[Ted Fletcher]

If your VC3 is one of my design (pre 2002 with my signature on the front) then I would be delighted to fix it…. The deal is I make a fixed charge of £25 for fixing any rack-mount or modular equipment that I designed plus the cost of returning it to you. However if the unit is one of the current Joemeek products then I would suggest that you use their returns procedure.
If it’s one of mine, then the post cost would be £4.50 so the total cost would be £29.50 and you can pay by paypal, then the turnaround is almost by return of post.
email me at [email protected] if you need any more info.

[Ted Fletcher]

I was away last week in France with no access to email for 2 days!!
[email protected] should work OK, and our phone number is +44(0)1803 209513
Yes, the M16 is available, I used it myself a few days ago.

[Ted Fletcher]

Yes! it’s the ‘Hi Tech Super Grease’, that’s the one! I have been using it recently and it really works well.
WD40 is the right thing for cleaning the pots, and the grease spray seems to work well on the shafts and the tracks. 😆

[Ted Fletcher]

Richie, I have emailed you direct with all the circuits of the 828.

[Ted Fletcher]

I don’t want to sound like a killjoy, but please don’t send any mixers until end of August….
And also, my ‘fix it’ policy can only work with the resources that I have in TFPRO….. A number of components in those very old units are obsolete and can’t be replaced; but that said, I’m happy to fix whatever I can….. but another word of warning, and you have spotted this one already, sending a mixer via carrier is a dodgy business, much better to deliver it personally or by a friend!
Re the quality of headphone out, yes, that should be the same as ‘line out’, but you have to watch the levels as you can run out of headroom with the headphone gain turned too high.
Seriously, I have to advise against ‘sending’ these old relics….. and if I have fixed them, they will have to be collected by someone responsible; we have seen too many accidents! 😯

[Ted Fletcher]

I’m surprised…. but we were starting to introduce transformerless front ends in those days; and in that case the circuit would have been similar to the Soundcraft of the same era; an op-amp with a pair of pnp transistors in front of it. This arrangement works fine, but does not have the ‘class’ of the transformer. It’s still a fine old mixer, and will do the job.

[Ted Fletcher]

Now we’re coming to the bad news! Those pots are ‘Omeg’ and they do suffer with age. The grease hardens and the tracks wear… and even worse, I don’t have any spares. I changed ove from ‘Omeg’ when we started to produce JoeMeek gear in quantity…. the later ‘Alps’ pots that we changed to (and still use) are much superior, but in most cases don’t fit as replacements.
I would suggest treat the ‘Omeg’ pots with some WD40 (NOT switch cleaner!) and then spray just a touch of ‘151’ which is a synthetic grease spray in a can. That way the pots should return to near new condition as long as they are not worn out. The one that will be worn out is the monitor gain and for sure that will nead replacing!
The faders are an early version of ‘Alps’. They are 60mm track and again, should be treated with WD40, and a touch of grease. They should be OK.

[Ted Fletcher]

Certainly the channel output would be post fader, the insert is likely to be post EQ, although on all later systems I always placed the insert directly after the mic/line input stage.
The channel outputs are not likely to be too robust, but it will work OK as a ‘front-end’ for location work as long as the cables are kept short; I would suggest not longer than 10ft. Very long cables can load down the channel output amplifier causing distortion and HF loss… but that’s only in extreme cases.

[Ted Fletcher]

While I’m not absolutely certain about the transformers, I’m pretty sure that the channel design was the same as the 828…. yes, it most likely has transformers, and the mixing system is likely to be the same also. This was a very successful design, they were used extensively for commercial production in radio stations all over the world.
The mixer that was less successful was the Itam 10-4. We developed that as an ‘improvement’ over the 828, but it was a poor performer, with sub-standard solid-state mic amps and a noisy mixing system….. It was a good example of ‘Improvement means deterioration’!

If the old 12-48 is in good working condition, it will sound good, and would do a good job as a small mixdown desk. It’s potentially on a par with the better ‘Soundcraft’ small mixers.

[Ted Fletcher]

I just had some other thoughts on this one…. The VC7 was a dual mic preamp with switchable impedance matching for the microphones. I designed it as an exercise to produce the best possible sound out of a variety of microphones; it was a very ‘up market’ piece and worked brilliantly. It was also very expensive.
There is still a spec and some pictures of it on the original JoeMeek website, but it’s certainly not available now!

One notable feature of the VC7 was that it had a built-in M/S matrix designed for recording using a cardioid and a figure 8 microphone to achieve a complete stereo image from a single point. The thinking was not original, but it certainly led to my present work in amplifier and loudspeaker design.
Not enough use is made of that system in recording…. it’s possible to achieve superb depth and realism with no possibility of ‘hole in the middle’ problems.

[Ted Fletcher]

Hi Fredrik, thanks very much for your post….. The reason the serial numbers seem so far apart is that at that time we used a simple numbering system for all products, so the intermediate numbers were mostly SC2 compressors. Yes, it’s true that only about 50 ‘bricks’ were made, and they were very much individually hand built. I had a number of problems with the early ones, mainly with the phantom power supply and the VU meter, but as far as the audio path was concerned, they are all the same.
The early units were just called ‘voice channel’, only the last 10 units were called ‘VC1’. I can’t remember why that one you have has the ‘VC7’ letters…. that’s a mystery.
For other readers of the forum, the superb sound of the ‘brick’ was a combination of a transformer input and a good quality preamp, arranged so that there is 30dB overload margin at the input. The ‘brick’ was not particularly low distortion, or wide bandwidth, but that transformer, operating properly, gave it a ‘presence’ . I’m seriously thinking of making something similar once again.

[Ted Fletcher]

I will email you direct.

[Ted Fletcher]

Drop me an email to [email protected] and I will give you the address and details.
Yes, I believe those connectors are still available….. I will check for you on Monday.

[Ted Fletcher]

Yes, I’m sure it can be fixed! Send it to the Sound House and we will fix it. You can paypal me the £25 plus £20 for packing and postage back. You can do the payment via the tfpro website. (The invoice number would be 676).
I had one of these just last week and it was working really well….. amazing for a mixer built in 1979!

[Ted Fletcher]

It’s good to know that those old desks are still around….. I don’t have any circuit or system details on them now, but the multiwats were simply start contacts from faders and possibly the on-air mic switch.
Sorry I can’t help, but once again, the servicing arrangement still is valid…… I will check over and fix any of the old gear; it’s 25 quid plus postage unless something really significant needs replacing.

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