i'm redoing my optigan. (move to DIY forum perhaps?)

[imsodasad]

currently i'm fixing up my optigan.
the switches had gone kinda bad and the keys were obnoxious.. so i decided to give it an overhaul.

i've uploaded some pictures to a good friends web-space, and here are some pictures of the beast in the process.
http://myonlineimages.com/public.aspx?memberid=7187

so far i've cleaned off all the gunk of the keys,
cleaned up everything, with a toothbrush and a vaccuum-machine (it seriously had small pine tree branches under the keys!!! - from a christmas decoration??),
made a more efficient and useful grounding-scheme,
cleaned up and redid the rythm-section buttons
and now in the end redoing the whole keyboard.
installing new switches under the keys, so i'm sure i'll get a signal whenever i take a chord, instead of (ie. on an optigan) normally you're lucky if you get all notes


now you may say, this is taking the charm out of an optigan.
but the charm is still all there. believe me. it's just a safe-bet everytime i play it.

i just want to know how to clean off the discs?
i don't want to try with isopropyl-achohol if it ruins the disc.

oh,- and how do you copy the records?
just a trip to kinko's, and get it on some overhead-projector-"paper"?

[tonewoods]

I'm sure you've been here??

[imsodasad]

yeah. but thanks.
the forum and the wesite is just so slow. meaning,- there's nothing going on there.
i guess not a lot of people have optigans anywho...

[the velour fog]

...made a more efficient and useful grounding-scheme...

can you explain what you did? i was planning on adding a 3 prong plug to my 'choptigan', and would love any additional information to help clean up some of the noise.

[jmpizzoferrato]

me friend and i just repaired one that kind of stopped making sound. we ended up going through it and completely fixing everything up. we didnt end up using the website because we decided to just figure it out on our own, and we did, very successfully.

we pulled out all of the rubber/plastic membrane and replaced it with folded up tape for a few of the contacts. we broke out an eraser and cleaned off all of the corosion on the contacts. and one of the wheels that spins to make the record sping wasnt touching the other wheel anymore so we wrapped it in electrical tape to increase the diameter of the wheel ever so slightly. that got us running stable again with ALL chords and keys working!

i think we spend like 7 hours on it!!

[imsodasad]

yeah it's way more fun to try to figure it out on your own. something i've never done before. it's always, how'd you do this? etc.. but not with the optigan.
it's so simple it's stupid.

as for the ground scheme. it's as simple as grounding the keyboard-ground, to the chassis. mine wasn't grounded there for some reason...

my plastic/rubber membrane was all coroded/busted, and i've replaced that as well.
it's goinna be nice to get a "new" optigan.

the only beef i've had, is to "pry" it apart.


does anyone know how many were made?

damn - right now in our house, is an optigan, a talentmaker and a mellotron. and we say we don't own any samplers

[Dave-H]

You need to talk to Mark Rubel at Pogo Studios. He has a couple of these. Sorry Mark!!
Dave Huffman

[Disasteradio]

damn - right now in our house, is an optigan, a talentmaker and a mellotron. and we say we don't own any samplers

awww! big, big envy.. living in NZ I've never seen any of these in the flesh. sigh. you need to start a purely playback keyboard band. heh

[linus]

Congrats.

My optigan has been limping along, barely functioning, for a while now. Half the keys don't work, some of the chord buttons don't work, and the disk spins sometimes and usually not at a consistant speed. Needless to say it doesn't get much use. Thankfully I got it for cheap (but got what I paid for...)

I got a NOS keyboard contact circuitboard and installing it SHOULD take care of the keys.

I have tried to take it apart and end up giving up and scratching my head. I just can't figure out HOW to get it apart without destroying the case. How'd you get it open and how easy did it go back together?

Where are you located?

[imsodasad]

hi

i'm in scandinavia.
but i'm coming the NY in a few months for touring.

i took mine apart by trial and error, basically prying it open,- ie. there's a LOT of screws etc.. that needs to be taken care of, etc.. but at the end it's sorta easy.

it's simple enough, and you can't really screw anything up - well you can break it sure... but it's not wood you know, it's just plastic.. Mattel-made plastic.

i'll take some more pics for you, and hook you up in a day or so (i'm outta my house right now)

what do you need to know?

[linus]

What do I need to know? How do I get the guts out of the case without breaking the case?

I've tried taking out every screw I can find and it STILL won't come apart...

[imsodasad]

take out every screw.
you need to loosen or take out the screws that holds both sides firmly to the "front grill" (ie. where the volume pedal is located too).
there should be 10-12 screws there as well. (they all have bolts too)

loosen them.
and push/gently "hammer" both sides out - like 2-3 inches each side.
then you can see the top white-keyboard is attached with 2 screws in each side.
out with those too..

now you can pull the top white keyboard out.
before that you can even take/yank out the brown/tree-ish looking top out as well.
put it out TOWARDS you. not up. but towards you (when standing behind the optigan).

there. you should have clean look to the basic innard of the THANG!

the metronome/speed indicator is fastened to the the white--keyboard part. just take that out. yank it easily.

as you see it's all about yanking gently and pulling.

[linus]

Thanks. I'll give that a try when I get some free time next week.
I'll keep you posted...

[the velour fog]

as you see it's all about yanking gently and pulling.

and unscrewing a hell of a lot of screws.

[imsodasad]

that's IT !

i'm done.
my optigan know works like a charm. probably better than when it left the factory.