It begins...

As I said in my last post, I have lost a bunch of pictures that I had of moving the console to its current resting place. Over that time, I didn't do much with the console other than vacuum it out, wipe down the outside, and move it around (this thing is heavy!). I actually cleaned it three times because I kept finding so much dust. Not to worry... I did a COMPLETE clean later on and have lots of pictures. I just thought you would like to know that you haven't missed out on much.

So... let's introduce the newest project. A Studer 903A console. These were Studer's flagship console in the 80's. This one is a 24 channel, 8 bus, 3 mono aux (+ 1 stereo aux) version. It's an awesome quality desk (not surprising with the Studer name) and I was lucky to come across it. Mine seems to have a birthday of May 29, 1984. Three years older than I am!

I found the console on kijiji in London, Ontario and, after a few months, I decided to jump on it. The gentleman who sold it to me is Andy Magoffin (http://www.thetwominutemiracles.com/). He's an absolutely awesome guy and is currently building a new studio in Preston, Cambridge. The space is going to be incredible. It nearly killed us when we carried it out and put it in my van. I then started the long drive from London to Toronto on a cold evening in November, 2010. Hope your back is doing OK Andy! Thanks for the console!

Do you want the good news or the bad news first?

Sigh.

The Bad News: 
So, although Andy is a totally great guy, the console was not in very good shape when I picked it up. I would say that about 8 of the 24 channels actually passed signal and it looked like it had been worked on by a mechanic (dark, greasy dirt all over it). It had had some capacitors replaced, but almost the entire desk had never been recapped (SINCE THE 80's!). Frankly, the desk was not in great shape. I actually have no idea where I got the balls to buy this project, but I'm glad I did.

The Good News:
The console had been worked on a bit by the famous Toronto Studer tech, Roger Ginsley. It seems that Roger bought approximately enough high quality Panasonic caps to recap the entire desk (the common ones at least). I was also given a small box which included some random extras for the desk including some knob and fader caps. I was also given the full manual and card extenders! A bit disorganized, but everything was there! Not Bad!

Let's get some damn pictures in here!

The Manual

It is actually pretty well organized into tabs. I had never seen a Studer Manual before. I spent a lot of time just leafing through it, smiling and thinking how cool it all was.

Does anybody know these names? It seems the console was originally from Nashville.
Studer - Chris Ware
943-2239
Nashville - Doug Beoud
615-254-5651
Tom Knox

I thought it would be cool to let the original owner know that the console is in good hands, but I couldn't find anything on these guys.

The console as it was delivered. It looks like it may have come with a producers desk on the right side with the patchbays installed. Mine no longer has this.

Pages and pages of electrical readings. Obviously some quality control documentation that was filled in before it left the factory.

This confused me a bit. I had read that the number of buckets that a 900 series Studer had was the third digit in the model number. I originally thought that mine would classified as a 902 (since it has two channel buckets).

Now the real question... why the heck does it say 'WORD OF FAITH'?

The console went into storage for a few months until I had a place to put it and work on it. See ya Thursday!