Mfb 503
Yeah, yeah, yeah! I bought this little drum machine, very cheap, as a faulty unit. To find it was a super easy fix!
It looks like there's nothing wrong inside. But the two middle encoders were jumpy. The snare sound was only present when I pressed down on the case at random points, too. The case is made of cheap plastic. I don't know if all MFB 503 cases are like this. Strangely, though, mfb seems to have cut costs by cutting out some screw housings in the bottom of the case to fit the main board. However, these cut housings caused an intermittent snare noise. Nevertheless, I secured it with some pads and voilà… problem solved!
I cleaned the encoders with isopropyl alcohol and refluxed the 10-pin header that soldered the display to the main board on the left-hand side of the display. The jumpy encoders are gone!
It's a beast of a beat engine. It's Roland TR-909 style, but without the clap. I love the bass drum and snare. The bass can be boomy techno heaven or subtle enough to mix well with piano sounds. I'm no drum machine expert — I've always preferred real acoustic drums — but I'll certainly be using this drum machine for my next album.um.