See the tiny hole on each pot? That's where you squirt DeoxIT!
Look Ma -- No knobs!
The Faders were disassembled for cleaning.
Check out these guts.
Each channel has its own identical circuit.
The Official Blog of Orchestral Colour Records
Aug 19, 2010
Restoring an Old Mixer part 2
It's time to discuss the Studiomaster 8 into 4 once more! This project has evolved into something more spectacular (part 3 coming soon) but for now, let's talk about what it took to get this mixer working again! It shouldn't take too long because the fix was simple. I posted previously that the mixer's LED VU meters were malfunctioning. This symptom led us to discover the real problem. My brother Steve (who also gave me the mixer) deserves props for this one. He determined (via science) that the LED's circuit was not receiving enough voltage (neither was anything in the mixer). We later realized that the Studiomaster mixer, being British, was simply not set for American wall outlets. This turned out to be true, although it was not set for European outlets either (strange). There was an extremely difficult to locate method for switching the voltage to 120. It involved pulling out a square piece of plastic located on the back of the mixer (which contained a fuse) and rotating it to the proper setting. Beyond that, all I did was clean the noisy potentiometers (104 knobs and 12 faders). The pots were all a pain but the slider pots were really messed up. I took each of them apart, cleaned their parts, and removed bits of broken plastic. Stay tuned for part 3, the satisfying and flabbergasting conclusion to Restoring an Old Mixer.
See the tiny hole on each pot? That's where you squirt DeoxIT!
Look Ma -- No knobs!
The Faders were disassembled for cleaning.
Check out these guts.
Each channel has its own identical circuit.
See the tiny hole on each pot? That's where you squirt DeoxIT!
Look Ma -- No knobs!
The Faders were disassembled for cleaning.
Check out these guts.
Each channel has its own identical circuit.
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thanks for posting this. I have the same mixer that sounds really great except when the knobs are moving, so I think I need to clean it as well!
ReplyDelete2 questions:
How long did it take you to take it apart and put it back together?
what kind of electronics cleaner did you use?
anything else you might want to add would be appreciated! It's a really great little mixer, it sounds really good. It's not "clean" but it has some "balls" to it I would say...
Disassembly wasn't too bad. I recommend photographing the insides before disconnecting wires from the circuit boards (they're attached with plastic snap connectors like hard drives in a PC). Taking everything apart and cleaning each knob individually took about 4 or 5 hours. I don't remember the exact brand of electronic contact cleaner I used but I believe it was purchased from RadioShack. It's important to get one with a straw so you can spray it inside the knobs which are mostly sealed. There's a little hole in each potentiometer where you squirt the cleaner into. I agree that the mixer has balls.
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