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Today a friend of mine made the above offer... it is not the latest version (black surface with orange writing) of the Odyssey but one of the earlier ones (black surface, gold writing and coloured knobs on the sliders). It seems to work ok.

I have no idea concerning vintage synths... all suggestions are welcome

Thanks in advance,
Chris

i would say a one in good order would set you back minimum £650, so depending on condition €300 is a steal. The sliders are notorious for getting scratchy so try wiggling them - it'll be fairly obvious if they're knackered or not.

Gentlemen, thanks for your quick replies. I will have a closer look at the sliders. I guess they are standard parts so replacing them should not be a big issue.

Chris

Last time I checked, there was no direct replacement for the Arp sliders found on many of their synths. Same goes for Crumar parts. Almost impossible to find. You might find some working 2nd hand replacements though... Or if really really lucky, some newly made replica parts, which are becoming more common, fortunately.

if they are scratchy, then this can usually be fixed with some good pot cleaner spray

You can always get those fixed by buying a parts only spare. If you don't buy it, please let me know it's availability, as i have access to many spare parts for old analogs. I just played an ARP Pro Soloist, and ARP Omni last week. I didn't like them when they were released in the early '80's, but they have a very unique sound which is perfect for contemporary styles these days. The filters are super crisp on all ARP's.

thanks for your input, I will keep you updated...

Well I haven't seen one of those for a while now, but tried to use it live and was quite frustrated. I saw the keyboardist for REO Speedwagon performing Riding The Storm Out way back when, and thought I could do that, NOT. The patch cords were quite small and trying to change them live was hell on stage. It was such a great sounding modular though in the hands of a skilled synthesist. Thank God for preset synths. I always thought Emerson and others looked like Gods amongst men with their huge Moog Modulars and ARP's, and of course was definately into the cosmetic approach as well, but ended up going broke with polyphonic designs instead.

Here in Nevada we do have a Modular Synth guy who has a 100,000 USD Analogics / Moog set-up, but he can't play it !! It's shown in a museum @ Ceasers every now and then, but other than that, I rarely see them, but still am fascinated as ever by their sound creation abilities, and oooommmmpppphhhh !!

I hope I can get profficient with Modular this year and Flexor III. There are just so many possibilities, and I know that it is the way to go w/ virtual. The analog way just doesn't have the same amount of modules, or routings as compared with Nord, Arturia, or Scope.

arp odyssey can be very expensive to fix. especialy those sliders, that have a custom length (you need to buy longer faders cut them down and re-calibrate, that usualy expensive with a pro).

my advice is look inside. the arp were imo poorly constructed. and you can see some nasty work in there. anyhow, open it. look for rust and oxydation on the circuit. check for noisy faders, bring it to a pro to inspect for blown or old capacitors (that will change the synth's sound alot!) check for fixes that have already made and their quality.

i have heard to manny stories about people buying arps that work for 1 week and die.

if you live close to the sea i wodlnt recomend getting it at all since it is very delicate.

that being said,
i think this is the synth with the coolest architecture out all of the synths!

cheers!

I have to agree with Red about the construction of those Arps (Axxe, Ody etc). They were poorly built because of a badly designed chassis in the first place imo. Almost all other mono synths from that era are better designed & built chassis-wise. The minimoog, The Pro-One, The Cat ... etc, all of a nicer build quality. The Cats & kittens are the easiest for a synth repair tech to fix afaik, although those CEM & SSM chips are becoming very rare, making the NON-SRM models easier & cheaper to fix.