Mini wood restoration

cageswood · Post by **cageswood** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 9:00 pm

Just seeking advice.After seeing a magnificent minimoog on ebay polished and varnished,i'm unsure whether to have the same treatment to my rosewood mini cabinet,it has a few dings, has anyone else renovated the woodwork?Is it a positive or negative to do?Is it worth altering the original unpolished look?

eric coleridge · Post by **eric coleridge** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 1:13 am

I've been thinking of doing the same thing, except I don't think I'd opt for a gloss finish.
It seems that many people who do professional level Mini restorations do restore the case as well. So, I don't think anyone would argue that it harms the integrity of the instrument by doing so (assuming it's done well). As far as finish, I think it's a matter of taste. I'm sure there are some people who would say that it should be done like the original finish. But it's not a piece of antique furniture, right? People put blue LEDs in their Mini's, clear mod wheels, etc.
Also, it doesn't seem to harm it's value (that Mini sold for a good price?).

I've seen some web sites with pictures of step by step Mini restorations, I'll try to post some links if I can find them.

industrial_gypsy · Post by **industrial_gypsy** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 6:41 am

Just out of interest, I came across this site:

http://www.synthwood.com/

I've never used them, nor do I know anyone that has, just seemed quite interesting. I suppose any french polisher could do a great job, or you could do it yourself. Sorry if I'm digressing from the original post

Lengai · Post by **Lengai** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 3:39 pm

PM Nick Putrid. He knows a great tech that can probably do it. He had backlit wheels put in his mini so it may be a good place to check.

thewaag · Post by **thewaag** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 3:54 pm

Yes,

Nicks tech is Kevin Lightner, a synth tech of almost legendary proportions. Check out his site at www.synthfool.com.

Kevin used to be a regular on this forum until he got too busy.

If you check out his site, you will see that Kevin is no longer taking work for this year. That info has been on his site for months, so I would guess that he is booked up for much of 2007 as well.

When Nick was in Portland, he told me that Kevin is no longer doing work for the masses, concentrating on his existing customers and the big names in the industry. I don't see that on his site, however, so don't take my word for it--inquire from Kevin whether he is taking on new customers or not. Kevin is certainly the synth tech to the stars.

Frankly, refurbishing a cabinet is not that tough, and you don't need a synth tech of Kevins quality to do it. The cabinet is easy to dis-assemble from the rest of the synth. If you can't patch and refinish the cabinet yourself, take it to a local cabinet maker or refinisher. They will do a good job for you a lot faster than you would get it done by Kevin Lightner, if he would take the job at all.

I am sure that Kevin would rather do the tough stuff anyway, i.e. playing around with all those little electronic thingies inside the synth.....

eric coleridge · Post by **eric coleridge** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 4:17 pm

I think you should do it yourself.

Here's a great website with detailed pictures (and very bizarre descriptions?):

http://www.wetdragoon.com

cageswood · Post by **cageswood** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 5:52 pm

Thanks everyone for the help,the Wetdragoon site has confirmed it for me,french polished is exactly what i was thinking of,the finished product on that site is showroom quality,absolutely stunning.No hesitation now!

moogerfooger · Post by **moogerfooger** » Wed Aug 16, 2006 6:34 pm

I just had kevin lightner completly restore one of my mini's. well not just --it took over a year and he did a fantastic job. he did the case in a dark walnut stain, and it looks stunning. It sounds better than it ever did. Eric is right you should do the case yourself it's not hard to take apart, and you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you DIY

OysterRock · Post by **OysterRock** » Thu Aug 17, 2006 12:54 am

cageswood wrote:Just seeking advice.After seeing a magnificent minimoog on ebay polished and varnished,i'm unsure whether to have the same treatment to my rosewood mini cabinet,it has a few dings, has anyone else renovated the woodwork?Is it a positive or negative to do?Is it worth altering the original unpolished look?

A few weeks ago someone was selling new minimoog cabinets they had made themselves from all sorts of cool wood types (maple, cherrywood, etc) on ebay. There aren't any up now, but you may want to check occasionally. They looked great, real professional like. If I had a dinged up mini, I would have bought one in a second.

Kevin Lightner · Post by **Kevin Lightner** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 3:30 pm

Thanks for the kind words.

Please note that eariy minis had much nicer wood, but it was thinner.
Sanding it down more makes it still thinner.

It is possible to give a unit with light scratches a light sanding and restaining without a huge amount of work, but one should be experienced and confident with wood refinishing beforehand. One of the areas where many first-timers make an error is on the top wood piece where the side panels join to the top at a 90 degree angle.
Since sanding should be done with the grain, this is an area where it is difficult to perform an even sanding job.

My advice is to enlist a person very experienced with wood.
Wes Taggert is one such person who also knows minis very well.
He makes cases from scratch of hard and exotic woods and if your budget can afford it, it's a better idea to store your old original enclosure and buy a new one from him. The original case is worth money too and can often be sold to offset the cost of a new one, if desired.

As for me, I requested that Moog Music remove my name from their recommended list. This because of difficulty obtaining original Moog knobs and simply because of the sheer volume of requests I receive in email. It got to a point that I was only doing emails and not synths.
Since then, I have ordered a couple thousand new Moog knobs, but the email traffic is still quite large.

Unfortunately, it appears that I will not be available even in 2007.
I plan on putting a notice soon on my site indicating this and emailing any folks who requested service for the future.
My clientele will only consist of 2 or 3 major pros.
Contracts are pending right now concerning this change.

I may however release or sell info I've compiled about Minimoogs that exists nowhere else. Info about changes through production, mods, parts layouts, errors in the factory schematics, parts sources and other info to help other techs more able in their work. There are many, many changes made to Minis over the years and not all are easy to understand since the schematics do not reflect them all.

Sorry that I cannot be of more help.
I simply decided to eat and live vs starving and dieing.

analogbass · Post by **analogbass** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 3:51 pm

Wes Taggart was the one selling new Mini cabinets on Ebay a while ago; he also sells the underlying black bottom sections.

Here are some nice pics of various Mini cabinets as well as a good selection of wood cabinets for other vintage synths. Makes a big difference in appearance IMO:

http://www.analogics.org/product.html

http://www.analogics.org/

thewaag · Post by **thewaag** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 4:41 pm

Hello Kevin!

Nice to see you back on the site after a long absense.

moogerfooger · Post by **moogerfooger** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 7:22 pm

hi kevin -- thanks again for the great job you did for me --the mini is awsome - it's getting a lot of use, and is quite the conversation piece. I've even had some great offers for it -- but I'm not sellin -- your the man - thom

cageswood · Post by **cageswood** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 8:53 pm

Very nice Moogerfooger,i'm drooling!

museslave · Post by **museslave** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 9:25 pm

analogbass wrote:Wes Taggart was the one selling new Mini cabinets on Ebay a while ago; he also sells the underlying black bottom sections.

I've had a lot of conversations with Wes... in addition to doing this synth woodwork, he is also a noted analog synth technician. He was extensively quoted and suggested in Mark Vail's Vintage Synthesizers book.
If any of you have a Korg PS-3100, he also makes cases for those... Something I'll definitely be purchasing when I am rich. : )

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