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Vintage Audio Repair

Started by nab, September 16, 2021, 10:36:09 PM

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nab

Any interest in a general thread about this here?
Anyone dabble?
Anyone take a soldering iron out to fix an issue?

There are a lot of good resources out there to talk about this, great even, I've been there and have the T-shirt to prove it.

But there's only one Paug, and I'm curious about what the Paug hivemind thinks about this.

Neither the techs, or the capacitors are getting any younger.

 

Buffalo Budd

I've done my fair share of 'cleaning' up vintage gear but have yet to venture into the soldering and altering any of the electronics.
Everything is connected, because it's all being created by this one consciousness. And we are tiny reflections of the mind that is creating the universe.

nab

Quote from: Buffalo Budd on September 16, 2021, 10:52:01 PMI've done my fair share of 'cleaning' up vintage gear but have yet to venture into the soldering and altering any of the electronics.

Yeah, me too mostly. Really just a step beyond this: I've actually been spending a couple of hours a night for the last few months learning how use the soldering iron, read schematics, and use testing equipment. I practice on gear I pick up from Goodwill. The current "victim" is a mid 90s JVC cd player.

But I realized my first "profit" in the cleaning game this week in the form of $50 in store credit (my terms, hey I'm a beginner) from the local record store for my work on a Pioneer SX780 I cleaned and did some basic tests on, with no fucking around with the electronics. He made an additional $250 on my work within hours. He's willing to pay me more for more repairs and cleaning, but I tempered his expectations for a few months while I learn. Driving to a tech where I'm at is an overnight adventure both ways.

Hicks

This thread makes me miss Will, he would have taken us to school on this.   :'(
Quote from: Trey Anastasio
But, I don't think our fans do happily lap it up, I think they go online and talk about how it was a bad show.

WhatstheUse?

Quote from: Hicks on September 17, 2021, 02:02:20 AMThis thread makes me miss Will, he would have taken us to school on this.   :'(

Ugh. My first thought as well.
Bring in the dude!

emay


Quote
QuoteThis thread makes me miss Will, he would have taken us to school on this.  :'(

Ugh. My first thought as well.


rowjimmy

Yeah. will would have been my go-to for this thread.
That said, I've dabbled a little. I've built passive switches, made some cables, and done some work on both my own and a friend's guitar.

I'm actually working up to taking my old Dual turntable apart and replacing the output cables because they're wonky and shorting the signal to the ground.

nab

I replaced the bulbs on my MCS 3233 this afternoon. This unit is the main speaker driver in my basement system and has electrical problems that will need to be addressed when I'm further down the learning curve; likely due to aging of components. Sounds good for now. 

The results were underwhelming from a visual "pop" perspective, as I wanted things to be brighter, but successful from a technical perspective as at least the whole unit face is lit now. Also successful from a learning perspective, as the wire soldering techniques I've been practicing for the last few weeks were all put to the test, including adding wire to a connection that was worked on in the past.

The underwhelming part was my error. Instead of waiting for something to come in the mail, I made due with something available locally, and the LED doesn't "fire" in the right direction. Made good and ordered something better, but I'll have to re-do it. At least it's all set up for that swap now.

Have a phono preamp board coming in the mail tomorrow to assemble to practice some more soldering. 

nab

Quote from: rowjimmy on September 17, 2021, 11:06:30 AMYeah. will would have been my go-to for this thread.
That said, I've dabbled a little. I've built passive switches, made some cables, and done some work on both my own and a friend's guitar.

I'm actually working up to taking my old Dual turntable apart and replacing the output cables because they're wonky and shorting the signal to the ground.

Changing the output cables on my turntables is one of the things that set me on trying to figure this stuff out and getting to know a soldering iron. It started with trying to work around the factory preamp in the AT 120 USB that was my first "real" turntable.

The AT probably won't be "fixed" now that I've moved on to other turntables, but that was the fucker that started it all.

Marmar

I've done some repair work on stuff....mostly fixing broken solder joints. Never gone in and done any replacement of components though....guess it wouldn't be that big of a leap though. I've changed out pickups in guitars, which is super easy...hardest thing I've done to date was fixing broken solder joints on an op-amp in a foot pedal.

I really need to refresh my tube amp, but I will leave that to the real pros....fuck touching the inside of something with a part called the "death cap"  :o
Who's the Marmar? I'm the Marmar!!!

Phish doesn't write beautiful music...the beautiful music happens after the written parts.

<gainesvillegreen> now, if they could get their sound to be as good as the lights, we'd have a band hee-yah!!

Music is what feelings sound like.

jam>

I've recapped a few old speakers - KLH model 6, and Klipsch Quartets. The Klipsch were almost outside my soldering ability but I pulled it off. Would love to mess around with more vintage gear, but my smallish apartment doesn't need multiple stereo systems.

tet

i have a Dual 1019 i am going to need to re-grease and change an idler wheel soon, but i haven't really picked up a soldering iron since i was a teenager. i don't have much other vintage gear to play with, but could probably still figure my way around with schematics if i had the time (spoiler: i never do)
"We want you to be happy"
-Phish

nab

Quote from: Marmar on September 20, 2021, 09:08:18 AMI've done some repair work on stuff....mostly fixing broken solder joints. Never gone in and done any replacement of components though....guess it wouldn't be that big of a leap though. I've changed out pickups in guitars, which is super easy...hardest thing I've done to date was fixing broken solder joints on an op-amp in a foot pedal.

I really need to refresh my tube amp, but I will leave that to the real pros....fuck touching the inside of something with a part called the "death cap"  :o

Yeah, I'll fuck around and find out as much as the next guy, but not with tube stuff.

nab

Quote from: jam> on September 20, 2021, 02:19:57 PMI've recapped a few old speakers - KLH model 6, and Klipsch Quartets. The Klipsch were almost outside my soldering ability but I pulled it off. Would love to mess around with more vintage gear, but my smallish apartment doesn't need multiple stereo systems.

Quote from: tet on September 20, 2021, 10:54:08 PMi have a Dual 1019 i am going to need to re-grease and change an idler wheel soon, but i haven't really picked up a soldering iron since i was a teenager. i don't have much other vintage gear to play with, but could probably still figure my way around with schematics if i had the time (spoiler: i never do)

It sounds like tet doesn't have the time, and jam doesn't have the space, but the solution I've come up with to having things to work on is to buy less marketable/desirable projects (like early 80s Marantz or MCS gear) which are wired similar to "the goods" but won't lead to too much disappointment if it all goes wrong. I've spent a few months collecting 2 or 3 of these units on the cheap. They are the next phase for me after refining my soldering and component identification skills.

Someday I'm going to do a full restore on my Sansui G-5000, but that's sorta "final exam" stuff.

rowjimmy

Similarly, I've got my first electric guitar which is a real piece... I'm going to test out some fancier work on it (split coils) for practice.