Dealing with broken gear

Rosen Sound · Post by **Rosen Sound** » Sun Apr 10, 2011 9:14 am

Even as someone who repairs synths for a living. I f*ck*ng hate it when my gear breaks. Even the smallest things drives me up the walls.

My radias's Amp EG Attack pot gave out. Randomly gives out values. Luckily it has a feature to make the knob not work unless it hits its original value (catch mode). so that fixed it for a while... i just leave the pot at its highest value.
Now it seems my pan pot is out.. now its panned all the way right to avoid it being dumb..

so all in all.. everythings okay! it still sounds good...
but i just cant help but be so mad that it let me down in the first place... Im mad at korg for putting such crappy pots in this thing...

How do you deal with broken gear? how do you live with its flaws?
please do tell!

X-Trade · Post by **X-Trade** » Sun Apr 10, 2011 11:21 am

I repair it myself. Or get it done. The only thing to do when something breaks is to fix it

Rosen Sound · Post by **Rosen Sound** » Sun Apr 10, 2011 11:26 am

oh i know... i mean dont get me wrong, i can totally fix any issue mechanically with my boards and modules...

It's that lingering feeling after that i had to open her up and preform some kind of surgery that just bugs the hell out of me....

Giner · Post by **Giner** » Tue Apr 12, 2011 3:58 am

Adverse feelings/emotions about anything are probably best dealt with by visiting a psychologist and getting some counselling to find out where the root causes lie.

Rosen Sound · Post by **Rosen Sound** » Tue Apr 12, 2011 3:58 am

ozy · Post by **ozy** » Tue Apr 12, 2011 8:09 am

robbinhood wrote:How do you deal with broken gear? how do you live with its flaws?please do tell!

you mean, in mental terms?

Well, I try remembering what a machine is: embedded human work and time.

A machine is nothing else that the sum of thousand of human gestures, repeated thousands or millions of times in a short time.

In order to perform what a Korg M1 does (calculations etc), you should live 1500 years and work 24 hours a day. No to mention the energy needed to run it. You should woek at your music riding a bicicle with the hugest dinamo installed on it.

Your instruments save not only your life, but several of your possible lives.

So, from time to time a tiny part of this time you saved, happens to be there again because you need to spend 2 hours on a pot...

... cheer!

Thank god for machines, thank god for industrial production, and be happy.

Hope this gives you some peace of mind.

Aciphecs · Post by **Aciphecs** » Tue Apr 12, 2011 1:51 pm

ozy wrote:You should woek at your music riding a bicicle with the hugest dinamo installed on it.

You should work on your spelling

Harris The Epic · Post by **Harris The Epic** » Tue Apr 26, 2011 4:00 pm

I have a question that's relevant to this discussion!!

I have a Poly 61 sitting in my basement. The Pitch Bender and two ranges of keys are broken.
I want to get it fixed, but when I told the dudes at the only really decent Keyboard Repair shop on Long Island about it, they told me it would cost about 3x the amount to fix it than it would to buy a new one.

I love the sound and simplicity of the Poly though. It's awesome and retro.

billbaker · Post by **billbaker** » Tue Apr 26, 2011 9:11 pm

Harris,

There is no problem at which money cannot be thrown. - B. Obama

It depends on how much you really like that particular Poly - you could always use it as a slave. Better yet, buy a (?!) new one and save yours for parts and replacements. But if repair's a possibility you want to pursue, better to do it sooner than later -- parts can only get rarer and more expensive.

BB

Hanon_CTS · Post by **Hanon_CTS** » Sun Jun 19, 2011 11:27 pm

Harris The Epic wrote:I have a question that's relevant to this discussion!!

I have a Poly 61 sitting in my basement. The Pitch Bender and two ranges of keys are broken.
I want to get it fixed, but when I told the dudes at the only really decent Keyboard Repair shop on Long Island about it, they told me it would cost about 3x the amount to fix it than it would to buy a new one.

I love the sound and simplicity of the Poly though. It's awesome and retro.

Hello Harris,
Repair shops usually tell you stuff like that to blow you off.
Their biggest concern is for where they will get parts for it, and how long it will stay fixed before something else breaks and you come back screaming warranty.

I took a look on e8ay at the completed items listings. It looks like the poly 61 is selling between $250 to $350.

Restoring a synth like that is more of a labor of love than a smart financial investment.

On a more positive note, a poly 61 sold for parts in NY, e8ay item 260794188458 for $62
In the picture, in looked like it had everything that you need.

Cheers, Hanon

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Dealing with broken gear

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