Hello Chaps,
Jon, Basically, I stripped the desk completely, and cleaned everything !!,
I had to. The desk had been in storage for nearly three years, the chassis was stored in the old coal exchange cellars, and the modules were stored at monnow valley. when monnow valley had changed ownership, the trident was pretty much fxxked. over time, the previous owner of monnow valleycouldn't keep up with the upkeep and service of the desk, and slowly got himself into the downward spiral. At the end of his time at monnow valley, he was even offering discounts to bands , just because the desk would break down ! its sad really, because the old girl just needed some t.l.c.
Anyway, a SSL G+ got put into monnow valley, when my friend got asked to take over the running of the studio, and the Trident got slung into some boxes.(under the impression that it would be never used again. - Funky Junk in London, didn't really want it, saying that only collectors would buy it etc,etc)
Two and a half years later, my friend had the opportunity to buy Famous studio's in Cardiff, hence me being asked to sort out the TSM.
Needles to say, I jumped at the chance ! My first reall biggie, outside of work, and over the next four months, I had all of the modules spread out over the living room floor, checking each module, cleaning all pots, switches, checked all modules electrically, including the PSU's, and Patchbay cards.
you wouldn't believe the shit that was inside the main faders, there was enough hair, fag ash , bits of grass, sticky stuff ???, to fill a skip !
all of the panels were degreased in work, and they came up lovely .
It took most of a fortnight to install the desk, but most of this time to be fair, was spent re-cabling. cleaned the chassis, loaded her up, and went through all modules one by one. out of the 40 channels, 28 worked straight away, 4 were passing some signal, and 8 were totally dead.
got these sorted, and to be honest with you, most of the damage had been caused by the way it had been stored. caps snapped, cables broken off, etc.
the monitor amps were nearly all shagged, but this was mostly due to the fact that the IC's were knackered.
next job will be to recap channel strips one, by one - preventative maintenance on down time etc.
Anyway, I could talk for hours on this subject, but i think i need to explain myself a little over the otari lamps.
my friend got the tape machine a fortnight before i got married, I have only had a chance to look at it once, and there is quite a few problems with it. when i went on my honeymoon, he got Otto - the tech from Rockfield to have a look at it, he seems to have sorted some of the problems, but in the meantime, he had his mate come around and take the photos for the site !.
but there is another hidden surprise ! - in the photo's the desk is up on blocks , because at the time, we could only find three parts of the frame, minus the two end legs !
after a recce around cardiff, one of the boys said he knew for a stash of council blocks, so we got a van full, and put her up.
i got the pattern for the end legs, from the same guy i got the schematics off, got a pair made in work, and now she looks gorgeous !
I love it - and the sound is absolutely Fxxking amazing !
Sorry if i've bored anyone, but each to they're own pleasures.
it would take me the rest of the day to talk about them!
Have a good one, Take it easy
Steve :thumb:
