For those brave souls who wish to go fishing in their F-holes , I present to you a case study in implementing the fabled EB2 choke-bypass modification. This was my attempt at it, and I was extremely happy with the outcome – especially since no irreversible modification to the bass was required. What is this [...]
http://www.hillscloud.com/2013/02/1966-gibson-eb-2d-triple-bypass-modification/
In December 2012, I purchased a Rickenbacker 4003s/8 8-string bass project from Ishibashi Music in Japan. The bass had been heavily discounted due to a structural issue that had rendered it unplayable. If I recall correctly, their website listing stated something to the effect of: “major faulting in neck, we do not recommend this bass” [...]
http://www.hillscloud.com/2013/02/1995-rickenbacker-4003s8-structural-repair/
In the spirit of saving the easy stuff for last (…or so I thought), I tackled the restorations of the four Synthesizer Expander Module (SEM) units. These were more work than I had anticipated, but then again I opted to completely disassemble them, clean, re-cap, and repair any issues along the way. Fig. 1 – [...]
http://www.hillscloud.com/2012/07/oberheim-four-voice-fvs-1-restoration-%e2%80%93-part-8-the-sems/
In 1976, the Four Voice began being offered with a programmer module. Oberheim’s patch storage implementation was a bit different from that of the microprocessor-controlled polyphonic synths to follow (Prophet-5, OBX, etc…) in that it was capable of multi-timbral storage/recall of sounds. In other words, each SEM could be setup differently using the programmer’s controls [...]
http://www.hillscloud.com/2012/03/oberheim-four-voice-fvs-1-restoration-%e2%80%93-part-7-the-programmer/
I’ve been making some progress on this restoration, and thought I’d lump together a bunch of the more superficial, cosmetic-oriented work in this post. While I’ve had the synth chassis separated from its roadcase, I felt that it would be a good time to freshen things up a bit. The I/O and power supply panels [...]
http://www.hillscloud.com/2011/09/oberheim-four-voice-fvs-1-restoration-%e2%80%93-part-6-cosmetology/
Forging on ahead, I felt it was time to give this keyboard some new life. The bushings were pretty much shot, and several were starting to crumble away – yielding the all too familiar snaggletooth keys and loud metal-on-metal action: Getting the Four Voice’s keyboard assembly out involves excavating the synth from its [...]
http://www.hillscloud.com/2011/08/oberheim-four-voice-fvs-1-restoration-%e2%80%93-part-5-keyboard-rehab/
These are some photos of my old CS-40m. I loved the filters and ring modulation in this synth, and it was built like a tank! The design lacks some niceties like FM and sync between VCOs, but it was still a joy to play. This synth also interfaced well with my modular. Here it is with [...]
http://www.hillscloud.com/2011/07/yamaha-cs-40m/
This track features a Korg X-911 Guitar Synthesizer processing an Alembic Distillate bass for the majority of the synth and synth-bass parts. The regular bass sound is also the Alembic, and there’s a fair amount of RE-301 Space Echo in this as well. Squelch
http://www.hillscloud.com/2011/06/squelch/
This song was an improv made this using the modular synth’s sequencer to control/trigger both voices on a Yamaha CS-40m, and also toggle the Space Echo’s sound-on-sound feature via an analog switch. Seaborne
http://www.hillscloud.com/2011/06/seaborne/
I recorded this right after acquiring a 1973 Gibson Triumph (Les Paul Recording bass) from the original owner who had it in storage since around ’75! The original flatwounds were even still on it. =) They were sooo dead, but had this nice “plonk” sound to them – and so began this track… The melody [...]
http://www.hillscloud.com/2011/06/horizon/
This track was made using a Fender Strat w/Roland GR-1 for the melody, Gibson EB-0 bass w/string mute, and my Oberheim OB-8 for the synth part at the outro. Equinox
http://www.hillscloud.com/2011/06/equinox/
I made this track using a Multimoog for the melody and solo, and the bass is my 1966 Gibson EB-2D semi-acoustic running through an Alembic F-2B preamp. The funky “bar bridge” and resulting wonky intonation in the upper register gives that bass an almost upright-like character at times. The melody is being doubled in places [...]
http://www.hillscloud.com/2011/06/passage-to-infinity/
Now onto the fun stuff… I’ve been seriously digging this thing even as it limps along with two-voice polyphony, but its time to hear a happy quartet of SEMs! SEMs 3 and 4 were not firing from the keyboard, and the continuous assignment mode would only step between SEMs 1 and 2. Between all of [...]
http://www.hillscloud.com/2011/06/oberheim-four-voice-fvs-1-restoration-%e2%80%93-part-4-hearing-voices/
I had flipped on the cam whilst recording some spooky sounds to scare the little kiddos on Halloween night. :-) Here’s some info on the patch: The main sound features two oscillators- Osc2 sine goes to a VCA CV in, Osc1 saw to said VCA’s signal in, and VCA’s out to Osc2 FM in. This [...]
http://www.hillscloud.com/2011/06/modular-fright-night/
This track features a 70s Ovation Magnum-1 for the bass (with flats and mute engaged), Sequential Pro-one and Oberheim OB-8 synths, and Fender Strat. Terraforming
http://www.hillscloud.com/2011/06/terraforming/
Before venturing too far down the path of sorting through the faults, I wanted to first ensure that the power supply was in good working order – that the power output was clean, and that the rails were putting out the correct voltage. There are a total of six capacitors on the PSU board [...]
http://www.hillscloud.com/2011/06/oberheim-four-voice-fvs-1-restoration-%e2%80%93-part-3-the-psu/
This track features Alembic Distillate bass, Yamaha CS-40M synth, and Roland G-808/GR-300 guitar synth Centrifuge
http://www.hillscloud.com/2011/06/centrifuge/
Well, where to begin… I thought I’d start by tracing out and removing the modifications. Overall, the mods looked to be in a questionable state, and I felt it would help in troubleshooting the primary issues if I could rule-out the modifications as a contributing factor. The “Mediamix Triangle Mod” board was held in place [...]
http://www.hillscloud.com/2011/06/oberheim-four-voice-fvs-1-restoration-part-2-modification-removal/
I’ve been fascinated by this synth most of my life, and I finally got a chance to lay hands on this one in June 2011. In or around 1975, Oberheim released the four voice polyphonic synthesizer (dubbed the FVS-1), which was basically comprised of four Synthesizer Expander Modules (SEMs; keyboardless, monophonic synths that were originally [...]
http://www.hillscloud.com/2011/06/oberheim-four-voice-fvs-1-restoration-part-one/
I’ve been dabbling with guitar/bass repair for years out of necessity and I’ve always wanted to try my hand at refinishing a bass, but I’ve never had the right candidate to practice on… until now. A Czech-made clone of a 1965.5 to 69 Gibson Thunderbird bass (referred to as the “non-reverse” body style) came into [...]
http://www.hillscloud.com/2011/06/refinishing-a-thunderbird-bass/