Free Mackie board

[gavspen]

Hi,

I'm giving away a Mackie 1604 VLZ pro. I really cant be bothered with the eBay thing since I dont think it would fetch that much, and I cant really vouch for its full functionality, since I havent used it extensively for a while. It's basically been a volume control for my monitors for years...haha... and I dont even need it for that anymore. (I do believe it's fully functional though. I never found anything on it that didnt work.)

If you're in the NYC city area (I dont want to have to ship it) and you want it, it's yours.

Gavin

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Probably worth about $100 used. That'll be a nice find for someone.

[mikehalloran]

A common issue on these is for the faders to stop working in banks of 8. I've never met one that couldn't be fixed by doing the following: Take it apart to the point of using a roto-pod (in the user manual), disconnect the ribbon cables and reconnect three times to burnish the connectors. Do each one you can see, one cable at a time. If you have any DeOxIt, spray a burst on the pins before you reconnect the first time.

[gavspen]

A common issue on these is for the faders to stop working in banks of 8. I've never met one that couldn't be fixed by doing the following: Take it apart to the point of using a roto-pod (in the user manual), disconnect the ribbon cables and reconnect three times to burnish the connectors. Do each one you can see, one cable at a time. If you have any DeOxIt, spray a burst on the pins before you reconnect the first time.

Wot? Ok....

[mikehalloran]

A common issue on these is for the faders to stop working in banks of 8. I've never met one that couldn't be fixed by doing the following: Take it apart to the point of using a roto-pod (in the user manual), disconnect the ribbon cables and reconnect three times to burnish the connectors. Do each one you can see, one cable at a time. If you have any DeOxIt, spray a burst on the pins before you reconnect the first time.

Wot? Ok....

The 1604 and 1640 are more prone to this than other Mackies. Over the years, I've picked up 25–30 on CraigsList "parts not working" for free to $50, burnished the ribbon connectors and resold them for $250–300.

To test, all you need is a pair of headphones and an input source. Check each channel—if you hear signal, it's good.

They may be dinosaurs nowadays but Mackie wasn't kidding about that "built like a tank" claim.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

News you can use!

[stubbsonic]

I had a run of bad luck with Mackie mixers (new ones) where inputs would not work.

One larger mixer for a school had to be replaced twice, and one personal mixer had to be replaced/repaired 3 times. Makes sense that these issues were due to poor connections from ribbons. Though I wouldn't have been gutsy enough to void warranties and DIY clean the connections.

Good to know. Also impressive that you were able to earn cash as a side gig cleaning up after Mackies lil' messes.

[gavspen]

News you can use!

[mothra]

Use that thing as a processor and overdrive the living s**t out of the inputs! The OG 1604 is a classic in the electronic music scene, they did double time all over the place for coloring/distortion/resampling duties aside from mixing.. I dont know about the VLZs though, the latest rev is pretty sterile and unspecial nowadays.

[HCMarkus]

Use that thing as a processor and overdrive the living s**t out of the inputs! The OG 1604 is a classic in the electronic music scene, they did double time all over the place for coloring/distortion/resampling duties aside from mixing.. I dont know about the VLZs though, the latest rev is pretty sterile and unspecial nowadays.

Interesting! I may have to pull mine out and try that.

[mikehalloran]

Use that thing as a processor and overdrive the living s**t out of the inputs! The OG 1604 is a classic in the electronic music scene, they did double time all over the place for coloring/distortion/resampling duties aside from mixing.. I dont know about the VLZs though, the latest rev is pretty sterile and unspecial nowadays.

I downsized to a 1402 about 15 years ago. Perhaps? Naw...

[gavspen]

Definitely "Naw..." here. Downsizing is most assuredly the effect I'm going after.

Ok, next offer. If anyone wants to pay for UPS to pack and ship it, it can be yours, anywhere in this great nation. No idea what that would cost.

Next up, Craigslist. Haha.

[abhikhurana]

Thanks...........

[funkyfreddy]

A common issue on these is for the faders to stop working in banks of 8. I've never met one that couldn't be fixed by doing the following: Take it apart to the point of using a roto-pod (in the user manual), disconnect the ribbon cables and reconnect three times to burnish the connectors. Do each one you can see, one cable at a time. If you have any DeOxIt, spray a burst on the pins before you reconnect the first time.

Yup, a real PITA if you use these in a venue open 7 days a week..... I found out the hard way working at Fez in NYC back in the old days. Our repair guy had to open these repeatedly and do this. We didn't know about the 3 times rule back then though.

I still have a 24x8 in storage with the same issue....