08.28
I have been commissioned by Svenska Grammofon Studion in Gothenburg to service and repair some of their equipment. First in was an Sequential Circuits Pro-One that was making strange noises and only a few keys working on the keyboard. So first thing to do was to take it all apart and do some cleaning.
Unfortunately this version uses the dreaded membrane keyboard that is prone to fail and so was the case with this one as well. I managed to make it work again after taking it all apart and washed the keys and cleaned the contact surface with some isopropyl alcohol. The front panel also had some problems due to the wobbly and plastic case the Pro-One is using and to where the whole mother load of the circuit board is attached to, a stupid solution as with the OSCar.
I will recommend to make the Synthwood Conversion Kit mod that uses a more robust wooden frame to help to support the front panel for some serious knob twiddling. So, as for now it all works again and has been given back to a happy owner. More Pictures here.
An advice if you ever gonna buy a Pro-One, make sure it’s a version with the J-Wire Keyboard!
This is what dancetech has to say about fixing dead keys:
every keyboard but one (sequential pro one) i’ve used has had the same kind of key trigger mechanism.. a rubber strip of bubbles that have little black pads on the inside of the bubbles that press down onto the circuit board to join the circuit path. cleaning them is the simplest repair of all.
these rubber strips are affixed to the circuit board by little ‘plugs’ that go into holes on the board itself. i’ve never seen them glued down, and sometime i’ll probably try cleaning off a strip really good then gluing it down to seal it. simply poke the little plugs out of the holes, lift up the rubber strip (only as much as you need to..) and behold the collection of fluff and eyelashes that somehow gets into your keyboard. clean all the dust and debris off with a q-tip and isopropyl alcohol (again, the cheap stuff, but 90% is better than 70%) and then push the little rubber plugs back in their homes. all of a sudden your key works again.
Next up is the mighty Moog Memorymoog. Stay tuned!
