MF#3 Wersi Helios vintage organ electronics repair

repair and a look inside the wersi helios vintage 1977 organ. a look into some vintage electronics from the seventies and keeping an old keyboard alive donated by "wersiking" with the help of Jason Lee youtube name "organaut"
I have to buy most items myself to make these video's so any help would be greatly appreciated "become a Patreon" / markusfuller

[@jackcallahan2799]

Hi Markus, I built my Helios in 1984. If I remember correctly there was about 38,000 soldered joints. And the Master wiring harness if you put all the wires end to end it would be about 1640 feet long. And then add all the sub harness wires. There may have been close to a half mile of wiring in the Helios. And somewhat more in the Saturn, Zenith,and Galaxy. Enjoyed your videos of the Helios, brought back a lot of memories. Thanks, Jack.

[@johnb80]

I built a Helios many moons ago, I later developed some Z80 microprocessor based boards to deal with the unreliable memory problems. I moved on after a few years to Hohner, Technics and Yamaha organs, a couple years ago moved on to keyboards Tyros 5 and then Genos. Absolutely nothing had sounds like the Helios, to this end I have bought a Wersi Scala which is being delivered today. It has the Helios Activations so I can get the unmistakeable Helios Drawbar sounds. Thank you for publishing your video's, I really enjoy them.

[@markusfuller]

Thankyou John. I hope you enjoy the Wersi Scala and get many years of music out of it.

[@paulshoulders179]

I was in the electronic repair business for 40 years retired now. My Dad and I both worked for the same music store. The solder joints we called those a cold solder joint. I also work on accordions now that’s a lost art. I Loved your video sometimes I wish I was still doing organ repair especially the older units. Paul Shoulders

[@markusfuller]

Thankyou Paul. I decided to retire last year from too many years of repairing things. It’s been interesting and educational but no one wants to pay for repairs as they do not realise the hours that can go into fault finding and repair. so I decided last year to close down and retire. best wishes from Markus

[@frac]

Oh, I would have loved to build one of those from a kit! All that beautiful wire looming. Someone had pride in their work!

[@dadautube]

what a lovely 'little beast' of an organ! looks so beautiful too! great piano voice for its time and still a delight to play today! ME WANTETH! and Jason Lee plays so nicely! he knows the organ so well!

[@organaut]

Hurray the piano works again ! thanks Mark!

[@Tonewheeldude]

Cool Organ!Worked Many Years for Wersi. The Helios was realy ahead of its time.

[@markusfuller]

Hello Patrik. I love the Wersi Helios, I do have to keep working on it from time to time but it is a challenge that is worth the effort, It sounds so amazing and nothing new sounds anything near as good.

[@Tonewheeldude]

I totally agree.They are unique Instruments!Cheers from Svenska Hammond.

[@EasyLivinDGS]

hi patrik, are you german?

[@hiteck007]

Any chance of getting an ENGLISH MANUAL for a DX500 DELTA? I'm having heaps of dramas with it but I really want to get the MIDI Port working & I'll convert it to a Hapwerk Organ.

[@georgefiddler1742]

Ahh yes... I'm only 13 but I know what a dry joint is.... Great work Mark! Me and you could put one of these together with our eyes shut! I'm working on a HMV valve radio from 1955... It is one of the first in the U.K with VHF (FM) the smoothing capacitor exploded! But I am going to replace all the wax and electrolytic capacitors... My Kawai organ has had nothing to majorly wrong with it... Just bad solider joints and dirty switches.... I would love a Helios....

[@andy70d35]

Thank you Mark and Jason. Would love to own a wersi, just too expensive. The helios was a pretty amazing organ for its time, remember seeing Klaus Wunderlich playing the Helios in concert in glasgow.

[@markusfuller]

Hi George. I know you would know about dry joints etc. I realise how skillful and knowledgeable you are especially on vintage electronics. i have seen many of your interesting retro/vintage videos here on youtube. these wersi helios organs can be picked up really cheap if you can find one. people get rid of these wonderful organs and replace them with cheap plastic keyboards. pity. these are so much nicer to work on and all the parts can still be found for this 35year old organ.

[@antonioquepasa3474]

Excelente y maravilloso trabajo, lastima que ya pocas personas esten dispuestas a pagar por reparar estas maravillosos organos. Un saludo desde España. Yo tambien técnico Electrónica. 🙋‍♂️🎹

[@DigitalMusicXpress]

Jason still has his Helios right? Magnificent organ! LOVE the sound like none other, so majestic! I would sell a few body-parts to have one, but I don't think there exists one in South Africa. Thanks for a epic video.

[@gnarlysoundscapes7210]

That must have taken someone at least a year to build. So many wires and components. They had some masterful cable management skills too.

[@AlexUK2]

I built a Helios in 1980/81 and it did in fact take a year to build working in the evenings. The wiring looms came pre-made in the kits, hence the neat finished appearance.

[@paulj0557tonehead]

A very nice console Wersi w/ AGO pedalboard and 2 X 61 keys, draw bars and a million white tabs across the top, and a pull out drawer on left is on Craigslist Akron Ohio for $400! today 5-10-14 I would buy it in a minute as I am only 125 miles from it and saw the ad within 10 minutes of it being listed, but I have a beautiful Hammond X-66 which I just have to say is WERSI enough for me. I do have 10 other organs which cover the gamut even though there are sounds in a WERSI that are all their own. I will kick myself later for not jumping on this deal because I had always wanted a WERSI and this one appears to be a great one! And only $400! I know I am crazy. Oh' well, at least I finally found a Wurlitzer Brass Horn in the case and complete for $80 yesterday a few hours before seeing the WERSI ad. I suppose I was still in ecstasy from getting the Brass Horn. I just hope whoever gets the Akron WERSI posts a video or at least posts images of it to the Organ Forum with some good images and a story to go with who had the organ originally etc. Ugh! Okay, now the video here is playing the WERSI...ugh ugh wa wa wa, I'm already sad:(

[@EasyLivinDGS]

yes, no doubt, the helios, with some registrations, sounds very well.

[@thelibraryofmusiclandria7731]

Wow. The pitch bend is really neat.

[@da959]

WOW! ...and it was available in a kit form? God I would love the chance to put one of those together.

[@williamralph5442]

I can’t imagine the man hours to build the kit.

[@donk4304]

Markus is THE MAN :)

[@gregheiar1001]

now in 2019. I'm trying to get the "C" keys to work on a salvaged Thomas 163. Everything else is working fine, needs tuning, and I've figured that out, but the keys that only go""DUH" are my problem. Any suggestions?

[@EasyLivinDGS]

can you imagine, that i have disassembled a whole wersi saturn. completely.

[@marcbrasse747]

My first real serious experience with soldering electronics was building a Wersi CX5 drumcomputer. It was about the the first one on the market combining (8-bit) samples, MIDI and a pad interface but must have been quite a dud for Wersi. Hardly anybody seems to remember it. Sync via MIDI did not work properly though. It would sync up but now and then swallow some internal sample triggers. Never found out what that was. Just used it standalone. My build did not work right away and I also had to bring it away for one other repair later but overall it has been rock solid. Still is actually although the backup battery should be replaced.

[@markusfuller]

+Marc Brassé The Wersi I had needed constant attention, you had to repair it just to play it then the next day something else went wrong. There is a great musician called John Kyffin who uses Wersi's of every flavour. I have been to his home in wales and it is full of Wersi spectra's & Helios's and speakers & im sure he has the CX5 drum machines. He is a massive fan of Klaus Wunderlich (sadly deceased now) but Klaus was the master of the Wersi's. (I admit that I have 100s of his LPs here.) I love the sounds of the old Wersi's

[@marcbrasse747]

No my CX5 has been a very steady performer. It also was a lot more compact of course so less could go wrong, One of it's best tricks was that you could tune the whole drumset down. Instant Industrial! I also have a confession to make. For me Wunderlich et al was the ultimate in bad taste for many years and the music still does little for me. I am more of a Vangelis, J.M. Jarre, T.D. man. By now I am however actually ALMOST more into organ technology then pure synth stuff. Organists still tend to be real musicians and the ergonomics of the instruments are often far superior.

[@markusfuller]

Yes I agree in a way that Klaus released many many recordings on an industrial scale but it was not until a few years ago that I started to appreciate his instant music. Jarre is my favourite very closely followed by Vangelis.

[@marcbrasse747]

Although I always make sure I avoid simple immitation Vangelis has been a major influence on my own electronic music. Sadly the master himself became very much set in his ways after his London period, But that surely is an entirely different story again. :-)

[@schreibwerkstattchristianm5409]

@@markusfuller ich würde gerne eine Helios kaufen. Von wann bis wann wurde sie gebaut? Welche Baureihen gibt es? Ich finde im Netz leider kaum etwas...

[@marcbrasse747]

Hi Markus, I just got an Elka X-30 from Sinterklaas. It's amazing. A lot of the leds in those typical 80ties rectangular switches do however not work and I cannot find anything about repairing them on the net. Do you have any experience with that sort of stuff?

[@markusfuller]

+Marc Brassé Hi Marc. I do have many strange shaped leds from years ago, some are rectangular. Im not sure if its the switches that you are having the problem with or the leds dont light up ?.

[@bruceedwards8003]

i bult a Wersi Galaxy and its still going strong save it from going to the tip !

[@lanemorrow5513]

Should remove the IC before soldering on that socket.

[@DandyDon1]

This has phenolic or paper pc boards?

[@vintageaudioinstitue]

Hi Markus! Great video and a channel! I'm having a stand-alone, DIY Wersimatic II unit for repair. It's most likely been stripped from an organ, it looks great and have a 12 tone button keyboard for chord control. I have the 3rd and 4th parts of the "construction manual / schematics" but it seems incomplete, and the start/stop function has two wires coming out of it that I don't know where they're supposed to go. Would you happen to have the full Wersimatic schematics, and is the start/stop function in there? Would greatly appreciate it.

[@markusfuller]

Hi I do not have any schematics for that but can i suggest you try and contact the youtuber called organfairy as I think he did something with his wersimatic in one of his videos he is a genius and he might be the person who would possibly have schematics hopefully. I sold the wersi i had many years ago sadly.

[@vintageaudioinstitue]

@@markusfuller Thanks, the Wersimatic II lives!

[@Tonewheeldude]

Im from Sweden!:)I speak German also!

[@krzysztofwitkowski6982]

Lead solder is the best!! UE and RoHS sucks!

[@jimmyok7420]

+Krzysztof Witkowski Here are parts www.ielectronicparts.com/

[@EasyLivinDGS]

yes, wersi is german, i'm too.