Restoration Night

Okay, the courier just delivered my new 2KXL and it's not quite the mint specimen the seller claimed, though it's not too bad. I've got a 2K classic back at home so my plan tonight is to take the two apart and move everything that's a little wonky from the XL to the classic. That's chiefly the down cursor, which is tough to trigger (and I'm hoping the button is the problem rather than the switch) and the front plastic which has a couple of scratches. The pads need a good clean but they all respond in Track Mute and feel nicely played-in... I can't check the actual sampling here at work. Got an 8-out and a card reader shipping to me too, so this month's project is to clean this unit up and get it ready for action.

I mention all this mainly so you can prepare yourselves for my assault on the swear filters in a few hours' time. I might take some photos for your amusement, but bear in mind that by the time I post a shot of me cleaning the circuitboard with Brasso it'll be too late to stop me.

i thought the 2kxl and 2k are not swapable..hence classic and xl is the upgraded model of the classic, you cant swap sounds from both.

No, it'll be buttons and such I'm swapping, not electronics. I've done it before and by golly I'll do it again. The cursors from the classic onto the XL, for example. I think the only thing I can't bring across in that way would be the wheel, and of course stuff that the classic doesn't have like the pad bank buttons.

One the baby's asleep it's GO TIME.

If it's the switches, do yourself a favor and buy new tact switches instead of swapping them from the other MPC. Trust me on this.

Most electronics dealers online have them in stock, though you can go the eBay route and get them there too. There's a link in the MPC60/3000 Bible that has the part number you need...

Ah right, this is interesting. I was only talking about the plastic buttons, but you're presumably talking about the actual physical switches they interact with? I just finished putting both units back together and I do see to have a problem with the down cursor and one of the function keys, which require a lot of pressure to activate even though the plastic buttons are fine. So I guess the switches are the problem. I wasn't planning on swapping those over as I assume they're soldered on - I was just looking out for cracked or weakened buttons. But I might have to look into this now, so thanks for the heads-up.

Apart from that the worst problem I had was the amount of filth that had built up around the base of the buttons, that took some determined cleaning. Going to set it all up in a minute and give it a whirl...

I actually had a post up on restoring a really **** up 2kxl, check it: http://www.beatstatus.com/2009/05/akai-mpc-2000-xl-rehab-pt-2/


But for real, don't get addicted to fixing it! That's what I did, now I don't even make beats I just want to play with the machine, lol.