My new pair of mint voxes!!

[oliisfullysick]

After searching for a couple of years for a continental in australia I finally found not one but 2 that i got for a bargain.
Both italian made the single manual is in really good condtion but the dual manual is nearly mint, even the legs were still in plastic....
They came with all the accessories, including pedals, a 3rd pair of legs, a spare lid, and even the vinyl case  for the super continental.

After bringing them home I realised the single manual is a 110v machine but we have 240v down under. I tryed it out when I bought it for a few mins and it worked fine just had a little hum. Is there anyway to determine if it has been converted to 240 already? looks stock inside. Would seem strange to convert it to 240 and leave the american plug on it.... Would it of blown straight away in 240v power if it was 110v?

Im also in need of one of the metal attachments that the wingnuts for the legs screw into but have no idea where to find them or where they are from..

[OZDOC]

Amazing find. I'm green with envy!
Do not connect 240 Volts to the 110 Volt machine. You may only blow a fuse - but you may destroy significant portions of the electronics - especially if there is no fuse or it has been substituted.

The 'American' plug may have been left in place to preserve the integrity of the finish.

Ask the seller how they were powering it when they demo'd it. Did they use a step-down transformer from 240V to 110V?

If they did all you need to do is go to Jaycar and buy one off the shelf for about $100.

[Peter Hayes]

Vox parts are at:
http://www.voxshowroom.com/northcoast/

[oliisfullysick]

Unfortunately cant get hold of the owner as he recently passed away and i got these off his son. This was what was left of the giant amount of gear that had been sold. would loved to of known what got sold first.. Someone came round and bought ALL their fender gear..

[OZDOC]

Wingbolts and T-nuts
If it is the UK thread - 5/16"- then the only people that may have one are Vintage Vibe. Email them and ask - it is unlikely to be listed in the shop even if they have one.
If it is the Italian or US thread - 1/4" - then you can use a T-nut from any hardware store.

North Coast Music sells 1/4" replica wingbolts.

Often you'll find the missing T-nut floating around in the case. Can you hear anything loose moving around when you handle and tip the organ? The real danger is if this part becomes lodged in the electronics somewhere.

[OZDOC]

You still need to ask the son how he had it powered up when he demo'd it.

Also - take the fuse out and check to see if it is a 240V or 110V fuse (should be written on the metal ends). If it is 110V then it is definitely a 110 machine.

[oliisfullysick]

Unfortunately no voltage on it just a half amp fuse. The son had no idea about any of the gear or even what cables to use. It was plugged straight into 240v and seemed to work fine. Only ran it for a few minutes but dont want to plug it in again until im sure.

[Alan Lenhoff]

What a find! You'll love 'em! Even the bass pedals for the Super Connie, which seem quite rare these days.  (Must have been optional equipment.)   

I second the suggestion that the t-nut may well be rolling around somewhere inside the case. Unless the bolt hole has been greatly expanded, the t-nut can only fall inside the cabinet.  But for your Italian models, it's very easily replaced at a hardware store.

If you need replacement parts for either of your organs, I maintain a source list for Vox organ parts in the Files section of the Yahoo Combo Organs Group list.  The file also has repair hints.

Alan

[OZDOC]

Post a picture of the power input plug and surrounding area so we can see what you are talking about.

[Alan Lenhoff]

Looks like you have two yellow drawbar knobs from a UK Continental. People restoring UK Connies are desperate to get those things, since they easily get lost or broken -- and no one makes replicas of them.

But replica Italian-style white and black knobs are readily available.  (Vintage Vibe, for one.)  If you replaced yours with the proper white replicas, you'd make someone quite happy by selling them the yellow ones.

(In fact, if you send me a private message, I could connect you with a couple of people who are looking for yellow knobs, and would probably pay generously for them.)

Whatever you do, don't throw them out!

Alan

[oliisfullysick]

After getting a 110v converter I ran It and it seems to work but found some of the keys dont work on different settings and it sounds a bit off so I'm going to send it off to a tech to get it sorted. If I can find one in Perth!!!

alenhoff: Iff I decide to sell the drawbar knobs I'll let you know

[Alan Lenhoff]

Your description of what's wrong is vague. But if you're interested in trying to fix it yourself, there are three things you could do easily that correct a lot of Vox problems. (Stop me if I'm telling you things you already know...)

1) Slowly turn the bias potentiometers on the top of each tone generator board while playing notes with missing tones.  You can often "dial-in" missing footages.

2)  Clean the key contacts to restore missing notes or "fuzzy" ones.  The lazy man's way is by simply playing it.  Better is to spray the contacts with Caig DeOxit, or some similar contact cleaner that you know is safe on plastics, and play it for a while.  Or, if some notes are still dodgy, use contact cleaner or 100% isopropyl alcohol and a pipe cleaner to individually clean those contacts.  Be careful with that pipe cleaner, however, because contacts can break, and they are difficult to replace.

3) You can tune the organ using a small screwdriver to turn the slug in the tuning coils (the tall cans on each of the tone generator cards). Each tuning coil tunes all the notes of that name, i.e. all the C notes, so tuning goes pretty quickly.  Let the organ warm-up at least 15 minutes before you tune it.

Alan

[OZDOC]

Sounds like you need to get to the bottom of what voltage the Connie is set to run at. If it came from a collector who had had it for some time it may have been set up for 240V. If the son who sold it ran it from 240 without blowing it up then maybe it has the correct power supply transformer in it already.
Running it from 110V will not hurt it (if it is a 240V machine) but almost certainly means that the supply voltage to the circuits is way below value - like a serious 'brown out'.
This may produce some of the unexpected behaviours.

All the schematics can be found on-line. Get a keyboard tech to check what the power supply is set up for - for example by checking the output voltage while it is connected to 110V.

Don't fiddle with anything else until you are certain of this.

Post a picture of the 'power in' socket. The previous owner may have left this looking standard even though it is altered inside.

[oliisfullysick]

OK, Ive got some help from my old man and Its still 110 and is putting out 8.4V.

The problems with it are;
D# on every drawbar setting apart from 2inch doesnt work.
C# 1 and 2 dont work when only 16inch drawbar is out
There is a large amount of hum,
and because the screws holding the tone generator rack were removed a few of the larger capacitors have broken off as seen in the pics.

After looking at loads of info and videos on the net Im going to give fixing most of these problems ago, replacing the broken caps and rebuilding the preamp will be simple enough, finiding any faulty transistors will be a bit more difficult but I do have access to a Oscilloscope.

Alenhoff Just had a look at all the info you put up on the Combo Organ group and your build. So much good info in there, cheers for putting that up.

[Alan Lenhoff]

The problems with it are;
D# on every drawbar setting apart from 2inch doesnt work.

There is no 2' drawbar.  There is 16, 8, 4, and IV.  The IV gives you a mix of footages. None of these are fundamental tones; they are all overtones generated by other tone generator boards.  So if the D#'s work only with the IV drawbar, then your D# generator board is totally non-functional.  Most likely, the oscillator section of that board isn't working.  (The oscillator section generates the highest D# tone, which is then repeatedly divided in half by the series of flip-flop dividers on the board.)  Check the schematic to test the components of the oscillator section.  Hopefully, it's a cap or transistor, not the tuning coil, which could be difficult to fix or replace.

C# 1 and 2 dont work when only 16 inch drawbar is out

Try removing the card, cleaning the pins with contact cleaner and re-installing it. 

Try playing with the bias pot:

http://www.voxshowroom.com/uk/organ/V301J_bias_adjust.html

Could also be a divider issue.  Great tutorial on how to troubleshoot divider issues here: 

http://www.voxshowroom.com/uk/organ/V301E_generator_repair2.html
http://www.voxshowroom.com/uk/organ/V301E_generator_repair.html

There is a large amount of hum,
and because the screws holding the tone generator rack were removed a few of the larger capacitors have broken off as seen in the pics.

Check grounds.  Might also be bad filter caps in the power supply.  Those electrolytic caps in the power supply had a life expectancy of maybe 20 years, so if they appear to be original, replacing them is a good investment in the future of your Vox.

After looking at loads of info and videos on the net Im going to give fixing most of these problems a go, replacing the broken caps and rebuilding the preamp will be simple enough, finiding any faulty transistors will be a bit more difficult but I do have access to a Oscilloscope.

Alenhoff Just had a look at all the info you put up on the Combo Organ group and your build. So much good info in there, cheers for putting that up.

It sounds like you have the ability to handle these issues yourself.  And doing so will pay off in the future, because other things *will* go wrong -- and you don't want to have to run to a tech for minor issues.

As you troubleshoot this, I'd encourage you to post questions to the Yahoo combo group, where there's a lot of excellent folks who know these organs quite well.

Alan