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Old and troubled mixer with no love and care

M

Monolord

New Member
Hi,

I just received an old mixer from the eighties that has been stored away in a basement for more than 20 years.
It was stored in a flight case and all the pots and faders are "glued" and wont move at all. Of corse I dont use much strength to try to move them since that would totally damage them.

I was wondering if anyone here knows if this is possible to fix or not. The mixer is off a rather unknown brand made in England called Studiomaster Series 3. It is aimed for the studio market and has a warm and nice EQ and a lot of cool routing, matrix options that is rare for an analog mixer in this price range. So I really want this mixer back in the game.

I guess when its been stored for this long a good old spray DeoxIT Fader wont be helping me?

I would appreciate if anyone could share some suggestions on how to, if at all possible fix these pots and faders.

Thanx!
 
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I've never experienced something like this, but I suspect that if you force them it will peel the carbon off the faders and ruin them. You'll probably need to find something that will dissolve the oxidation between the fader and the wiper.
 
Well, I would take the back panel off and get at one of the faders. The nice thing about it being old is that it should be relatively serviceable. Clean one up with whatever you'd like to use, and set it up to run some audio thru it and see if it survived. (If it's scratchy, check for DC on the signal.)

They seem to have a little following. Here's a link to schematics and discussion...

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/so-much-gear-so-little-time/81563-80s-studiomaster-console.html
 
Probably comments and reviews from professional users. I've only used Neve consoles a few times, but have no problem giving a positive recommendation of their sound.
 
Chip Chester said:
Well, I would take the back panel off and get at one of the faders. The nice thing about it being old is that it should be relatively serviceable. Clean one up with whatever you'd like to use, and set it up to run some audio thru it and see if it survived. (If it's scratchy, check for DC on the signal.)

They seem to have a little following. Here's a link to schematics and discussion...

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/so-much-gear-so-little-time/81563-80s-studiomaster-console.html
Click to expand...

Any specific type of appliances you could recommend for starters?
 
fill35u said:
How do you know if the EQ is "warm" or "nice" if you can't budge the controls?
Click to expand...
Sorry I was leaving out that part! I used to own this console. I bought it from my teacher at the sound school back in 99- 2k. I used it just a few years until I had to move and had no place for it. I gave it to a friend and after a while he store it away in his basement. I just didn’t find it that relevant to post, but don’t wanna appear like an idiot so that’s that ;) The eq is warm and have more dB boost than usual in this price range. It’s been a long time since I’ve used it, so my thoughts today of the sound might differ from back then. I can’t wait to to fire up this bad boy and get hopefully blown away by the analog warmth. I’m especially excited to see if it works good with bass recordings for that extra grit and filth. And stereo mixdown will be something that can be useful to give some character to my digital recordings.
 
Appliances? Not sure -- toaster maybe?

I'd try some LPS contact cleaner first to see if that frees things up a bit. Avoid WD-40, in my book. DeOxit once it starts to move.

If it was used around smokers, try Simple Green. Don't force things, let it soak a bit. See if it's possible to disassemble a fader and eyeball it. Easy with cheap ones, not so much with P&G-level. Post a pic or two of the innards...
 
I would think the shafts are the stuck part.
Pull the knobs and put a drip of PB blaster on each one.
 
probably the shafts on the pots . try a drop of 3 in one or similar . and maybe get the hair drier out and warm them gently .
my mixers do the same if i leave them idle too long . i just squirt mine with servisol super 10 and gently get them moving again . the pots can take a bit of force to get them free .
 
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