Repair Roland TB-303 Vintage Analog Synthesizer Reparatur Service

19. April 2020

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Repair Roland TB-303 Vintage Analog Synthesizer Reparatur

Roland TB-303 with a strange issue. Sometimes it played normal and then suddendly it mixed octaves and had some other weird pattern that were not programmed that way.

This Roland TB-303 had the MB303 MIDI interface installed, which I find is a great interface. I like that it records the programmed pattern and plays it back the way they were programmed. But why wasn't it working and why there were strange issues?

It was because of some really bad solder work of a previous person. Lifted pads, loose wires, weak or cold solder joints. One wire didn't had contact. I went over the mess, desoldered the socket, re-flowed all suspect solder joints, cleaned up everything, istalled 2 DIN connectors instead of 2 jacks and - voila - she works great and stable again, midi in and out works perfect. I also cleaned the potentiometers, just in case...

There are lethal voltage exposed in electronic devices. Unless you know what you are doing, don’t try this. If you following along, you doing so at your own risk.

I’m documenting repairs for my reference and yours. I do synth restorations and repair with a specialty in vintage synthesizers, drum computer and other vintage gear, based in Düsseldorf, GER. Get in touch about your synth situation!

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