i mean, Mine is right now failing because of capacitors going dead after 40 years (those usualy have a life span around 20 years max)... I'm thinking about recapping the entire organ to be honest

One of the modulator boards has stopped working correctly giving loud pops and clicks, and yesterday I suddenly realized, that the pedals did not work anymore unless they were routed to the string ensemble.

Seems the capacitors are starting to die like flies here

The only problem the organ had when I got it is that I had to tune the 'F' oscillator. Other than that it has always worked fine.

If you need other parts than capacitors, for instance the BBD chips, try this site. This guy is know over here as Papa Eminent

http://www.esbdebruijn.nl/algemeenENG.htm

[Razmo]

Thanks for that link Marcel very helpful if I need something... though, I do not believe that the Eminent use those BBD chips... I think that was the Solina... The Eminent has 6 curcuit modulator boards inside, and three of these are used with the Ensemble FX, the other three is used by the Orbitone chorus effect. I cannot see any of those TCA BBD chips.

[Commie_User]

I don't think manufacturers of anything ever ask themselves that sort of question.

Well I did wonder because the '60s and '70s were still very much the time of the 'built to last' ethic. 'That vacuum cleaner could last you 30 years'. I wondered if manufacturers truly anticipated the throwaway culture as they did in the computer industry. I wondered if the service centres of the time anticipated mending their wares so far in the future.

I know stuff goes wrong in the end and things get changed. But I know what they think these days and in one respect it's good - keep it more affordable and nobody worries if it breaks sooner.

[Razmo]

" But I know what they think these days and in one respect it's good - keep it more affordable and nobody worries if it breaks sooner."

I don't find this to be good really... it's not a nice policy when it comes to our environment, that everything has to be cheap, and thrown away so fast... but it's what this neo liberal trend wants... profit profit profit... and more profit, and to the nine hells with the environment.

I really believe that it's profit and nothing else that drives this trend...

[Commie_User]

I think it's just the way things have developed, where we've simply ended up. With advancements in micro-electronics, most things aren't actually worth fixing but are also far cheaper. And the spending public know that they're getting the latest improvements more quickly and usually without a higher net cost. And that's to everybody's profit. At least in the mass market where turnover is higher anyway.

For us, there's plenty we want to see last and last, such as good mixers and retro kit like tape decks. But even here, you can have a lot more on any budget. That's not to say I don't care when the classy gear gives up the ghost, just that in the free market pretty much anybody can have just what they like. And it's part of what communism collapsed for.


I agree there are environmental worries though. There's much head scratching to be done to solve those, though even here I wish governments would show restraint. Our bosses seem far too keen to punish ordinary people for disposing of broken stock rather than do more to ensure such items are cheaply recycled or destroyed.

[Marcel Donné]

Oh, and if you need the schematics of the 310, there's a PDF available at http://www.eminent310.nl/

[Razmo]

Oh, and if you need the schematics of the 310, there's a PDF available at http://www.eminent310.nl/

Thanks Marcel, but actualy Eminent put a copy of the schematics inside the organs they produced... of course it may have been removed on some organs, but mine was intact inside my organ, so I've got them... There is even an original warranty certificate on the back side of the organ

But surely it has been of help allready... the diagrams show everything you need to know on fixing it...

[LMan]

Beautiful sound, the Eminent.

[Razmo]

Just found out that the ensemble modulator boards in my Eminent actualy do have chips on them... I did not see it because the BBD chips are so old that they have round metallic casings looking more like a large transistor with lots of legs.

I also found out which modulator tht has the fault, and It's 99% certain, that it is the BBD chip that has broken, so I've ordered a few of them from the link Marcel gave me in this thread (thanks Marcel!).

I'm now waiting to get them home to have it replaced... looking forward to that.... next problem to solve are that the pedals has stopped working, unless they are routed thru the Ensemble effekt, and the two Tibias stops that do not work.

I hope I'll get this organ up and working 100% again, so that I can start my sampling projekt soon. Of course I'll use the Eminent directly, but I know that old gear like that is quirky, and that eventualy one day it will cease to work again, so I'd like to have it sampled as best as possible for that situation.

Also, I've decided to sell my Mackie 24.4 analog mixer... it takes up too much space, and it does not have enough channels to hold all the synths I want... so I've decided to get 4 Behringer RX-1602 1U analog rack mixers instead, giving me 32 stereo channels instead in just 4 units of rack space... I do layered harddisk recording on the PC these days anyway, so it's much more convenient.... exept for maybe my wallet

[Razmo]

Have been testing out my "new" Electro Harmonix guitar pedal... the Deluxe Electric Mistress.

It's an analog flanger pedal that Jarre used (an earlier version though) on his probably most famous piece to date; Oxygene part 4. He used it with a very rare RMI Harmonic Synthesizer, and I've been trying a bit to analyze what base sound he used with the Mistress pedal... thus far I've not hit the right sound, but you can clearly hear that the Mistress pedal is what makes that swirly sound any Jarre fan would remember about that track.

Here's a small demo of it in action... it's a Waldorf Microwave that does the raw sound you hear in the beginning... the second part where it gets interresting is when the Mistress is turned on.

here is a link to some info on the RMI Harmonix Synthesizer: http://www.jarrography.free.fr/details_ ... id_equip=7



Also... I'm still working on my Eminent 310 Unique organ... I've finaly located the faulty part which is one of the string ensemble modulator boards that has gone bad... I still do not know what components, but I'm working on it... I have recapped all electrolytic capacitors on all three modulator boards, and actually also changed all the rare ORB33 BBD delay chips on them with brand "new" ones, but that did not help... probably a diode or transistor that is the culprit.

[Commie_User]

Have you ever made your own box? I know there are gadgets to do almost anything already but I wonder if there are still some new sounds to find.

Maybe something just to randomly change the timbre of the input or something. May help samples sound less identical.

[Razmo]

Have you ever made your own box? I know there are gadgets to do almost anything already but I wonder if there are still some new sounds to find.

Maybe something just to randomly change the timbre of the input or something. May help samples sound less identical.

Yes... sometimes I've thought about it actualy, but I have yet not tried to realize anything really... and yes, there are so many options out there it's hard to conjure up anything unique really.

[Razmo]

Finaly!

I've located the culprit on the String Ensemble of my Eminent 310U. It was a malfunctioning capacitor on the faulty string ensemble modulator board. I found it by simply swapping the capacitors from a modulator board that works until I found the faulty component.

Unfortunately the caps were really hard to desolder from the curcuit, so I physically damaged two caps in the process. But I know what to do about this, so it's not a problem... just have to figure out what type of caps it is, and order some new ones to solder in.

But the big deal is that the String Ensemble now works 100% again... currently I've desoldered the audio outputs from the three Chrous/Tremolo modulator boards, as these had to deliver the working components for the faulty Ensemble curcuits.

So now there are only two problems to solve... the nonworking Tibias stops of the lower manual, and the foot pedals that seem to have stopped working, when not routed thru the Ensemble.