The doomed JEN Brio-61 organ - a video about IC failure and a drum machine demo

[@LittleRichard1988]

The drum machine is worth saving, you could actually cut the rhythm section controls out of the front panel and use that as a base to build a wooden box for the drum machine.

[@organfairy]

I have thought about it. If I build a case for the drum machine I might as well save as much from the original configuration as possible.

[@wallpurgesnight8209]

​@@organfairyI second this idea. The drums sound good & worth saving...

[@timothyverbist5795]

Happy new year Flemming!

[@ResonantBytes]

Oh, please don't use Kontakt 60 on electronics, at least not without thoroughly cleaning everything afterwards. It'll work great for a short while, but it'll corrode the hell out of everything it touches if it isn't removed completely. In my career as a repair technician I've seen too many pots, sliders and even PCBs destroyed by it when a simple cleaner would have done the trick. You can use Kontakt 601 (Reiniger), Teslanol, Deoxit or even WD-40 and probably more completely safely without running the risk of corrosion. Reichelt seems to have a knock-off version of Kontakt 601, which is much cheaper, but which I haven't tried yet. But please stop using Kontakt 60 or other corrosive contact sprays. Don't get me wrong please. I love what you do. I just found your channel and subscribed after the first few minutes. Cheers! :)

[@organfairy]

WD-40? At my former workplace we had a major pile of customer complaints about a product that stopped working after a while. It turned out that the Chinese production facility had used WD-40 to lubricate a switch without asking us if it was OK. After a while everything stuck together inside the switch and nothing worked.

[@ResonantBytes]

@@organfairy Totally agreed, WD-40 isn't a lubricant and far from my preferred choice here. But it's a good solvent and absolutely non-corrosive, so I'd still prefer it leaps and bounds over Kontakt 60 to clean electronic components.

[@ResonantBytes]

@@organfairy If in doubt use Kontakt 601, Teslanol or Deoxit. Or better get all of them and build experience which works best for what.

[@andy_0065]

Hi Flemming, auch von mir ein frohes neues Jahr. Bin mal gespannt wie die Orgel ingesamt klingt, also Sound, Bass, Rhytmus etc. Vielleicht ist ja alles zusammen doch ein Supersound. Ich lasse mich überraschen. Die Drums kommen mir irgendwie bekannt vor. George MacRae ,Rock You Baby‘? 🤷‍♀️ Was für ein Video 🍀 Gruß aus Deutschland, Andy.

[@organfairy]

Thanks, and a Happy New Year to you too. Judging from how the organ is made, it is nothing special - just the standard late 1970's home organ sound, with the exception that it only has one manual and no pedals, so it can only play with one set of sounds at a time, or automatic accompaniment and a set of sounds for the melody.

[@marcbrasse747]

So the owners were actually experts! Well you can’t save them all. The drums are surprisingly hum free though. My very first synthesizer is the JEN SX1000. A great little machine. I still own and use it.

[@tinfoilcat]

I think the M108 was so integrated that there was magazine articles about building your own organ around it. Not much to add on to make a basic organ. Nice try to save it. One good thing is that even broken machines like this provice parts for DIY if you are so inclined. Decent switches, keybed, speaker... Did you harvest anything? The drum machine sounds nice in it's own way.

[@organfairy]

Yes, I took the drum machine out as a unit, so it will possibly be used as it is. But I show the take-apart-process in my next video. So stay tuned, as they would say many years ago.

[@KiR_3d]

These pearl shaded style switches looks amazing! Not in favor of the big synth makers nowadays.

[@organfairy]

It was sort of a specialty for Jen organs. It was mostly an American thing; Lowrey, Wurlitzer, and some others used that particular "marble" type of plastic.

[@auronoxe]

@@organfairy I like those marbled switches, too. Also Viscount used them on some of their bigger, later analog organs.

[@BadChizzle]

It’s a just a shame cleaning and reseating the frequency chip didn’t save the day. Thanks for the video. Hope you’re doing well!

[@organfairy]

Well, you win some and you loose some. I was lucky with the Wersi Comet and I drew a blank on the Jen Brio - or actually I gained some materials for making new instruments. I have plans with the five-octave keyboard.

[@graemezimmer604]

I see a few m108b1 ICs on the web for ~ 25.95 €. Maybe not worth fixing?

[@organfairy]

I decided it was not worth it. It was quite damaged by spending many years in a damp loft and had a somewhat rotten smell, so I thought that no matter what I did to save it, it would still be a miseable old piece of damp smelling plywood.

[@timothyverbist5795]

@@organfairy That's too bad, i rather want the whole organ working.

[@timothyverbist5795]

7:42 I'm sure you can ge thte keys working.

[@Firing_Order]

Whats that exact tone generator ic again? I might have one kicking around from an old Bontempi i tore down years ago

[@KiR_3d]

As the qualified "organ elf" you can put your own organ synthesizer inside this :)

[@organfairy]

There is a five octave keyboard that I will probably use for something synth-related. It's not very often you see such a long keyboard on an old home organ.

[@marcbrasse747]

Excellent idea. Except the smell that is. 😁

[@timothyverbist5795]

Maybe you can try to fix this organ so it can play with charm again.

[@StarfieldBound]

The music audio quality is very good. Is this a multitrack recording?

[@organfairy]

Yes, the Yamaha MC-200 I used cannot do all those layers at the same time.

[@wallpurgesnight8209]

So there is no possibility to find a replacement IC ???

[@organfairy]

It is possible - as another commenter pointed out, but the thing is that they have not been produced for many years, so everything you can get is 'New Old Stock' or ICs that has been pulled from scrapped instruments. You don't really know what you get, and since the Jen organ is just a simple, and frankly not very desirable, instrument, I decided not to go further in my repair attempts.

[@CBABN]

I know it's wierd to reach out to you in this way but could I possibly sell you an really old farfisa vip 600?

[@lameturtle1170]

I almost never comment on videos or engage in any way and I'm sure you are an amazing person but this is such a bad video. Everything shown and given as advice is plain wrong, this is not the way to clean pcbs, yes it will get worse by appyling tap water and then letting things corrode, no you do not turn trimpots to "clean" them with contact cleaner.. how are you supposed to put them back in the correct position ? Service manual ? Full calibratiion ? You skip obvious problems, like those pink matshuhita capacitors, most probably not a signle IC is bad on the organ and the JEN is totally fixable.

[@organfairy]

Is it something you actually know something about, or are you one of those people who attacks any tech repair video where they don't replace any capacitors? If you actually know something, then why don't you tell us what YOU would have done instead of telling me what I shouldn't have done?

[@oneandonlyreinhard]

@@organfairy hey man your great with your videos doing a great job !!! can you help me out I have a nerve centre 10 from an organ donor and don't know how much voltage it needs thanx in advance ....greetz Reinhard

[@organfairy]

@@oneandonlyreinhard I don't know about the Nerve Centre 10, but I have a Nerve Centre 15 that came from an old Crumar organ. It runs on 15Volt.