Roland MC-303 Groovebox

[jawnyb]

I have an ESX on order right now, and though that this site would be a good resource for me.
I thought I'd post about my original groovebox the Roland MC-303. I hope to run this along side my ESX but had two questions for the group:
1. Is anyone using an MC-303 with an electribe?
2. Has anyone had any experience with power issues on the mc-303? Mine won't power up currently.

Thanks!

[Ruso]

Tell me something about the power issue... does it do anything at all when you try to power it on?

Plug it in and turn it on (even if it doesn't do anything)..... let it hang out for a while.... touch the machine, see if there are any warm spots on it.... by warm spots I mean electronics inside are getting power and producing heat....

if nothing or you can't tell feel the power supply... if the power supply is cold after being plugged in for a while destroy it....

if the machine doesn't do anything at all check the power supply.... if you got a volt meter than there's your primo tool for this....

What I do, and you should NOT.... is I carefully take really thin wire and touch the two contacts on the power supply (VERY VERY FAST FOR A VERY VERY VERY SHORT TIME)..... if it produces a tiny spark, than it's safe to say you have power (unless you blow the fuse in the process)

[oobs]

1. Is anyone using an MC-303 with an electribe?

Unfortunately, I will.

I'm currently waiting for my first electribe (new ESXSD, shipping god knows when), and I still have my shitty MC-303. I can't stand 98% of its sounds. It's lame when you start to put many sounds together and it can't handle them. It has too few knobs, and they aren't even much responsive (that is, you must turn them a bit before the value actually starts to change). Lame.

The only good part about my MC-303 is that I managed to fix its volume knob (I opened the groovebox, disassembled it, opened the damned potentiometer and cleaned it for half an hour with Electrical Contact Cleaner).
Maybe it can still do something good together with some heavy effects.

2. Has anyone had any experience with power issues on the mc-303? Mine won't power up currently.

Yeah. But I don't remember exactly what happened.
I'm currently using one of those generic power supplies you buy at stores that let you change voltage. It seems to work correctly.
Anyway I'm not sure I would trust it and dare to use it during a liveset. I recently saw a good indie band (bass, drums, voices) using a MC-303. After the show I told them they were great - and brave enough to use something that could crash at any time. They were like "HEH TRUE WE'RE CRAZY TO DO THAT".