I'm getting into this now... I can't afford to pay other people to do these jobs for me and there's so much unbelieveably good analogue gear available for cheap if you are able to put the time into looking after it. The internet is really genuinely full to the brim of really high quality knowledge and experience on forums.
soldering is not tricky... you just need a steady hand and to start out working on something shitty till you start doing stuff that you care about... there are good tutorials on the internet. Use good solder and a good iron.
I use
http://uk.farnell.com/multicore-solder/ ... /dp/609961
Weller Wes51 soldering iron
Most of the time I don't have a clue what I'm doing... just poking around for fun. Even though most gear is very complicated... finding the fault is usually quite simple.. e.g. something blown up on the PSU board, or dirty contacts. Lots of the time you can google the exact fault that a machine is having and find the solution without having to lift a finger.
working on gear
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oblioblioblio
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oblioblioblio
- mnml maxi
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Re: working on gear
lots of stuff on ebay listed as broken just needs a really simple job.
You need to read between the lines and work out where the seller is coming from... some stuff is fucking hammered to fck and not worth a moment of your time... but often there is gold. E.g. very high quality and very good condition RMS AC Millivoltmeter (basically a very high precision level meter) was advertised as not working and missing a fuse and fuse holder. Everything seemed legit and my guess was that it was used in a professional setting... some other machine had died and someone had just nicked the fuse and fuse holder from the machine.
I had to replace the whole fuse holder as you can't get a modern cap that fits the old holder... but was a simple job and now the machine works perfectly. Cost $900 when new in 1970 ... very high quality unit. Also needed a contact clean.
You need to read between the lines and work out where the seller is coming from... some stuff is fucking hammered to fck and not worth a moment of your time... but often there is gold. E.g. very high quality and very good condition RMS AC Millivoltmeter (basically a very high precision level meter) was advertised as not working and missing a fuse and fuse holder. Everything seemed legit and my guess was that it was used in a professional setting... some other machine had died and someone had just nicked the fuse and fuse holder from the machine.
I had to replace the whole fuse holder as you can't get a modern cap that fits the old holder... but was a simple job and now the machine works perfectly. Cost $900 when new in 1970 ... very high quality unit. Also needed a contact clean.
Re: working on gear
working on gear can be fun but also nerve-stretching. If you are willed to invest some good amount of time for researching the web, finding the right parts, finding the right schematics, learning the methods (calibrating parts) and so on you can get very good equipment for a lot less money. I am talking about DIY audio gear ...
Good examples are old Danner modules like Neumann, Filtek, Siemens and much more. You can get them at a very good price but you have to rack them up yourself and sometimes you have to make a PSU too. Filtek mk3 or Neumann w495 are very nice sounding EQs, even used in a lot of mixing/mastering facilities.
I bought four SSL 292 Cards ("Pink Knob EQ") but then I found out that the parts are pretty expensive, especially those reversed log pots. And hard to get too. Racking up one SSL 292 card can cost you €400... I haven`t racked them up yet =)
We recapped our Soundcraft 6000 (36 Channelstrips, Master, AUX Master, Groups), repaired both PSUs and still there is a fault... we`ve invested so much time and effort and can`t get that thing to run completely flawless so we skipped it. Channelstrips and Master are working but the AUX master is faulty which collapses the potential... I don`t have money to hire somebody for that so it`s a nice looking table at the moment =)
I`d love to build a Sontec DIY EQ anytime, but man, this gets expensive too ...
GroupDIY is a good resource for DIY audio gear but it`s always good to know some of the basics because those DIY guys don`t always tell you the whole truth. At least this seems to me ... Instead of telling you exactly how to do something they like to give you hints on how to search the web and gather the infos yourself. Life`s not that easy!
Good examples are old Danner modules like Neumann, Filtek, Siemens and much more. You can get them at a very good price but you have to rack them up yourself and sometimes you have to make a PSU too. Filtek mk3 or Neumann w495 are very nice sounding EQs, even used in a lot of mixing/mastering facilities.
I bought four SSL 292 Cards ("Pink Knob EQ") but then I found out that the parts are pretty expensive, especially those reversed log pots. And hard to get too. Racking up one SSL 292 card can cost you €400... I haven`t racked them up yet =)
We recapped our Soundcraft 6000 (36 Channelstrips, Master, AUX Master, Groups), repaired both PSUs and still there is a fault... we`ve invested so much time and effort and can`t get that thing to run completely flawless so we skipped it. Channelstrips and Master are working but the AUX master is faulty which collapses the potential... I don`t have money to hire somebody for that so it`s a nice looking table at the moment =)
I`d love to build a Sontec DIY EQ anytime, but man, this gets expensive too ...
GroupDIY is a good resource for DIY audio gear but it`s always good to know some of the basics because those DIY guys don`t always tell you the whole truth. At least this seems to me ... Instead of telling you exactly how to do something they like to give you hints on how to search the web and gather the infos yourself. Life`s not that easy!
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oblioblioblio
- mnml maxi
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- Joined: Wed Apr 19, 2006 1:38 am
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Re: working on gear
most of the peeps I know will give me a straight answer, even going into much more detail than I originally asked.
Still, it can take a lot of money invested. I put quite a lot of money into my Studer machine just for little bits and pieces to get it working, but it will get there, and I will have a machine for life.. can't say that about much being built nowadays. Same with the rest of my gear.
Fucking love it too, I don't really know that much.
I'd much rather take this time to myself to work on gear than work for someone else.
Still, it can take a lot of money invested. I put quite a lot of money into my Studer machine just for little bits and pieces to get it working, but it will get there, and I will have a machine for life.. can't say that about much being built nowadays. Same with the rest of my gear.
Fucking love it too, I don't really know that much.
I'd much rather take this time to myself to work on gear than work for someone else.