Oberheim OB-Xa with MIDI

Oberheim OB-Xa with JL Cooper MIDI for sale.

This unit came to us in relatively good working order, but these synths need a full rebuild in order to work like new again and be as reliable as possible, so that's what we did. It's been meticulously cleaned inside and out and electronically refurbished so it's working exactly as it should, no surprises (unlike most!). We also took future-proofing measures, so it will hopefully outlast all others. This process took approximately 37 hours of valuable skilled labor which is of course factored into our price - you get what you pay for. See the photos below. This ob-xa contains a JL Cooper MIDI retrofit.

This unit should be more in tune than others out there as not only has it been meticulously refurbished, but it also includes our custom tuning stabilization modifications.

Here's a rundown of what our tech did - there could be more things left out:

Disassembled and cleaned inside and out
Keyboard mechanism rebuilt: 
Old bushings removed and replaced with new bushings
Key guides adjusted
Bus bars cleaned
Key contacts cleaned
Keys cleaned and reinstalled
Replaced power supply caps, replaced IC socket, diodes, trims
Lots of molex connector terminals replaced
Jacks cleaned
All pots cleaned
VCO trimpots replaced for more stable tuning
Replaced most electrolytic capacitors
Recalibrated
Replaced 4053 logic IC chips x3
Replaced CV section TL082 IC chips x8
Replaced CA3080 VCAs IC chips in CV section x8
Replaced battery
Reloaded patch data
Replaced wooden sides
Repaired often defective pitchbend

sn82010x

The OB-XA is a gorgeous polysynth. It's got a good set of polysynth features - 2 oscillators, 2 LFOs, oscillator sync, 2 envelopes, white noise, unison, etc.  Plus, unlike some of the earlier polys, this one had a decent amount of memory.  It's got a great sound and is ideal for most peoples analog polysynth needs as it can do a wide range of sounds really well. The OBX-a inspired the OB-8 but many feel the OBXA sounds better. We love both, but it's hard not to love any vintage Oberheim! 

It's been reported that the OBXA is the synth Van Halen used in the song "Jump". However, Michael Boddicker, a famous synth session programmer in LA who says he worked on the Jump sessions, disputes this and says it was actually two Prophet-5s that were used while he was present. The OBXA was also reportedly used by a number of other famous users, including Depeche Mode, Eurythmics, New Order, Gary Numan, Prince, Sting, Thompson Twins and many more, though we weren't in the room to see it, so who knows?!

Here's a video of sn82010x in action, going through some of the factory preset sounds and then some more interesting tweaking at 1:43.