Vintage Synth Repair

On Monday 04 August 2008 11:25, jkyoung2001 wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have a Lowery Parade which I purchased sometime in the 80's.  It has
> been sitting in my living room untouched for quite a few years.
> Lately, I decided to start playing again.  When I started playing it
> sounded awful.  All the keys are stuttering which I presumed meant
> that a cleaning was in order.  My husband and I took off the back,
> took one look, and closed it back up again.  Yes, it is very dusty!  I
> thought it would be a simple matter of vacuuming it out and maybe
> cleaning the contacts but we don't even know how to get to the inside
> of the keyboard and all those wires.  I don't want to do any damage.
> Is this something we can do ourselves or do I have to find an organ
> repairman?  It really was working fine the last time I used it.

If it's convenient to haul it outside (like to a driveway,  patio, or similar) 
your best bet is to do that and then use your vacuum to _blow_ the dust out.  
Or compressed air if you happen to have that available.

Intermittent keys and tabs can often be cleared up by repeatedly operating 
them,  which may break the oxide or contaminant that's preventing you from 
getting a reliable contact on the first attempt.

Opening those?  Well,  different models were all done differently.  Some 
organs have a hinged lid,  some have a couple of screws that you can remove 
and then slide the lide out one way or the other.  Most multiple-keyboard 
organs have a provision for swinging the upper keyboard up,  at least,  and 
often both of them,  hardware will vary from model to model but if you look 
for it you may find it.  Some later-model Lowreys I worked on had the whole 
works sliding out as a sort of a drawer,  again after removing some hardware 
someplace.

This sort of thing is something I was usually able to figure out in a minute 
or two after looking things over,  but that's the result of me having worked 
on a whole bunch of organs over the years,  and it's hard to describe,  and 
I'm not familiar with that specific model by name.

> By the way, we are both familiar with taking our computers apart,
> upgrading cards and harddrives etc. so we aren't completely ignorant
> about electronics.  I realize that this organ is completely downlevel
> but I don't think I will be buying a new one so it's this one or nothing.
>
> Thanks for your help!!

Hopefull this'll help some...

-- 
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space,  a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed.  --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
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