wobbly master pot - oh no

[queglay]

hey everyone! this is my first post.

i just picked up a virus c from ebay. the master volume pot on it is wobbly and feels like its about to break off!

the seller forgot to mention this to me. either that or he packed it unsuitably.

there is a sticker on the back preventing me from opening it up to check what kind of physical damage there is. i know that this thing wont have any kind of warranty on it anyway, so is there any other reason i shouldn't take the sticker off and open it up?
im hoing i can fasten the pot down more securely and prevent it from getting worse.

cheers for any help!

[Timo]

Hiya Queg, I had the [same scenario], bought a Virus Indigo second hand and found two of the knobs were wobbly when I received it.

I took a few photos. Here's a close-up of one of the Virus pots:-

[Pot]

The part that is actually wobbly isn't the spindle itself, but the metal part surrounding the spindle that fixes the spindle to the base of the pot. I've highlighted it with a dotted line:-

[Loose bit]

The only way to fix it is to physically replace the pots.

You can get the pots here (from Access-Music's hardware depot):

http://www.synthesizerservice.de/index.php?lang=en

Very polite and helpful guys. Send them an email, and if you want to do the repair work yourself also ask for pictures of the process corresponding to dismantling the Virus C (to get to the main PCB) as it can seem a little complex. The pics they sent me were for the Indigo (which, if anyone's interested, are here: [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], followed by more photos of my own [here]), so the process would be a little different. Yours should be much easier to get into to do, as you have no keybed to remove before getting to the main PCB.

Below shows the underside of the (Indigo's) main PCB, I've highlighted one of the potentiometer's "footprints". It's a six-legged pot.

[Pot footprint]

Lastly, if the warranty has expired, then I guess the sticker on the back of the Virus serves no purpose.

Of course if you don't wish to do it yourself, get a trained technician or the synthesiser service guys at Access' hardware/repair depot to do it for you.

Hope this helps.

[edit: updated with links to photos]

[queglay]

thanks so much for the detailed and helpful response! to be honest im not sure if the warranty has expired, but i'm just assuming so, as the warranty would probably only be a year.

[Gary_Munday]

Hi,

Bad to hear about the bother your having with the pot/knobs. It's mostly likely self explanatory due to wear and weakening of the knob&components. You want to get that fixed as soon as really, because eventually bits and pieces could break off and go inside the unit. Then your in real bother.
A couple of things to prolong pots (also self explanatory)- just go easy on them. It's so easy to get carried away with an aggressive sound and tweak the hell out of them - but really, you want to tweak adequately, but carefully. My guess is - the person you got it from was having problems with volume and just had a bad 5 minutes.

Probably one of my only pet hates about modern VA's is their 'occasional' weak feel in design. Take an old classic, and the interface & pots are going nowhere most of the time. Hope you get it fixed.

[queglay]

ive got a pot in the mail so hopefully a bit of soldering and ill be on my way.

[Gary_Munday]

Bit naff that there's a large risk of damaged products through ebay though? Still, there's a risk.......it happens anywhere
Good luck with the repair

[queglay]

yeah. i wasn't impressed with the seller. he said the volume knob moves a bit more freely than the others. what he should have said was it is about to break off. he's gonna give me a bad review as a buyer when im done, but good riddence to him. hey if you have bad feedback as a buyer, does it affect your feedback as a seller?

[Gary_Munday]

I'm not sure. I've never got any of my gear from ebay, but honesty should be a definite clause of conduct--therefore it's bad that your having this trouble. If nothing goes to plan, could you not take it to a local electrical repair store?

[queglay]

yeah i could, but im pretty confident i could do it myself.

[Gary_Munday]

Cool......would save ££ as well!