Found my 1981 Pro-One in loft!

[Forum Admin]

Clearing out my loft and found my old Sequential Pro-One monosynth (1981 I bought from JSG Music after seeing their ad in Melody Maker). It's fitted with the UC-1 Sequencer that I let Argent's fit professionally in 1983 for the review I wrote when working at Electronics & Music Maker magazine as Assistant Editor (Recrding).

For more info on the UC-1 see my review of it in the November 1983 article on Mu:zines.co.uk archive site.

http://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/uc-1-sequencer/1754

It was a fabulous upgrade for the Pro-One's meagre arpeggiator/sequencer -- but I loved and heavily used the original Pro-One onboard sequncer/arpeggiator in my New Romantics band (well, it was 1980s)... we also played Thin Lizzy and Eagles.

Hoping tonight to be able to plug it in and see if it switches on, for one thing, and makes a noise. The keys were all stuck in position earlier today but I've been running up and down it like a banshee pushing every key down. Only one fails to spring-return to its up position.

Fingers crossed.

[BJG145]

Hah, fantastic! Enjoy.

[The Elf]

Wow! What a thing to 'find'!

My 'poor man's MiniMoog' has been my constant companion from new. Easily the best bass-maker in my armoury, and has recently had its keyboard (finally) replaced to make it the synth it should have been from new.

It's such an 'immediate' synth. Back in the day I never realised it would become such a part of my life.

Treasure it and use it!

[Forum Admin]

@The Elf - I do and I will. Not going to sell it. I too fell in love with it - it was an upgrade from my self-built Powertran Transcendent 2000 monosynth.

[muzines]

Such a great synth!

(and fairly unique with the UC-1 upgrade too!)

It also looks to be in excellent shape (externally) too!

[MarkOne]

I remember looking longingly at one in a music shop in Bristo back in the 80sl. Keep us informed.

I’m sure it can be coaxed back to life somehow.

[Forum Admin]

Drat, got to go out and run errands, so may have to postpone plugging it in until tomorrow.

Will report back on how it fared.

[Forum Admin]

It also looks to be in excellent shape (externally) too!

It is pristine apart from too very small nicks in the wooden end-cheeks that originated when our roadie (me) left it in a estate car and it bashed against flightcases.

[t-sun]

That is in beautiful shape, what a great thing to stumble on after a long time in storage. Hope it works!

[Tomás Mulcahy]

Lovely! may it bring you joy once again.

[Eddy Deegan]

If it doesn't bring back all the happy memories I've got a tenner with your name on it and I'll even stump up an additional fiver or so for postage

In all seriousness though, what a super re-discovery! Enjoy!

[nathanscribe]

That's great! Fantastic sounding synth, lots of bite. I'd not heard of that upgrade before, heading off to read about it now.

[Forum Admin]

Apologies - not been able to bring the synth from my studio yet. Yesterday, I stupidly carried an old Mackie mixer out of my garden studio and forgot the decking had rotted and been removed, so there was a six-inch drop where I thought the surface was...

This caused me to fall forward while carrying the mixer (heavier than I recall) while attempting to comically jump over bricks that had been left under the previous decking, and 10ft later I fell and chucked the mixer in its box to the left, to avoid it stabbing me in the chest. This act threw me to the right and I landed badly on my lawn on my shoulder bone/arm and jolted my neck and arm muscles. Was in agony all night and stiff as a board this morning. Now it's painful to type. Collapsed on the lawn to get my breath back only to have my wife rush out thinking I'd had a heart attack.

So I am cautiously waiting until the weekend to go back to the scene and carry out the Pro-One (unboxed)!

[The Elf]

Heck! Get it checked - you could have broken bone.

[Hugh Robjohns]

Ouch! Hope you've not done anything serious to yourself! Might be worth getting checked out if you're in pain. Shoulders are complicated joints and easily damaged.

I had a similarly slapstick accident at the Sky TV studios a few years back, carrying a large and heavy Yamaha dm1000 console. Didn't spot a shallow step up onto the studio floor, tripped and then did several progressively out-of-control lunges before giving up and face planting while throwing the console in front of me. We both landed heavily, but the console worked perfectly afterwards with no damage whatsoever. I was bruised and sore for a few days.

[Forum Admin]

Heck! Get it checked - you could have broken bone.

Painful enough that it might be, but getting to see a GP is a joke around Cambridgeshire. I've had my diabetic bloods visit to a nurse cancelled and re-booking took 2 weeks. They may yet cancel this Friday's visit, as it is so easy to do via Text message. If Govt going to charge for no-show GP appointments, then surely we public can be due a refund of our National Insurance if THEY cancel?

[tea for two]

This act threw me to the right and I landed badly on my lawn on my shoulder bone/arm and jolted my neck and arm muscles. Was in agony all night and stiff as a board this morning. Now it's painful to type. Collapsed on the lawn to get my breath back only to have my wife rush out thinking I'd had a heart attack.

So I am cautiously waiting until the weekend to go back to the scene and carry out the Pro-One (unboxed)!

Ian there's no need to exhort yourself for oursakes nor suffer for our sakes.

Please take as long as it requires for you to mend.

(Pro1 can wait it has waited 4decades).

[Forum Admin]

I had a similarly slapstick accident at the Sky TV studios a few years back, carrying a large and heavy Yamaha DM1000 console. Didn't spot a shallow step up onto the studio floor, tripped and then did several progressively out-of-control lunges before giving up and face planting while throwing the console in front of me. We both landed heavily, but the console worked perfectly afterwards with no damage whatsoever. I was bruised and sore for a few days.

That sounds very close to what I did. Maybe we could start a TikTok/YouTube viral video trend of engineers/musicians tripping over and chucking audio gear?

My old Mackie was heading to my storage unit and was brown-taped all over the box edges, so I haven't bothered cutting it open and seeing if it was damaged.

[Forum Admin]

Please take as long as it requires for you to mend.

(Pro1 can wait it has waited 4decades).

Good point!

[Folderol]

Please take as long as it requires for you to mend.

(Pro1 can wait it has waited 4decades).

Good point!

Indeed. Us kids need to look after ourselves - can't rely on the oldies

[OneWorld]

Ouch! Hope you've not done anything serious to yourself! Might be worth getting checked out if you're in pain. Shoulders are complicated joints and easily damaged.

I had a similarly slapstick accident at the Sky TV studios a few years back, carrying a large and heavy Yamaha dm1000 console. Didn't spot a shallow step up onto the studio floor, tripped and then did several progressively out-of-control lunges before giving up and face planting while throwing the console in front of me. We both landed heavily, but the console worked perfectly afterwards with no damage whatsoever. I was bruised and sore for a few days.

Did you manage to 'fix it in the mix' ?

[Forum Admin]

Apologies - not been able to bring the synth from my studio yet. Yesterday, I stupidly carried an old Mackie mixer out of my garden studio and forgot the decking had rotted and been removed, so there was a six-inch drop where I thought the surface was...

This caused me to fall forward while carrying the mixer (heavier than I recall) while attempting to comically jump over bricks that had been left under the previous decking, and 10ft later I fell and chucked the mixer in its box to the left, to avoid it stabbing me in the chest. This act threw me to the right and I landed badly on my lawn on my shoulder bone/arm and jolted my neck and arm muscles. Was in agony all night and stiff as a board this morning. Now it's painful to type. Collapsed on the lawn to get my breath back only to have my wife rush out thinking I'd had a heart attack.

So I am cautiously waiting until the weekend to go back to the scene and carry out the Pro-One (unboxed)!

It Lives!!! ...Well sort of...

Ian's SCI Pro-One from his loft, after it's first workout in donkey's years... Needed a little inspiration dug out Tangerine Dream's greatest hits CD.

Initially the power button on the rear-right (when viewed from the front) would not turn on no matter how hard I pressed. At the 8th try it clicked on and the tell-tale sign that it was once again a living beast of a mono synth was the red Gate light illuminating upon every key press. But it sounded horrible on headphones, dry. Not even sure the DT770 Pro's were compatible with P1's Audio Out but gave it a try anyway. Turned up the volume and Bingo! We have sound.

"Drat, the keyboard tracking is shot", I thought... Then I twigged I had left the Mode set to Drone...

After a sip of coffee, I set to adjusting a patch and there it was, that syncing feeling. But half the keys are a swine to press down and one will not spring itself back up... bit of TLC will help.

I haven't yet opened up the guts to inspect, but the exterior casing and knobs are in showroom condition. And the end cheek wood grain is well-oiled -- which is amazing since I only wrapped it in a kitchen tea towel years ago when I put it in the studio loft/attic one Christmas to make space for some review equipment I'd brought home to check out (I used to do that sort of thing so I knew when a written review I was subbing was missing the mark, or not).

So, PROMISING is my evaluation thus far... but I do suspect the keybed could do with a replacement (recommendations as to which synth repairer to approach would be greatly appreciated).

And finally... after Nurofen managed to keep my shoulder/arm pain away, my visit to the doc today resulted in her dismissing it as "nothing" and she recommended I took some paracetamol or ibuprofen. Ddddrrrrrrr!!

[Hugh Robjohns]

Great news all round!

[The Elf]

Indeed, looking good on all fronts!

The keyboard on the Pro-One was always an absolute pig. I would see if you can get it replaced. It's a few years since I got mine done (two of 'em), and I don't recall where they came from, but it was not UK-based. I had the engineer also replace the LEDs (gate and my custom LFO speed indicator mod) with purple ones - slurp!

I'm not sure, but it *may* have been these guys that supplied the keyboards:
https://techsmechsvintagesynth.com/prod ... cement-kit

There were two connection types, so make sure you check that they can supply the correct one - typically mine were one of each!

The replacement keyboards have been a revelation here. My Pro-One feels like a quality instrument, rather than the lighweight clacky beast it was. I'd highly recommend it.