Modded and Customized Korg Electribe EA-1

This turned out to be a cool little unit. So cool it has earned a place in my collection for the time being.

Like most Electribes it had broken solder joints around the the power supply, and audio jacks. This one had something special!
I have seen ruined pads from people painting them with CaiKote 44 and the shit it does to boards when if peals off, but as much as I have heard of the #2 pencil trick, I have never seen it until now..

Revive Pads with a #2 pencil

The previous owner not only tried to color in every surrounding part of the pad, the fool even tried to color in the center of the pads. Somewhere in the middle of this guys fix, he broke the tip of the pencil off into to machine. The tip rested between to keys, keeping them on and rendering the machine useless.

Now I’m 100% for finding fixes to old machines, but I have to say don’t try everything you read online, If you do try it, at least do your f’n research.

I should of taken a picture of the pads.
Needless to say the pads were completely scrubbed clean, properly refreshed with graphite paint. The EA-1 was working perfect.

So why fuck with a perfect machine?

Because I can.

This EA-1 has refreshed pads, all green leds installed with the exception of the distortion, record and track count, a blue screen and moog knobs. Why? cause it looks good.