studiomaster 16-4-2 worth resurrection?

[neverlistentome]

I've had this old mixer in my posession for a while.

I wonder if it's worth rebuilding and or modding?

It has a discrete transistor quartet in the pre driving a TL071.

It also has a treble/dual sweep low and mid band eq based on a TL072.

There are searchable schematics reguarding the eq (stellan's schematics).

I wonder if I could replace the opamps with Burr-Brown 604 and 2604's?
I'm intrigued with the 5% carbon film resistors used everywhere. I have ample space within the mixer to install solen caps instead of the cheap electrolytics. In other words this could be a cool thing to rebuild and make better ....or....

any input?

 

[amorris3]

a big initial question would be whats the condition of the faders and pots? if you had to replace a lot fo them, it might get expensive.

component spacing looks good for modding.

 

[gar381]

Studiomasters were very good budget desks in their
day. Try recapping the psu and one channel and
see how it sounds. If you like it there are lots of fun
mods you can make. Don?t be afraid of those
5% carbon films either. Socket the 071 and 072
then you can play with other ICs. Use your ears
and have fun playing as these old desks are fun to play with.
You just might make yourself a kick a** Mackie killing little desk.
As amorris3 says faders and pots could get expensive
so see what your budget allows and most importantly
HAVE FUN!! :guinness: :sam: :guinness: :grin:

GARY

 

[NewYorkDave]

Shouldn't this go in the Lab?

Anyway... Is it working as it is? I concur that those older Studiomasters were decent-sounding budget mixers, better sounding than a Mackie, IMHO. I'd give it a good cleaning and fix any problems first, then use it in stock form for a while to see if I liked it enough to attempt mods. And, of course, I'd try out any mods I was considering on only a single channel so I could compare it directly to the others and determine if the difference was enough to justify the work and expense. But I would NOT invest major time and dollars, in any case.

I found a zip file containing the schematics here:
http://fa.utfs.org/diy/

 

[Viitalahde]

Hey, I used to own that console.. I'm pretty sure it was a Studiomaster 16-4-2, but the panel was brown and it was built in a case. Otherwise, looks like the same thing to me.

Do comment on the sound.. Used to compose noise on it so all I needed was multiple feedback paths & an EQ. :wink:

 

[Rob Flinn]

I used to use one of those desks a lot & always liked those really early studiomaster desks best. At least it`s not all surface mount components so modding is easy to accomplish.

 

[ioaudio]

i worked a little on the mic pre of a studiomaster 16-16-2, its not very good as is. http://www.groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=9362&highlight=studiomaster

i fitted input transformer which makes a huge difference here - i put them in plave of the input caps.

 

[CJ]

check the stacked plate caps!