Vintage Synth Repair

From: "barndoorproductionstheatre@... [vintagesynthrepair]" <vintagesynthrepair@yahoogroups.com>
To: vintagesynthrepair@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, October 15, 2014 6:42:59 AM
Subject: [vintagesynthrepair] Re: ARP 2813 Odyssey...anyone with service exp??












Basically, apart from the electrolytic capacitors, if it doesn't seem to be broken, my advice would be "don't try to fix it."
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Personally, I've found that to be sound advice even with electrolytic capacitors. I realize that the popular wisdom is to replace the electrolytics because there is a chance they could possibly fail someday. After all, they have a stated lifespan in their specs. But the oldest piece I' ve worked on was an amp from the late 40s -  i t had a speaker with a field coil that doubled as the inductor in the power supply. It had some malfunctioning resistors, but t he original electrolytics were still functioning flawlessly . So now, if electrolytics have the correct  value and ESR (and aren't leaking), then they' re the equivalent of brand new and I just leave them alone even if they are 60 years old, because a new replacement c ould not offer  ANY improvement.