Originally Posted by
Marcel
Soundcraft were state of the art back in the '80's. Very top end gear along with SSL and Yamaha. Interestingly back then on the wholesale and the servicing side both Yamaha and Marshall in Australia were handled by the same people. Not sure if it is still the case today.
For a cap replacement request I'd be tempted to do audio frequency response tests first across the whole desk, find the worst slots, repair them, and then repeat the repair on all the other channels. That way you end up only replacing what's needed to restore 100% performance. Unless the client specifically asks for it and is prepared to pay then doing a wholesale replacement can get substantially more expensive in both time and money, and may not necessarily cure all problems.
I have a 20/8/2 Soundtraks Megas Studio desk from the late '80's that has an interesting Aux send fault. None of the 6 sends work and the supply resistor for the sends in the Master bus module gives up its smoke the moment you turn the desk on. Have swapped the chips and most of the caps but without an accurate circuit this MIDI controlled desk is proving difficult (a bastard in every possible sense of the word) to repair which is a shame as it is a fantastic home studio desk if I could get the sends working... 4 band dual parametric EQ, 6 sends, 16 mono and 4 stereo modules, 8 bus, dual monitor volumes, LED metering, MIDI mute control/recall,..... Thankfully nil mice have ever been in there before me...lol
Those dirty contact faults can be annoying and pesky....lol ... and I'm surprised you didn't get a replacement ribbon.