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ChromaTalk Archives: December 2013

eBay Items

Chris Ryan [21030691]

Chroma 21030018 (see Chroma 2103-0018 For Sale on eBay, November) has been reduced from $5000 to $4300: item #181272031538.

"Rhodes Chroma MIDI Interface -Syntech guaranteed working," item #331077558050, ends tomorrow, starting bid USD$69.00 (no bids yet) or price of $99.00. This is a $30 reduction from last month: see Syntech MIDI Interface on eBay.

"Rhodes Arp Chroma computer board 100 programs," item #221326637202, ends December 5. "Confirmed working condition. No battery damage. 100 programs 50+50 with switch. Rev 12 software" (old school!). Best of the rather blurry pictures:

"Rhodes Arp Chroma synthesizer original power supply," item #221327415891, "Not working. Sold for parts, as-is. Transformer is good. Taps were cut leaving the most wire possible on the transformer. Was working until the digital 5v stopped putting out." More blurry pictures (same seller as above—evidently not a photographer, or perhaps has a flip phone; trivia—this is apparently sitting on a copy of Section 6 of the Polaris Service Manual):

Chris Ryan [21030691]

"Rhodes Arp Chroma computer board 100 programs," item #221326637202, ends December 5. "Confirmed working condition. No battery damage. 100 programs 50+50 with switch. Rev 12 software."

This sold, but eBay says "This item was listed in the fixed price format with a Best Offer option. The seller accepted a Best Offer price." Did anyone here buy it?

Doug Terrebonne [21030114]

Dunno but gotta love the "no battery damage" and then a pic of the nasty corroded batt terminals...

Chroma 21030838 For Sale on eBay

Chris Ryan [21030691]

Item #251396232501, USD$2,600.00, ends December 14. "Does not power up. My understanding is that it needs a new power supply. The unit is super clean and in great cosmetic shape, inside and out. It is all original with no missing parts. It was well cared for." This is Chroma 21030838, new to the registry.

Jesper Ödemark [21010135]

Sad story about the former owner. I hope someone buys this and gets it back on its feet again. It looks like it's in great shape too.

Michael McInnis [21030027]

The seller is obviously not a player. He has listed it as having 38 keys having not counted the black ones.

David Hobson [21030506]

And just like that, it's gone. [Sold for USD$2600.00.]

Dual sound boards

Buddy Casino [21010137]

Hi everyone,

I´m Buddy from Zuerich/ Switzerland

I have my Chroma in the workshop of a friend technician, to do some maintenance work.

It was a severe shock when he told me the other day, that 2 dual voiceboards are missing.

Anybody out there, who has spare voiceboards (ha,ha...) or has advice what to do?

excuse my poor english.

Greetings from ZUERICH, Buddy Casino

David Hobson [21030506]

Hello Buddy,

I would, if I were you, call every synthesizer repair shop listed on the Rhodes Chroma site to see if anyone has any voice cards for sale.

It worked for me once.

John Leimseider [21030434++]

I still have a couple...

Chroma#21030244 Restored. For Sale

William Santana [21030244]

Hello all,

I have just finished resurrecting my Chroma with a new SPSU and several repairs to get all of the voices back in action. I did have to make minor repairs to the channel mother board and upper contact board due to battery leakage. All damage has been thoroughly cleaned and refortified for sturdy and reliable operation. I have replaced the memory battery with a Lithium 3 volt cell. All 8 cards are present and fully functional. The original case is being re-foamed right now. I am looking to get $5500 for the unit. The unit is located in Portland, Oregon. U.S.A. I will wait approximately 2 weeks before I attempt to sell it on Ebay. Note that I will be listing it for a considerable amount more since I will have to offset Ebay/Paypals premium service fees. Unit comes with original volume and sustain pedals, 2 sets of the cassette interface cables, factory patch cassette, various other interconnects, manuals, and 2 extra voice cards that I have already harvested to complete my restoration. Therefore, these cards are no longer completely populated. One of the extra cards does have some battery acid damage on it.

Adrian [21040017]

Beautiful physical condition! I wish you best of luck with the sale, just wish I lived closer!

Luca Sasdelli [21010226]

Hi William,

glad to know another beautiful Chroma brought to life with the new PSU. No CC+ upgrade? Why?

Cheers
Luca

William Santana [21030244]

I have listed my Chroma on Ebay: [item #291041453557]

I have it listed for $6000. Though I am aware that this is quite a premium, I consider it to be suitable given all that is being sold with the unit. The current pics do not show the wood in its restored state. I will update the pics soon enough. I am looking to clear $5000 so if anyone on the RC site is interested, I will sell the unit as it is stated on the Ebay listing for $5000 not including shipping and handling. So far, I have had an individual from Sweden express interest in the unit through Ebay. They requested details on what was done in the restoration. Here is the contents of the reply:

"I installed the SPSU. I removed all of the EPROMS on the CPU and cleaned oxide crystals that had collected on the pins of the EPROMS. Once cleaned, there appeared to be no permanent damage and so, they were reinstalled. I removed the old battery holder since it was damaged and made simple, sturdy provisions for a 3v lithium cell to be installed in its place. The E.Q. board had a failing dual opamp that was replaced. Several of the channel boards needed various repairs. 2 CEM 3350s were replaced. and 1 CEM 3360 as well. 2 or 3 4151 charge pumps were replaced. 3 4556 ICs and 2 4051 ICs were replaced and various additional work. There was battery leak damage on the upper contact board, the dual-channel motherboard and one of the dual channel boards. The upper contact board suffered most of its damage on and around one of the resistor network ICs. The IC was cut out. The affected traces were stripped of all corrosion. Once clean, I installed individual resistors in place of the previous resistor network and applied jumpers and refortified thinned traces with solder. The dual channel motherboard had corrosion at and around the headers for one of the dual channel cards. The affected headers were removed and replaced with gold plated headers. The affected traces were treated in the same manner as the others. The affected dual channel card was replaced by one of the spares I have in the listing. You can see the acid damage on one of the spares in the picture of the 2 spare cards. The capacitors related to the oscillator to filter coupling were replaced.

"If there is anything that you would like to request that I should address, I am open to giving more attention to the restoration to provide 100% satisfaction. I may require a bit of time to complete any additional work.

"If you are still interested, the shipping may be in the ballpark of $500-$600. I will have to contact FedEx Freight to be sure though. Also, I would be will to split the of the cost of shipping."

Syntech midi installation

Patrick Walsh [21010070]

Hi List,

My Chroma has needed attention for sometime, So recently I've been give it some love and attention.

I've upgraded the PSU to Luca's SPSU and I have three voice been worked on, though since another has crapped itself :(

I Also bought a Syntech midi interface but I cant figure out how to install it I've read the info on the site but I think I'm missing something, there is an image of a circuit board where it says to install jumper cables but I cant locate the board inside my Chroma, If I follow the computer interface cable it leads to the main circuit board but it looks nothing like the board shown on the Syntech installation page, any tips/advice or photos would be greatly appreciated.

seasons greetings to Chroma'ites

patrick

David Clarke [21030085++]

... I ... bought a Syntech midi interface but I cant figure out how to install it...

Patrick - the circuit board drawing in the manual (see "Using the Converter with the Fender Music System") is a reference to an interface card that could be put inside an Apple computer, to implement the 'Fender Music System.' This is not required for use of the Syntech MIDI interface.

At a high level, the 'installation' of the Syntech interface really just consists of connecting the DB-25 cable from the MIDI interface to the DB-25 connector on the back of the Chroma. That's it.

Once connected, and the Chroma is turned on, you can set the [Set Split][46] key combination on the Chroma to configure the interface away from the factory default settings (if required).