Vintage Synth Repair

I know that Radio Shack had them but that was some years ago.  The 
one I have is really not much more than a metal watch band with a 
snap connector where the watch would be with a wire and clip on the 
end to attach it to a chassis ground.  The ones radio shack had were 
of a conducting plastic & velcro wrist band with the same sort of 
clip wire attached.
Yes, lacking a wrist strap you can just keep a hand, finger, even a 
toe touching the chassis or some other "grounded" metal object to 
keep the static charge down.  The only warning here is to be VERY 
sure about the power being off to the circuit your working on.  The 
real ESD wrist straps limit the current so that if you did 
accidentally touch some live high voltage you wouldn't electrocuted 
right off.
Unless you plan on doing a lot of work with static sensitive stuff 
the "keep a hand on the chassis" method should work OK for you.
As far as replacing the parts is concerned it would be a pretty easy 
job for a qualified tech.  The IC's are "pin thru hole" and not 
surface mount so no really special tools or techniques are required 
to remove and replace one.
Now the bad news.  Finding a replacement part may not be possible.  
The IC's were custom made for the Orbit and I don't think that 
Wurlitzer has any left.  You might get lucky tho and find somebody 
that has some left.
Luckier still would be if the contact cleaning fixes your Orbit III.

Good Luck & have fun
Doug T.
PS Unfortunately I don't have any OrbitIII parts.  When I worked in 
my dad's store the OrbitIII circuit boards were the replacable part.  
The actual replacement of parts was done at the factory.  Synths and 
LSI were all really new back then and factory wanted to make sure 
that there were no bum repairs by someone maybe not quit up on the 
new technology.

--- In vintagesynthrepair@y..., ed hallborg <ehallborg@y...> wrote:
> Thanks alot for the advice, a few quick questions, the
> wrist strap you refer to , is this the kind of thing I
> need to get at a electronics store or can I make one? 
> Otherwise simply keeping part of my hand or something
> on the chasis can discharge the static?  Hmm, Thats
> interesting, I noticed something about static charges
> on a warning inside the organ, but never had any idea
> about this...as I said I'm pretty green in this area. 
> Aside from this, if a cleaning doesn't do the trick
> are the parts replaceable, even by a qualified tech,
> or is this a lost cause? I've seen a couple of these
> for sale in ranges from 100-2000 apiece.
> 
> PS-I don't suppose you need any of those parts, but
> let me know if you're interested.
> 
> Thanks again,
> Ed
> > 
> > 
> > 
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