I had obtained a 44-space walnut studio cabinet slated for the top-most portion of the modular. This cab had originally been purchased from Synthesizers.com, and it appeared to be very well loved with its share of road rash (and some extra holes from those Dotcom mounting brackets). My current cabs are still in great shape, [...]
http://www.hillscloud.com/2011/06/modular-synth-walnut-cabinet-refinish/
Thought I’d share some info and pics about a recent Space Echo motor rebuild, in case it helps anyone else… About a year-and-a-half ago, my RE-301 started acting up. The fastest motor speed seemed really slow and erratic, and at the slowest setting it would warble down to a halt. I noticed a lot of [...]
http://www.hillscloud.com/2011/06/roland-space-echo-motor-rebuild/
My Pro-One had died a ways back (an op-amp in the keyboard’s CV path had bit the dust), and while I was in there repairing it and doing some other maintenance (PSU filter caps, keyboard bushings) I was thinking that it’d be slick to try and add pressure sensitivity to it. Having just finished refreshing [...]
http://www.hillscloud.com/2011/06/pro-one-pressure-sensitivity-retrofit/
This post details a couple enhancements made to my ’72 Guild JS-II bass back around 2007. I wanted to try out some Hammon Dark Star pickups (recreations of the Alembic-modified Hagstrom Bi-sonics favored by the likes of Jack Casady and Phil Lesh), and also address some issues with the stock bridge relating to intonation and [...]
http://www.hillscloud.com/2011/06/1972-guild-js-ii-bass-alembicized-bridge-and-pickups/
Here’s a relatively low cost modification that I implemented a few years ago on my ’69 Gibson EB-0, and the results were rather useful. This bass’ wiring was not original to begin with, and so I figured it’d make a decent candidate for some tinkering. I was curious about experimenting with different permutations of the [...]
http://www.hillscloud.com/2011/06/1969-gibson-eb-0-pickup-coil-tap-and-series-parallel-modification/
I acquired a 1974 Minimoog Model D that plays and sounds absolutely amazing, but this thing was really rough in the looks department. I had to get into it to repair its volume pot (it had been replaced with an 16mm center-detent pot of the wrong value) and do a couple other minor things, and [...]
http://www.hillscloud.com/2011/06/1974-minimoog-model-d-refinish/
I remember reading somewhere about the hidden Easter eggs etched and screened on the PCB of the Sequential Circuits Pro-One synth. These are only visible when the board is completely removed from the front panel. Here are some photos I snapped while mine was in pieces for servicing… Chenrizig: I believe this is [...]
http://www.hillscloud.com/2011/06/pro-one-easter-eggs/