Synthchaser

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In this installment of my Prophet 5 restoration video series we recap the remaining circuit boards of the synthesizer. I show you how to test and replace the battery, clean the switches, and clean and replace the potentiometers.
My desoldering tool: amzn.to/3PikaEf
Soldering station: amzn.to/3rudVF4
Smoke absorbing fan: amzn.to/3LvjTfM
Parts, service and synthesizers available on my website. I buy broken synthesizers!

[@Bananskuden]

I followed the instructions and did the cleaning -- and it helped a lot! Thanks!

[@neilbarbu]

Sam at Syntaur sells newly made shafts, I haven’t had any chance to test them but I have a Prophet 600 that has a broken shaft. It will be replaced when I have time to get into properly restore it. I’ll be getting your power supply kit.

[@Jonathan01ukk]

Excellent, was waiting for another episode.

[@AndreasHagelberg]

Aww, cliffhanger! I wanted to see if it powered on. Oh, well, I'll just have to wait for the next video.

[@IanoBrienismusic]

Excellent series! I wish I could do this in fast forward, like you do in the videos lol. Do you have any plans to do a minimoog restoration series? Precious little info on the web, your videos are *easily* the best how-to's out there :) thanks!

[@Synthchaser]

Thanks! Next time I get my hands on a Minimoog I'll shoot some video. It's one of the few synths that I don't have right now.

[@njalpaulsberg8091]

Amazing videos, incredibly helpful! I noticed that you do not lube the potmeters after cleaning them. Any thoughts on that?

[@paulorders]

Great video series! When I restored by P5 a few years ago, I just replaced the tants in the PSU and on the power rails. I was under the impression that that tants in the audio chain posed little risk. Do you think it's worthwhile I go back to replace those on board 4 as well?

[@anjc9942]

What cleaners do your recommend for cleaning the pots?

[@darrellhamilton3546]

The pot nuts on my P5 were so rusted they physically turned the body and separated the foil strips from the PC board. If you P5 is old and neglected it may be wise to put some penetrating oil (e.g. Liquid Wrench, PB Blaster,etc.) on the nut and waiting for penetration before removing the nuts.

[@herrbonk3635]

Why do you remove all these tantal electrolytes without even checking whether they are faulty or not?

[@oliviertalouarn6258]

What a gift ... one day after my anniversary, and THE vidéo series to restore my Rev3, i juste repulsed a few days ago ... still working but quite unstable. Was in its fly case for too long. Big dealing is needed Will by you parts ... my PSU is ... original one ... Do you plan a vidéo for calibration or VCO not tuning ? This i my main issue. But anyway a great thanks for those helpful videos.

[@Synthchaser]

Yes, I will be posting videos of the calibration and the keybed restoration, as well as videos to repair whatever is broken with the synth.

[@oliviertalouarn6258]

Great. Thank you. My rev3 will love it.

[@ingoodmusic]

Changing capacitors anyhow reflects on sounding?

[@seansweeney3532]

I've been working on one of these for a while. aren't there a MESS of little 1mf or pf caps in the middle of all the rows of chips... did you replace all of those, non polarized tantalum originals?

[@Synthchaser]

I think you may be talking about the little ceramic capacitors. There's no need to replace those, they rarely fail.

[@seansweeney3532]

@@Synthchaser thank you. I started this year's ago... for some reason I was told to change them out. They sit between the banks of chips on any of the boards... probably the most numerous of all, rather tiny things... I got small blue non polarized tantalum ones... yeesh... that was a lot of work. I wish I had waited a bit longer. Your video helped a lot, though. I pulled nearly all the cmos chips as well, as that was recommended to me for full restoration... I think I was getting info from some dubious sources!! Lol

[@seansweeney3532]

@@Synthchaser tyttttttttttti 0uuu6

[@ericjwesselink]

at 10:25 what is the white capacitor? This is the one that has exploded on me and needs replacing. Do you know what is and possibly what it controls on the keyboard?

[@Synthchaser]

It's the battery for saving the presets.

[@Sonikbytes]

can you replace tantalum caps with electrolytics? what is the difference?

[@Synthchaser]

Yes, you can. I pay attention to the use of the capacitor (audio decoupling vs power rail bypass) and select the best electrolytic for the application. If you notice on one of the boards I even replaced the tantalum with an MLCC which is a better choice. There will be no difference to the sound, but the new ones are much less sensitive to transient voltage spikes than the tantalums.

[@Gabriel.A.L.]

there are new pots on ebay from germany for 14.- euros.

[@daveogarf]

If this is "Part 3", what happened to "Part 2"? What did we miss?

[@Synthchaser]

Power supply was part 2 - "Synthchaser #065"

[@daveogarf]

Oh, ok. Didn't miss anything then. Thank you.

[@jovinl283]

funny that the rev4 looks way more empty than this hahaha