Goblinz Posted April 14, 2009 Report Share Posted April 14, 2009 I've been given an old Korg ES-1 mkII. It's in a bit of a state.... It looks like it's been dumped in a skip and had a load of bricks piled on top of it before being taken out and run over several times. It was found by a friend in the bottom of a bush covered in water.... Maybe ai'm going a little crazy by thinking there is still hope for it.I've not had it on yet as I don;t have an adaptor but my mate says the unit powers on, lights up, appears to play a sequence butthe only noise to come out is a dull buzz. After stripping it down the PCB doesn't look in too much of a state..... a bit of corrosion around some solder points and a small bit is chipped of the circuilt board corner whihc could be patched up (2 kayer board) easily. i doubt this is causing the buzzing though as it appears to just be the routing for some of the sequencer buttons.I was just wondering if anybody had or knew where I could get some schematics from so that I could identify all the different bits. I'm hoping that it's just the pre-amp chip or something that's causing the buzzing.I'll post some pictures tonight anyway... will be quite a project, but very amusing if I could get it going, even if it's just the sequencer that works! thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imp Posted April 14, 2009 Report Share Posted April 14, 2009 Cool! I wish i had found mine instead of spending money for it! ;)No seriously, i really like that thing and it is definitely something that's worth putting some work in.If you can't get the audio-part going, just try if it outputs midi.pushing the part-buttons should output note on/offs, all of the pots/buttons (except volume) output NRPNs ( different ones depending on which part is active) so if midi works, it's still a great controller/sequencerIf you need some info, how things (should) look, let me know! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goblinz Posted April 14, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2009 Cool! I wish i had found mine instead of spending money for it! ;)No seriously, i really like that thing and it is definitely something that's worth putting some work in.If you can't get the audio-part going, just try if it outputs midi.pushing the part-buttons should output note on/offs, all of the pots/buttons (except volume) output NRPNs ( different ones depending on which part is active) so if midi works, it's still a great controller/sequencerIf you need some info, how things (should) look, let me know!Thanks for the tips.... I'm in hope that I can get the seq/controller bits of it working as apparently they appear to be good. Just wait untill you see the photos of it before you go wishing that you had found it.... tis bad! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nebula Posted April 14, 2009 Report Share Posted April 14, 2009 If you can't get it to work right, just keep the parts of the board that accomodate the rubber buttons, and build an MB808 sequencer in it. All those light-up rubber buttons ... it's perfect! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goblinz Posted April 14, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2009 If you can't get it to work right, just keep the parts of the board that accomodate the rubber buttons, and build an MB808 sequencer in it. All those light-up rubber buttons ... it's perfect!I thought about that, but my mate cam up with a better idea if it's completely broken. He wants to mount it on the center dsah of his Robin reliant (3 wheeler) so go along with his 1980's space age theme! Besides.... the front panel is not in a fit state.... all the corners are bashed and magled where it's hit something solid, all this on top to the case being warped in to an un-natural state, LOL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kartoshka Posted April 14, 2009 Report Share Posted April 14, 2009 1 picture worth lot of posts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unrise_lyrical Posted May 1, 2009 Report Share Posted May 1, 2009 yea, Im really hanging out to see this carnage :) sounds brutal! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goblinz Posted May 1, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 1, 2009 Sorry... took the pictures but never got round to uploading them... here they are anyway.One mangled front panelBattered PlasticsWarped back-panelCorrosion to solder jointsCorrosion to midiports and warped back panelTide mark on buttonsBroken PCB... not too difficult to fix. I think this is just for the button matrix... Would rather it wasn't as then at least i'd have a suspected reason for th rest of it not working.Both boards... The photos arent clear, but they really aren't in that much of a stateFull size images are hereSo... I've turned it on... everythign lights up, the display scrolls "Electribe"... I can select some options (the main encoder needs replacing as it was in two pieces and full of mud). When I hit play I get some very glitchy noises coming out of it but there seems to be some sort of rythm. At the moment I am saying this is promising. It may not be possible to get electribe sounds out of it, but going on the condition the functionality it has is promising as parts of it could be re-usedVideo/and or sound samples will be added when I get a minute. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nebula Posted May 1, 2009 Report Share Posted May 1, 2009 :(... and all I ever find are sea shells, old tires and syringes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unrise_lyrical Posted May 2, 2009 Report Share Posted May 2, 2009 Fuck me thats brutal. I am all for fixing stuff up, but even I would scrap it I think. You are a braver man than I! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
/tilted/ Posted May 2, 2009 Report Share Posted May 2, 2009 Doesn't sound too awful to me.It sounds like most of the issues are in the analog output section.I'd suggest replacing the master volume pot, or at least try stripping it down and really cleaning it out.The rest of it sounds largely cosmetic from what you've said so far.P.S: Let's hear some samples... Maybe it's time to do a circuit bent album... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imp Posted May 2, 2009 Report Share Posted May 2, 2009 Damn, what a horrifying sight....I'd say sell it as mint on ebay ;)Maybe fixing the groundplane on that button-pcb will change something already... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.