Korg Lambda ES-50

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Korg Lambda ES-50

Postby wez » Sat Jun 23, 2012 3:07 pm

OK, so i've had this beat up old Korg Lambda for ages, I've never got around to fixing it and i don't think I will. I'll put in the For Sale section soon... but I thought I'd see if anyone else had one. It would make a good parts machine - lots of obsolete chips (that are also used in other Korgs).

Alternatively... does anyone have a working Lambda they'd like to sell me? The plan was always to buy one and keep this for spares, but I've not found the right one at the right time. Because the thing is, this guy sounds rather sweet - even at 25% functionality you can hear a real richness, so I'd love to hear one fully working.
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Re: Korg Lambda ES-50

Postby Futureman » Sat Jun 23, 2012 4:52 pm

I'd be keen to purchase it off you.

I already own a working Lambda & dig it.

Apart from being beat up.. whats wrong with it?

Pictures?
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Re: Korg Lambda ES-50

Postby wez » Sat Jun 23, 2012 6:33 pm

Hey Mike, I'm on my way out for the evening but I'll PM you later with details.
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Re: Korg Lambda ES-50

Postby Thirteen » Sun Jul 15, 2012 11:22 pm

What did you finish up doing with it?
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Re: Korg Lambda ES-50

Postby wez » Mon Jul 16, 2012 6:23 pm

Hey Steve

After chatting to Mike (fellow Lambda owner, and all-round helpful dude) I decided that in it's current state it just wasn't worth selling. Actually I'd already made the classic mistake of sitting down and playing it again and loving it too much to sell.

so anyway, i popped the hood again and had a bit more of a poke around. swapped around the 50421s (put sockets in there while i was at it), found by trial that most of the problems went away by pulling one of the ICs. now i don't know if the problem is the chip itself or something downstream, but the ensemble voices are now working beautifully... which is of course the bit that everyone loves and buys these for, so i'm actually pretty happy to leave it as is.

Should a nice example come up for the right price at the right time, i'd buy it. It does take up a lot of space though (but would make a nice coffee table in a pinch).

Just now finished tidying up and modding a Casio CZ-1000, and of course my Korg Poly-61, so it's been 80's-synth central down here the last couple of weeks!
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Re: Korg Lambda ES-50

Postby a.d.a.m. baby » Tue Jul 17, 2012 12:56 am

Hey Wez, what did you do to the CZ1000? I've just upgraded my CZ101 to a backlit LCD... Makes a big difference in a dark studio! Great machines.
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Re: Korg Lambda ES-50

Postby wez » Tue Jul 17, 2012 2:02 pm

Hey, as a matter of fact that's just what i did yesterday, put in a backlit LCD. Fiddly job, and took a while to find a screen that lined up exactly, but so worth it - the lack of a backlight really hampered it's usability.

also scouted out some possibilities for circuit bending and getting some knobs on the front panel... but needed to get it off the workbench and back into service - next time maybe.
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