Nord Stage EX for parts

[wojtas]

Hello,
I'm a proud owner of Nord Stage Classic, and it's working great for me.
I found recently quite cheap offer for Nord Stage EX, and I thought to make an upgrade and sell my Classic, just for the extra memory. But the EX is kind of broken, and I was analyzing what would it take to repair all the problems it has, and decided not to go for it, as some of the things can be not repariable wihout spare parts.

So I have another idea - but it and sell for parts. Do you think there's a need for spare parts from Nord Stage EX? I saw in service manual it shares a lot of components with another Nord products from similar time.

What do you guys think?

[maxpiano]

Hello and welcome to NUF.

What are exactly the problems on that NS EX? The reason why I am asking is that, since the EX shares 90% of components with the Classic, if the mainboard (the main difference) is OK maybe you could do the opposite i.e. replace parts using the equivalent from your Classic and sell the rest as spares (depending on which parts they are there could be a "marketability", yes)

[wojtas]

Problems with EX:
- couple of knobs don't work
- master volume is radomly lowering volume from time to time
- 5 keys in top octave are not working - all of them with piano, 1 with synth, 3 with organs - this is the weirdest

You're saying upgrade is simply switching the motherboard?

[Schorsch]

No - the other way around.

You should replace the faulty components of the Stage EX by taking the knobs, master volume control and the keybed from your Stage Classic. By this you benefit from the enhancement of the Stage EX, and you can sell the remaining, functional compnents of your Stage Classic as spare parts (or keep them in case something else on the Stage EX may fail).

[maxpiano]

Problems with EX:
- couple of knobs don't work
- master volume is radomly lowering volume from time to time
- 5 keys in top octave are not working - all of them with piano, 1 with synth, 3 with organs - this is the weirdest

You're saying upgrade is simply switching the motherboard?

A Schorsch said, the idea is the opposite but as far as knobs (including master volume) are concerned the replacements are relatively easy to find (ask your local Nord distributor for those parts) and replace, just some desoldering and soldering skills required; also regarding keys, it sounds more like the faulty ones are requiring some contacts cleaning and/or worst case replacing the silicon contacts strip (available as spare part as well), no need to take them from your Classic.

Actually Keybed could be swapped (if they are the same model, you didn't specify if Compact 73 or HA 76/88) and probably also the whole controls Panel, since as far as I remember the layout of controls didn't change between Classic/EX (but to be verified) and anyway given your description of the problems I wouldn't go that route.