ESQ-1 Wobbly pitch and wonky sliders

Synth Repair
1

Hi all!

My Ensoniq Esq-1 is having some issues. 1) the pitch will slide around. This used to happen every now and then, and now it makes the synth unusable. 2) the data and volume sliders are VERY jumpy. When I touch them, the values bounce around wildly.

I bought a volume slider from Syntaur, and I was going to switch out the volume. Maybe I should switch out the data. Maybe it’s a connection and not the slider itself? I’m also waiting on some Deoxit to spray around the innards.

But do these problems ring any bells for anybody? If anyone can give me some direction.

I’m fairly competent with a soldering iron, but I don’t really know much about the math that’s going on inside this baby.

Any tips would be huge. Thanks!

2

According to your description, all the potentiometers are dirty. This also includes the potentiometer of the pitch bend wheel.
To test, you can simply unsolder the centre cable from the bender potentiometer, if the wobbly pitch stops then the bender potentiometer is the cause