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Re: Ancient Serges? (long)

2001-03-18 by Sebastian Kuehnl

Hi John,

> For the first few years the build quality of the systems was very uneven....
> good
> to abysmal. This is due to their having builders that weren't very
> experienced.
> That is not the case now, Rex sweats every little detail.

I'll frankly ask then why you are replacing pots on four year old panels?


> The old white-face system you mention that used to be in Darwin Grosse's
> possession
> (where is it now??) also passed thru Grant Richter's (Wiard Synth Co) hands.

I have had offers for quite a number of vintage Serge systems; they were mostly
quite big ones. It's obvious how they must have been the "bohemien" instruments
then (the "speed" part perhaps responsible for the low standard of the kit
systems...) ;)

Sometimes I regret not having bought one of these. A *basic* Buchla 100 system
I played would have cost me thrice the money with much less features. The in
all respects higher sophistication of the successive 200 series stuff makes the
100 shine in a more attractive light than it deserves. Now, people told me
about STS Serge stuff, that the high prices weren't fully justified but you
paid a good deal for the mystic.


> He
> mentioned poor stability from some of the oscillators (at first). He said he
> took
> the boards out and there was crappy old flux and gunk on 'em. After
> carefully
> cleaning the boards off and recalibrating, presto! solid performance again.
> I'm
> sure Grant would've gone over the rest of the system doing other restoration
> work,
> so that system would be in excellent shape.

Would have, yes. But to my knowledge he disagreed very much with the things
commonly seen as the Serge's strengths, like some of the DSG features (hance
the Envelator).

By the way is it a modification reasonable to ask from Rex & crew to make the
DSG tempcomp/ accurately tracking?

While I'm at it; about the VCOs:
VCF here probably means frequency?
Why does the PCO have two 1v/o inputs?
Does the PCO have the same extreme range as the NTO (if biased)?
Can the other modules handle 100,000 Hz at all??
Why are the fine tune knobs differential (only on STS ones)?


Regards
Sebastian Kuehnl

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