Repairing
Repairing electronic music gear includes troubleshooting problems, replacing worn or damaged parts (both mechanical and electronic), repairing electrical connections, and performing preventive maintenance.
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Essentials of electronics repair
- Be Careful
- Avoid causing more damage.
- Be organised and take your time.
- Start simple
- Check easy-to-fix issues first.
- External checks
- Gather information on symptoms.
- Check cables, power supplies and fuses.
- Look for signs of physical damage.
- Cleaning
- Brush and vacuum the device with ESD-safe methods.
- Remove contaminants e.g. from spilled drinks
- Opening the device
- Unplug gear before opening.
- Use soft surfaces to avoid scratches, ensure any separated but still connected parts are well supported.
- Find the service manual (these can have errors)[1] or watch disassembly videos.
- Use containers to keep screws and other fastenings from getting lost.
- Take note of where any parts will go when reassembling.
- Take detailed photos of the internal setup, you may need to refer to these later.
- Initial observations
- Check for battery leakage, physical deformities, and blown fuses, (look for the cause of any blown fuse).
- Look for signs of overheating or smoke.
- Connections between dissimilar metals can corrode or degrade over time.
- Fixing process
- Re-seating connectors can solve many issues. Be very careful not to bend any pins.
- Check for corrosion and clean with contact cleaner.
- Avoid fully removing socketed ICs fully; raise the IC slightly and push down again to clean the contacts.
- Clean or replace scratchy pots.
- Check solder joints and touch up if needed, (with matching solder type). Be careful not to damage any nearby wires plastic parts with the iron.
- Common issues
- Many problems are mechanical rather than electronic.
- In industry when fixing is too time consuming a board is swapped rather than repairing the components.[2]
Showcase
Practical, real-world examples to guide and inspire.
See also
Methods
References
- ^ Re: Duplicating old PCBs... strategies? tips?, Mod Wiggler Forum, 6 Oct 2020
- ^ How to fix electronic music gear by by Craig Anderton, Harmony Central, 13 Feb 2017
Further reading
- How to diagnose and fix everything electronic by Michael Jay Geier, McGraw Hill TAB, 2015, ISBN 9780071848305
- Troubleshooting and Repairing Electronic Music Synthesizers by Delton T. Horn, TAB, 1992, ISBN 9780830639212, (not recommended)
- Prophet 5 technical manual by Sequential Circuits
External links
- Synfo.nl, Synth service manuals, synth IC data sheets and links to synth technicians.
- Beginning pinball repair and circuit board repair, includes useful information.
- WarrantyVoid FAQ - keyboard & sound toy modification, circuit-bending, includes useful information.
- The Ship of Thesus, on whether to repair or to preserve vintage synths, Jon Dent blog, 1 Apr 2020
- The Most Common Maintenance Issues of 22 Classic Synths (and How to Fix Them), by Travis Thatcher, Reverb, Sep 2017
Forums
- r/SynthRepairs
- Synth Repair, Syntaur Forums
- Repair, EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
- r/ElectronicsRepair
YouTube
About the general principles. For repairs to a specific piece of equipment, see its page.
- Synthchaser
- Musical Instrument teardowns and repairs by markusfuller
- Syntaur
- DIY Guitar Pedals
- Learn Electronics Repair
- Mr. Carlson’s Lab
- mikeselectricstuff
- The Signal Path
- Jeri Ellsworth
- Fran Blanche
- channelengineer
- ElektronikLabor
- mjlorton
- Sala Science
- Uncle Doug
- CuriousMarc
- Marco Reps
- Jordan Pier
- Techmoan
- bigclivedotcom
- EEVblog
- DextersTechLab