I want an SP 1200 but damn!!

Extra story:
Last night when I replaced the poly caps; after I'd de-soldered all the old caps, I cleaned off the old Rosin residue from the PCB that the last guy had left, and in doing so I nudged the RT4 trim pot.

So, after I'd soldered-in the new polystyrene caps I went to work measuring the IC98 (5534 opamp) pins whilst trimming RT4, RT3 and RT2 as per the service manual.
Whilst probing the 5534 chip with my multimeter I accidentally bridged pins 6 and 7 which made all sound go dead.
I was like.... man!!

Bridging pins 6 and 7 meant I'd sent a voltage into either the 5534 or 4051 chip and one of them was dead.

I went and bought both chips from Maplins today (Texas Instruments) and thankfully it was the socketed 4051 chip that was blown. The 5534 chip is not socketed and would have required some painful de-soldering.

Anywayz... yeah... this post was for all you tech-nerds

Cheers for the happiness slung my way

Do the SP-12 internals look similar to the 1200?





I don't know if it'd be worth attempting to replacing the caps on it?

Yes, the SP12 is very similar.

If you have experience desoldering and soldering, and can already do a decent job, I think it would be worth it.

If you don't have the skills, this sort of gear is really not the place to learn, get some broken PCBs from somewhere else, and practice, before messing with something like this.

tbh Coz, your caps look a lot fatter/bigger than the caps that were in my (and other SP1200's I've seen) SP1200 originally.
They look the same size as the new caps I just added.

Do you actually have hiss issues?

What do they say on them?
The SP1200's said ASC 4700H and I know they were 50V.

This is what the caps look like on my SP1200 main board, look the same as Coz's SP12 photo...

SimonInAustralia wrote:If you have experience desoldering and soldering, and can already do a decent job, I think it would be worth it.

I spent a few years doing a lot of soldering in an old job I used to have. Should be easy enough to pick back up.

I still need to get the LCD replaced with one of these bright ones you see on ebay. Mine's shagged. I haven't seen any decent instructions on how to do it though, other than shabby looking photos. It's a bit of a nightmare being colour blind with this sort of thing.

@Simon Yeah.. Different to the caps I originally had in.

jimmie wrote:Do you actually have hiss issues?

Not really, although I'm forever sampling in with super sped up samples and pitching them down so it's hard to tell exactly.

I know the previous owner took great care of it and had it serviced prior to the sale, so maybe they have already been changed.

I'll check what's written on the caps next time I crack it open.

Cheers.

Because OCD...

Coz wrote:Do the SP-12 internals look similar to the 1200?

Late run NOS SP1200 mainboard, with Emu opamp daughterboard replacement for SSM filter chips...






Side by side, as Jimmie said, the audio output caps in the SP12 do look larger.

Capacitors dry out over the years, standard service procedure in lots of old gear is to replace power supply and output caps, though this can cause problems with other parts of the circuitry if it has gotten used to running with out of spec caps.

For my SP heads.

Coz wrote:Clint's not daft. He wouldn't sell something like that through his regular account.

He has however got his SP-12 for sale at a massively inflated price! It must be the drive and sound library I gave him that's adding value!

Whats the going price for a decent condition Sp Turbo with drive?

You are looking at 900$ to a G more less.

InspectaMorze wrote:Whats the going price for a decent condition Sp Turbo with drive?

Pluck any figure out of the air and there's your answer. There's so few of them about in the UK that people can charge what they want.

Coz wrote:

InspectaMorze wrote:Whats the going price for a decent condition Sp Turbo with drive?

Pluck any figure out of the air and there's your answer. There's so few of them about in the UK that people can charge what they want.

Then how come I can't find one for a ton?

acronym wrote:Then how come I can't find one for a ton?

If I win the lottery I'll be putting mine up as a beat battle prize, so get sharpening your skills just in case.