Short answer, no.
Long answer:
What you have to understand about the 928 (and many Studer consoles) is while it is “modular”, that modularity relates more to the configuration ordered and the manufacturing of the console and much less with ease of reconfiguration in the field. It is quite possible no two 928s are alike, because they were made to order, and the service manual for each is unique with unique wiring diagrams pertinent to the custom configuration ordered by the original customer.
So the one you’re looking at has 60 module slots plus the patchbay, right? If so that means it has four 16-slot “buckets”. Here are the things that make it difficult to just remove a bucket and go on your merry way:
While the total frame is composed of either 12 or 16 slot buckets, or a mix thereof, they are tied together and reinforced with the armrest extrusion you mentioned (which is a custom extrusion), and I think five other full-width extrusions…either all 2020 or maybe a mix of 2020 and 3030. So all of that has to be cut down. That’s the easy part. The more complicated part has to do with the wiring and the motherboards. The standard motherboard assembly supports 12 modules. That’s right. The console frame is made up of 12 or 16 slot buckets or a mix, which support 12 or 16 modules respectively, but the motherboard supports 12 modules. So in your case you likely have five motherboards for the 60 slots…five motherboards…four buckets. It’s like the hot dog and hot dog bun mismatch problem…which means if you remove, say, the left-most bucket (because, trust me, it’s a WHOLE lot less hairy to try and rebuild the whole console as a result of removing from the left than removing from the right if the master section and patchbay are at the right…most consoles have a patchbay at the right…if you have no patchbay and the console is a split configuration with the master section somewhat in the center then you’ve got a choice you can make), you’ll have to move all your motherboards four slots to the right…you get me? You have a motherboard for modules 1-12, and then one for modules 13-24, but remove the bucket for modules 1-16 and you’ll have a four-module tongue of a motherboard sticking out to the left for modules 13-16…so everything has to shift left. But oh wait…you can’t just slide everything to the left because then you’ll have a nightmare of reconfiguring all four motherboards you have left, and that is no small order…more below…but remember the master section is the most complexly configured motherboard. If you can avoid doing anything with that one that’s ideal…like, avoid moving it. So what do you do with the four-module tongue then? A 10” table saw with a new 60-tooth finishing blade works pretty good. I’m serious. And that’s how Studer did it too. Although I imagine they has a nice saw, but you can tell that’s how they did it, because sometimes they ended up requiring only an eight-module or four-module motherboard depending on the configuration ordered. My console is a good example…two 16-slot buckets and a 12-slot bucket…12 mono mic/line input modules, 20 stereo line input modules, 4 mono group modules, and then the 4 modules for the master section, and then 4 slots for the patchbay. The motherboards don’t go under the patchbay. So I’ve got 40 slots worth of motherboard…it’s been a minute since I’ve had the belly opened up on my console but I think I have two full 12-module motherboards and two 8-module boards, which are just 12-module boards cut down with a precision saw. You can see the saw marks on one edge of the board. It’s a nice clean cut, but it was done with a saw. So if you’re still not scared away from the idea of reconfiguring a 928, consider this: the motherboards are mechanically “programmable”…in other words there is only one type of motherboard PCB assembly, and it is designed with all the lands for all the different types of connectors and jumper wires so any motherboard can accommodate any type of module and all the different options that might be fitted; direct outs, dual mic, patchbay or no patchbay, different metering, input or summing module, mono or stereo…all the possibilities are built into a single PCB. This is GOOD news in that the console has the capability to be any configuration you want as long as you have the hardware and know how to “program” the motherboard. You can glean a lot just by looking at what’s there and replicating if you want to change things, but there’s different “stuff” for each different module. Oh and also keep in mind how power is distributed…I don’t know how many power supplies the one you’re looking at has…if it’s a later gen 928 it might be 4? Mine has three. And one might think oh! One supply per bucket! No. My 12-slot bucket is the first one on the left. It holds the 12 mono mic/line input modules. Isn’t that nice and neat. 12 slots, 12 modules, one motherboard, one supply? No. The first power supply powers the first 16 modules…so all of motherboard 1 and the first four modules on motherboard 2 are powered by supply #1. I think that was an engineering decision around power supply capacity and load balancing. This is why it is SO important to have the original manual specific to your 928…it has the roadmap for all the unique wiring. Mine did not have it. This is how important it is to have…years ago I found a 928 manual. It cost me $150. I bought even though it’s not specific to my console. Why? Because it’s chock full of documents you can’t get anywhere from anybody and offers examples for wiring and configuration that can apply to my console. Otherwise I’d be pretty lost. So you chop off the first four channels of your first motherboard. Done. But now yoy are maybe reconfiguring what’s loaded in your first two of three remaining buckets because you’re not just getting rid of the module types that used to be loaded in the former bucket #1. If you’re changing what was loaded originally from mono to stereo input module or vice versa, get ready for more motherboard reconfiguration.
I thought for a long time how badly I wanted a split console…inputs to the left, multitrack returns to the right, master in the middle…mine has all the inputs to the left, then groups, then master. I’ve researched and thought and thought and thought about this…flipped back and forth. I finally settled on just leaving it alone years ago after talking with a trusted and knowledgeable friend. The 928 is an amazing sleeper of a console, and so well designed and built…from the signal path to the structure and the details they thought of that make it reliable and kickass. I don’t want to mess that up. I can still hear my friend: “Leave it alone.” He knows I have a propensity to mess with stuff. I also have opportunity to potentially add a bucket. I thought I might need the extra inputs. But I’ve decided against that too. What I am still planning on doing is trading 4 stereo line input modules for 4 more mono groups, so it’ll be an 8-buss console. One of the great gems of the 928 is the output driver design on the groups and master modules…rare and fancy hybrid opamp transformer design where the transformer is in the feedback loop of the multi-stage opamp driver…higher drive, mitigation of DC offset so less coupling needed…high quality opamps…it sounds awesome. I have a white paper on the circuit design somewhere. So I want more of those since I’m a drummer and would like to be able to track up to 10 channels at once through those outputs (master is the same output driver, just a stereo pair…so that would be used for drum overheads, then 8 mono outs for close mics). The opamp-only outputs on the AUXes and direct outs are still awesome…not your conventional opamp design at all and have lots of drive…expensive opamps, etc. But the mono group and stereo master outs are special. So to do the swap I have to have a group section backplane module, add all the jumpers for the groups on the motherboard, remove the jumpers that configure those slots for stereo line input modules…add the cable runs and power for another 4-channel group meter module up in the bridge…and other stuff.
Hopefully all the above doesn’t make it sound like I’m being critical of the 928. It is my favorite device here in the studio. So smartly designed, so quiet, massive headroom, an amazingly purposeful and useful feature set…I love it. And despite what the haters say, that’s it’s just a rebadged Soundcraft B800 is short-sighted and prejudicial snooty garbage. Every 928 is stamped “Made in Switzerland by STUDER Professional Audio AG”, and I connected with people that worked there at the time and they confirmed the 928 was built in the Studer factory, and while designed in collaboration with Soundcraft, it is clear the physical structure, interconnects, motherboard architecture and circuit design are all Studer lineage. And the Soundcraft variant lacks key features like the Lambda module power supplies, the much fancier mic amp, hybrid output drivers, higher quality Studer metering, etc. Studer kept the good stuff for the 928, the B800 is something of a base model, not nearly as customizable, etc. Still a very good console. But the 928 is superior. I think the sticker price on mine in the year 2000 was around $100,000.
How many mono groups does the one have you’re looking at? Hopefully 8? They are an important part of the console with the hybrid outs, stereo returns and onboard compressor/limiter, which is a gem of its own. Do you know if it was configured with direct outputs? My mono mic/line modules have direct outs but the stereo line modules do not. Of course they can be incorporated…the infrastructure and circuitry is there…it’s all about wiring and connectors.
Do you have pics you can post of the one you’re looking at? I can tell you more about it with pics. Feel free to PM me.
This thread is a monster of information and insight! Mr. Sweetbeats, if only for posterity's sake (and it's evidently very much NOT just for posterity), great job!