Restoring a Soviet-era analog synthesizer
1–10 of 46 posts
Re: Restoring a Soviet-era analog synthesizer
#2I'd call this a servicing more than a restoration. The thing looks incredibly well built with an eye towards serviceability over ease of assembly - pretty much exactly what I would expect for a Soviet built appliance.
Re: Restoring a Soviet-era analog synthesizer
#3That's a great piece of work - it's wonderful to know that old electronics are being cared for.
If you're curious to see one in action - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlP5hdPVB18
Re: Restoring a Soviet-era analog synthesizer
#4Here's the Alisa 1387 album it mentions at the beginning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K9g0Kmznxc
Re: Restoring a Soviet-era analog synthesizer
#5I'd call this a servicing more than a restoration. The thing looks incredibly well built with an eye towards serviceability over ease of assembly - pretty much exactly what I would expect for a Soviet built appliance.
There was plenty of awful Soviet tech, too - this thing has survived because it had some value, was well built and taken care of but you don't hear about the thousands of pieces of tech that were shoddily made cheap crap (though expensive for a Soviet citizen) and wouldn't last a year without repairs.
Soviet tech had to be built for serviceability - people couldn't often afford new things and even if they had the money, there was no guarantee it was even available. And many things just broke down constantly. It even went so far that "a set of golden hands," meaning one could fix a lot of stuff was a valued characteristic in males, and women sometimes may have overlooked other personality flaws in a relationship because of it, like drinking.
My grandma had a Soviet TV well into the 90s and even early 2000s, maybe out of sentimental attachment more than anything else. The thing broke down constantly, every 3-4 months at least, and she'd always call a repairman. In the end I think more money was sunk into it than a brand new 4K TV would cost now. It was finally laid to rest when her usual TV repairman died, and the new one found it increasingly difficult to find replacement parts, and finally gave up, and we could at last get her a new TV.
Re: Restoring a Soviet-era analog synthesizer
#6I'd call this a servicing more than a restoration. The thing looks incredibly well built with an eye towards serviceability over ease of assembly - pretty much exactly what I would expect for a Soviet built appliance.
There was plenty of awful Soviet tech, too - this thing has survived because it had some value, was well built and taken care of but you don't hear about the thousands of pieces of tech that were shoddily made cheap crap (though expensive for a Soviet citizen) and wouldn't last a year without repairs. Soviet tech had to be built for serviceability - people couldn't often afford new things and even if they had the mon…
>Soviet tech had to be built for serviceability
also there were significant sharing of tech between military industry and consumer (one can say that in many areas the consumer one was just a minor branch off the main military industry, kind of a USSR version of COTS). TVs and control boards of cruise missiles used the same electronic parts and were built using the same skills/processes - the consumer parts (like transistors, etc) were just the ones that didn't make the higher quality military bin (the military binned parts were marked "VPK" - "Voennaya Priemnaya Komissiya"/"military quality check", and these ones you'd prefer to use in your own electronic projects when/if you could get them).
Re: Restoring a Soviet-era analog synthesizer
#7Nice pictures, wouldn't have said anything, but your commentary was practically unreadable crap. You're trying far too hard. Get rid of all references, cringeworthy grammar, exclamations and do it in straight documentary style (which is what it should be) and it'll be informative and interesting.
Re: Restoring a Soviet-era analog synthesizer
#8I'd call this a servicing more than a restoration. The thing looks incredibly well built with an eye towards serviceability over ease of assembly - pretty much exactly what I would expect for a Soviet built appliance.
There was plenty of awful Soviet tech, too - this thing has survived because it had some value, was well built and taken care of but you don't hear about the thousands of pieces of tech that were shoddily made cheap crap (though expensive for a Soviet citizen) and wouldn't last a year without repairs. Soviet tech had to be built for serviceability - people couldn't often afford new things and even if they had the mon…
To make a counterexample, my grandmother had a Zil refrigerator she bought in the 1950's (http://i.imgur.com/POw7U6R.jpg) that worked for over 50 years until the late 2000's. It would have probably worked another 50, if we hadn't changed it for a modern larger and more energy efficient one.
Re: Restoring a Soviet-era analog synthesizer
#9Yeah, that's where Open Source was born - in USSR.
I do remember that each consumer device was sold there with its schematics, assembly/disassembly and installation instructions. And that was the law.
Re: Restoring a Soviet-era analog synthesizer
#10I'd call this a servicing more than a restoration. The thing looks incredibly well built with an eye towards serviceability over ease of assembly - pretty much exactly what I would expect for a Soviet built appliance.
There was plenty of awful Soviet tech, too - this thing has survived because it had some value, was well built and taken care of but you don't hear about the thousands of pieces of tech that were shoddily made cheap crap (though expensive for a Soviet citizen) and wouldn't last a year without repairs. Soviet tech had to be built for serviceability - people couldn't often afford new things and even if they had the mon…
I think that building for serviceability would be better than the planned obsolescence with the latest fad included (washing machines with touchscreens). That doesn't necessarily mean poor quality, even if it sometimes did in the Soviet Union.