HR16 drum machine kaput?

[downonthestreet]

Hi. I have an old HR16 drum machine that has stopped working. I stupidly left it in a box unused for a couple of years, then found that the pads were not reactive - couldn't get a sound out of them. They had been insensitive to touch at times in the past when I had been using the machine reasonably regularly, and I had spent a small fortune taking the machine to a local music electronics "expert", who would clean the silver thingos on the board inside the machine, charge me $60, and return it working as good as new. Problem is, the pads would always oxidise in time and become less sensitive to touch, whereupon I would have to take the machine back to my "expert" for a repeat clean.

After forking out around 6 or 7 times for this service, I asked him what he did to get the thing working properly each time I dropped it in, and he showed me - he simply used a rubber pencil eraser to polish the silver lines (sorry, terminologically challenged) on the board and get rid of the oxidation (his explanation). I stopped taking the machine into him to save bucks, and started polishing the silver lines myself. I am assuming that I have ended up polishing the sound away, since no amount of rubbing has gotten a sound out of this baby since I roused it from its slumber in its box for those two years.

I loved the drum sounds on this machine - au naturale, just the way I want 'em. I am loathe to chuck the poor baby in the bin after it served me so well for years, but if its sounds are gone irretrievably, I guess there's nothing else for it.

Can someone who knows about this stuff please advise - have I permanently buggered my machine with my eraser rubbing, or can it be restored in some way?

Cheers

PS: Any recommendations for a replacement machine with sounds comparable in realism to the samples on the HR16?

[bat63]

Your HR-16 was born in 1988.It is now 2004.16 years of using most anything is going to kill it.

Take it has a sign that you should now get an SR-16 for less than what you probably paid for the HR-16.Plus the SR-16 has a few things going for it that the HR could only dream of.

Get yourself a new rig...it's time...

[downonthestreet]

ha ha - thanks bat. Think you're right!