Korg M1 repair (DONE)

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » Sun Jul 03, 2016 9:12 pm

Lately I've been keeping an eye out for an old synth to mess about on. The Mrs likes noodling around on keys too and wants to learn so I was looking to get hold of an old synth workstation similar to the the old Roland D50 i used to have. There was a Korg M1 for sale locally for Â£140 that I had a go on with an intention to do a trade or something. The seller hadn't had it plugged in for years so the internal battery was dead, meaning the stock sounds have gone and 2 of the keys were borked (one catching the 2 next to it and one sticking down when struck). After a quick investigate into how much it would cost to get it fixed the seller offered it to me as-is for Â£20. I figured that's go to be worth a punt. It also came with a stand that would have cost more than that on its own. It also came with 2 sounds/memory cards.

So that's tomorrow afternoon sorted. I'm going to take this to bits and give it a good clean and see if the keys can be repaired or need replaced. Does anyone have any experience with repairing these?

Any info would be appreciated.

NickS · Post by **NickS** » Mon Jul 04, 2016 8:32 am

I have a few files & links from when I had custody of one... looks like geocities died, so tlittle72's reference site has died or moved unless it's on t'internet archive
voicecrystal.com is still around but with their M1 RAM cards at $89... erk. Korg_restore.pdf tells you how to back up/restore
Good resource: http://www.korgcanada.com/fr/support/downloads_page.asp has factory dump to restore etc.

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » Mon Jul 04, 2016 9:04 am

Nice one! Thanks

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » Mon Jul 04, 2016 9:37 am

I've ordered a usb-midi cable to restore this. I'm also looking into how to write to the cards since this came with 2. I'm hoping I can essentially load some specific sounds onto the card and cherry pick from the available sounds.

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » Mon Jul 04, 2016 5:46 pm

Well I manage to fix this today. Now I just need to wait for the USB-Midi cable to arrive tomorrow to get the stock sounds back on. One of the cards with it (MPC11 Akira) works and the other one is dead, so at least I can faff around with that.

I had to dismantle the whole thing to get the keybed out. 3 of the keys were broken but I managed to glue them back together, along with some extra support to prevent them breaking again.

I'm pretty chuffed since I've never seen the inside of a synth before nevermind attempting a fix.

NickS · Post by **NickS** » Mon Jul 04, 2016 8:53 pm

Well done that man! When I was looking at buying one (or the 01W) there were loads of people breaking them for spares and asking Â£3 - Â£5 per key.

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » Mon Jul 04, 2016 11:17 pm

Yeah I'm ordering some off eBay they're super cheap. I kinda just wanted to see if I could fix it.

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Tue Jul 05, 2016 11:39 am

Â£20? You're a jammy bastard!

lorez · Post by **lorez** » Tue Jul 05, 2016 9:40 pm

stewart wrote:Â£20? You're a jammy bastard!

That's a brilliant price, I saw one in a local shop for Â£180 and was tempted

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » Wed Jul 06, 2016 4:09 pm

Extra bonus, I gave the other sound card that came with it a good clean and it's working too now. I also picked up 3 replacement keys off eBay for under a tenner just on the off chance the ones I've repaired don't hold.

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » Wed Jul 06, 2016 7:29 pm

Factory sounds now reinstalled too. Project done!!

NickS · Post by **NickS** » Wed Jul 06, 2016 10:14 pm

Brilliant!

BearBoy · Post by **BearBoy** » Wed Jul 06, 2016 10:18 pm

Good work sir.