Perhaps your "broken" NV slider just needs a cleaning!

I thought my Note Variation slider was totally **** until I really looked at it. The thing didn't work when I first bought my MPC (used) and then the MPC slid off my rack in an unfortunate accident and it broke even more. It got to where the whole slider knob was all wobbly to the sides and (of course) still didn't work. I decided that since it wouldn't be a lot of soldering and was on a fairly accessible board inside the machine, I'd just replace it myself. In the process, after I opened the machine, I noticed that it wasn't cracked off the board like I thought it was from all the wobbling; just the metal cover that holds the whole mechanism was bent out of shape from the fall. I decided to try to fix it without desoldering everything, and found out it's about the easiest fix I've ever seen on an MPC (short of installing a zip drive, but there's really nothing to that)....

I pried the "legs" apart that held the metal plate onto the base of the slider and took it off. Lo and behold, the whole assembly was dirty as all hell....I first took alcohol swabs to the traces inside the slider and cleaned them up really well (it took 4 swabs, 3 of them nearly black with gunk, and only the third one really getting everything clean) and then looked at the actual "slider" piece itself. It's the most simple design in the world! Just a few little spring-contacts that make contact with the contacts inside the slider body (you'll understand if you look). I noticed these were bent all up, so I just took a tiny jeweler's screwdriver and bent everything back into place neatly, and removed all the carbon-looking crap that was packed between the contacts. Put it back together, securely re-attached the metal top of the slider body, and everything works PERFECTLY now. Not $1 in parts, and it's fixed....before you send your MPC off for repair for this, give it a look....no point blowing gear money on something you can do yourself in 15 minutes (if that's all that's wrong with yours). Just lookin' out for all the brokeass producers like myself out there....

(No doubt mpc3000 is chuckling going....."jackass".......heheheheh)

Peace,

MANiK

My slider didn't work either, I never used it for anything but trimming samples which I do in the pc now but I was in the process of paintin' my MPC again so I figured I'd try to fix it using the above method.

It worked!

WARNING!!! If you aren't comfortable prying at parts on your MPC then do not attempt to do this, one lil' slip and you can and probably will break somethin'.

Good lookin' out MANiK.


EDIT: About 1 hour after doing this the slider was acting kind of funny(it was responding but it was jumping a lil' without being moved) so I took it apart again and adjusted the contacts again. This made all the difference, the slider also felt much more solid after this and works perfectly now. Just thought ya'll should know that the adjustment of the contacts is probably the most important step in this process, careful not to bend them too far though.

Right on! I was hoping this thread would help SOMEONE out....with all the zillions of pieces of gear I wanna buy, every dollar counts. Nothing like getting something for free, huh?

how do u pry it apart? I have disassembled my mpc a few times but I never tried to take out the fader coz its solidly attached to the board. I didnt wanna **** it up so I just left it alone but now that I read this, I might just try and fix it. Let me know how you took out the fader.

I am very interested in trying this too. Mines has never worked. I just don't wanna f*ck it up.
I wanted to use it like a pitch bend but I heard it doesn't work that way

it does. u can use it with tuning and do that.

mkbaproductions wrote:how do u pry it apart? I have disassembled my mpc a few times but I never tried to take out the fader coz its solidly attached to the board. I didnt wanna **** it up so I just left it alone but now that I read this, I might just try and fix it. Let me know how you took out the fader.

I didn't really take out the fader, per se....if you look at it closely, you'll see it has a metal cover over the body of the whole fader assembly. If you take a really small screwdriver, you can pry the legs of the metal piece to the sides a bit to where the metal cap just pops right off. Just don't bend them too far or slip with the screwdriver....way too easy to break a piece OTHER than the fader if you do slip. Then do the repair (if this is what's broken on yours) and put the metal cap back on. Finally, take the screwdriver and bend the little legs (or tabs, or whatever you want to call them) back underneath the base of the fader. Make sure you get them bent back TIGHT. Then, before you reassemble everything, turn it on and have a go at it. If everything works right (and it may take a couple of little tweaks to the slider itself or to the legs of the metal cap to get it right), put it all back together, and voila....just saved $70+ dollars over taking it to a shop. Let me know if this isn't clear and I can post some pictures of what I'm talking about.

Peace,

MANiK

Yes, please post some pics

got it!!! I tried but I just cant pry the **** metals! Ill try next time when my finger heals from a stab wound!

mine has never worked either. just tell me how you accessed it. i know yall are going to laugh at me for askingg this but, do you get to it from the bottom of the mpc where the memory is or the top part where all your bottons are?

Top part.

There are 4 tabs on each side, the metal part is what you're trying to get off, not the white plastic part. Also, the smallest srewdriver I had(it's tiny) wasn't small enough to get in there, I had to use a tool with a really sharp point (looked more like a shank than a tool)

Here's a pic:

Thanks for posting the pic, cooocooo.....I was going to do it when I got home from work, but you just saved me the trouble. Nice lookin' out!

MANiK

thanks cooocooo1.

cooocooo1 wrote:My slider didn't work either, I never used it for anything but trimming samples which I do in the pc now but I was in the process of paintin' my MPC again so I figured I'd try to fix it using the above method.

It worked!

WARNING!!! If you aren't comfortable prying at parts on your MPC then do not attempt to do this, one lil' slip and you can and probably will break somethin'.

Good lookin' out MANiK.


EDIT: About 1 hour after doing this the slider was acting kind of funny(it was responding but it was jumping a lil' without being moved) so I took it apart again and adjusted the contacts again. This made all the difference, the slider also felt much more solid after this and works perfectly now. Just thought ya'll should know that the adjustment of the contacts is probably the most important step in this process, careful not to bend them too far though.

U trim with the slider??? how do u do that?

In the TRIM screen cursor to the start or end time and hold SHIFT and move the slider.