does circuit bending sk1 dissable the sampler?

[jamiewoody]

i know this was probably covered, and i am new here, and have yet to read al the threads.

anyhoo....

when doing the bends on an sk1, whether it be power crash, the patch bay, etc, does this disable any feature of the keyboard?

basically, the coolest thing about an sk1 is the sampler! i would like to continue sampling mellotron sounds, etc.

so, any words of wisdom before i begin? anything i should keep in mind?

[Dylan]

I wouldn't think it would disable it, but I'm not 100% sure, I've never bent an SK1.

[jamiewoody]

who is the guy to ask?

casper electronics is an awesome site, but i do not see his email or contact info anywhere.

[Circuitbenders]

What do you actually mean by 'disable the sampler'?

Multiple patchbay connections might possibly disable the sampler while they are plugged in, although i've never known it happen, but once you disable any mods or remove any patchbay connections the machine shoud function as normal. A lot of features may not work properly or just work differently while you have mods activated. Thats the whole point.

Unless you are deliberately intending it, any circuitbent machine should function as normal when all the mods are disabled. If they actually can be disabled.

If you are worried about it just don't mess with anything you don't have plans for, although i'd say thats kind of missing the point of circuitbending. You won't damage anything if you are just following nromal SK mods.

[jamiewoody]

so, if i mod it, then just unplug the patches, it will sound like normal? cool.

is there anything i should keep in mind? i mean, should all caps be discharged first? of course, i need to discharge myself, and all that.

any other recomendations before i begin?  i am pretty confident in what i read, and where the bends are. this will be my first bending project, so when it is finished, i will feel confident.

also, what about grounding the rca jacks? should i ground them together then to a metal contact on the chasis?

other than that, i am pretty confident.

[Circuitbenders]

It should function as normal once you unplug any patch cables if its done right.

You don't actually need to discharge yourself or any caps unless you really want to. If you were messing around with chips out of the circuit then maybe you should, but when you're just handling a circuitboard unless you happened to have the other hand connected to the mains or something then it doesn't really matter.

You also don't need to ground the patchbay jacks unless you really want to. I never do as it just adds more possibilities for mysterious proplems you have to spend ages tracking down. Patch cables only need to be single core wire.

[jamiewoody]

thanks for the tips!

the more i think about it, grounding makes no sense, due to the fact that it only takes one wire to connect the bends.

i think i am going to actually use PHONE jacks instead of the RCA variety. if nothing else, it looks more vintage. LOL! also, it seems that it would make  for comfort, if i was "bending" live.

another question which comes to mind, does the gauge of wire matter? would heavier gage soldered to the bend contacts ensure better signal path in the audio?