lars
Prodigy
Posts: 5 
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Post by lars on Mar 2, 2016 9:00:20 GMT
Hello,
my name is Lars and I'm from Germany. Sorry for my bad English I'm just thinking about purchasing a polymoog synthesizer Keyboard. I try to compensate my lack of talent with the quantity of gear I have in my studio, and I really luck talent You guys have a great community and I’m really happy to found you. Looking forward to exchange information and helping others. I have two possible candidates one has a 12xx serial.no as far the owner could read it, the other 33xx (Label got scratched on this one as well) the 12xx seems to work somehow as far as the owner told me , the other seems not to work at all. I've some experience repairing vintage Synthesizers so I'm not sure if I should take my chances with the one with the higher serial no.?!
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Post by Dubsounds on Mar 2, 2016 14:35:23 GMT
Hello Lars. Not sure if you're going for a 203A or 280A Polymoog but I'd guess a 203A as the Serials for the 280A didn't get that high.
The serial shouldn't matter if the synth was regularly serviced and had all the engineering updates, (sadly not always the case). The only thing to look out for is the power supply. Early models have a Faratron unit which is prone to overheating. Later models have a Moog unit.
If you plan to restore, the first thing you'll probably want to do is re-cap the power supply anyway as those old capacitors will be useless by now and modern replacements are not only much smaller but more efficient.
After that you can work your way through the service manual, (you'll need one of those too) and check all the mods have been done and so on.
You may need to replace some mod cards, (they are now very hard to find - that's why most owners have 1½ Polymoogs as one often is a donor). It's also very likely (if the keyboard isn't working) that you will need new divider chips. Luckily we have someone here who manufactures new ones.
Anyhow, there are others here who know far more than me so you'll always get help if you need it.
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lars
Prodigy
Posts: 5
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Post by lars on Mar 3, 2016 8:27:20 GMT
@dubsounds,
Thank you very much for the warm welcome. Do you know at which Serial No. Moog switched from Faratron to Moog units?
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Post by Dubsounds on Mar 3, 2016 9:08:24 GMT
That's a very good question Lars but I don't. It's too long ago for official records so it would only be a guess. The 12xx SN would be model 200-299 out of 4,200 (the first 6% made) so I think the chances are it is a Faratron (unless it was later replaced). Only guessing though that's probably as much as any of us can do 40 years later.
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lars
Prodigy
Posts: 5
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Post by lars on Mar 4, 2016 7:11:21 GMT
@dubsounds,
no worries I checked both of the candidates and both have a Faratron unit installed.
Besides recaping and checking if the correct shunt resistors are installed is there other things I should worry about the Faratron Units. I'm also thinking to replace the Faratron unit completly with a modern SMPS.
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Post by spoonz on Mar 4, 2016 11:45:04 GMT
Serial number 1750 approx was the change
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lars
Prodigy
Posts: 5
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Post by lars on Mar 10, 2016 10:45:59 GMT
spoonzWhat are you thinking about the idea swaping the Faratron with a smps?
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