skyline Posted November 24, 2006 Share Posted November 24, 2006 I've heard of bending the prongs on the PCV inwards slightly to make the fader looser and to decrease the wear on it; but how is it done? I know you use a flat-bladed screwdriver but when I take the fader apart the prongs are hidden by the contact block. Does the screwdriver go in from above the fader to get to the prongs or do you need to take the other side off which has the contact strips to get access to them? Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HaterNob Posted November 25, 2006 Share Posted November 25, 2006 I take the fucker to bits completley if I'm gonna do that shit, if you wanna do the same you'd best get your iron out innit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Posted December 10, 2006 Share Posted December 10, 2006 I've heard of bending the prongs on the PCV inwards slightly to make the fader looser and to decrease the wear on it; but how is it done? I know you use a flat-bladed screwdriver but when I take the fader apart the prongs are hidden by the contact block. Does the screwdriver go in from above the fader to get to the prongs or do you need to take the other side off which has the contact strips to get access to them? Cheers! Tape MOD it and lube the rails. no need to bend anything. Although you can cut off a part of the stem to make it lighter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liam Posted December 10, 2006 Share Posted December 10, 2006 I always bend back my fader prongs slightly. My faders always last years so I've always sworn by doing it; so long as you get a consistent electrical connection it has no ill effects. The trick is to not touch the 'finger' section of the prongs. Concentrate on the wide leaf-sprung bit. Get something nice and flat, like the edge of a credit card. Press gently but firmly at the base where the leaf-spring is fastened, and use a slow 'wiping' motion towards the fingers, but stop before you touch them. Repeat a couple of times. Put everything back together, you'll probabbly find the fader doesn't work, or that it works intermittently. Don't panic, this just means your method is working and you've bent it a tiny bit too far. Put something thin like a knife blade underneath and lift the leaf-spring ever so slightly. Tiny steps is best. Try it again. It might take 2-3 goes to get it perfect, but trust me it's a very easy adjustment to make and the benefit is clear. Manufacturers set up their fabrication processes to ensure a low failure rate. The prongs are therefore set to a higher tension than is strictly speaking necessary when they leave the factory to ensure that no faders reach the user not working. A little fine adjustment will get the pressure they apply right down, providing noticably less resistance. I used this method on three Alpha railglides, and three years later they all still worked fine. I thought the crossfader had given up the ghost so I bought a Penny... imagine my embarrasment when I came to fit it and realised I hadn't plugged both ends of the ribbon connector in. Long story short, the Alpha never died it just got replaced. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skyline Posted December 11, 2006 Author Share Posted December 11, 2006 Nice one, cheers Liam! I'll give it a go. Good job I saw your post before taking a screwdriver to the prongs... Do you have to take the prong side of the fader off to get to them, or can it be done by putting the card/knife down between the fader body and the rails? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liam Posted December 11, 2006 Share Posted December 11, 2006 You won't find it easy to do without removing everything Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dextrous Posted December 11, 2006 Share Posted December 11, 2006 You can unscrew the contact block on a pcv to get to the prongs. No need to solder owt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skyline Posted December 12, 2006 Author Share Posted December 12, 2006 I'd better give this a go on my spare PCV first... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airnino Posted December 12, 2006 Share Posted December 12, 2006 I'd better give this a go on my spare PCV first... true like two or three years ago i got me a brand new pcv, tuned it (pushed down the prongs and lubed it) and it was fucked on one side afterwards. i couldn't take it back to the shop because it was really obvious that i had been taking it apart. so i had to turn the whole fader around and i could only cut and not mix etc until i got me another one... but the modded pcv i'm using now is butter - can't go any lighter and any sharper than that (unless using a ecler eternal fader). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skyline Posted December 13, 2006 Author Share Posted December 13, 2006 Argh Tried unscrewing the contact block but could only make the stem come off - so would have to learn to solder to take the fader apart... How d'you go about getting the rails off with the soldering iron? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dextrous Posted December 13, 2006 Share Posted December 13, 2006 You don't ned to unsolder the rails. I'm pretty sure they unscrew on one side so you can slide the rails out. I could definately totally unassemble mine without an iron. It's been a while since I did it though so I can't remember the exact procedure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skyline Posted December 14, 2006 Author Share Posted December 14, 2006 Cool, will check it out, cheers Dextrous I also found an old ALPS fader lying around and managed to get the mod done on that. . Went to put it in my 05 tho and there's one capacitor on the circuit board which gets in the way so the fader cant reach the screws argh! May try cutting a small chunk out the PCB to get round that capacitor...or would that damage the fader? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liam Posted December 14, 2006 Share Posted December 14, 2006 Cool, will check it out, cheers Dextrous I also found an old ALPS fader lying around and managed to get the mod done on that. . Went to put it in my 05 tho and there's one capacitor on the circuit board which gets in the way so the fader cant reach the screws argh! May try cutting a small chunk out the PCB to get round that capacitor...or would that damage the fader? Nah, but it'd probabbly be just as easy to stick the cap on a couple of flying leads and stick insulating tape round the lot. If there's enough leg left under the cap , you might be able to solder it back down lying flat as well but I wouldn't hold my breath. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skyline Posted December 15, 2006 Author Share Posted December 15, 2006 Cool, will see what I can do... Cheers for all the advice everyone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skyline Posted December 28, 2006 Author Share Posted December 28, 2006 Hey I've managed to get the prong mod done on the PCV! I still wasnt able to take the rails off but thought of another way to get to the prongs... What I ended up doing was tearing up a long thin bit of newspaper thin enough to go between the rails, placing it down on the contact strips and moving the contact block so the newspaper went underneath the prongs and to the other side of the block. Then I picked up the newspaper so I was holding the paper either side of the block and pulled the newspaper taut so it comes off the strips and pushes on the prongs. To get the prongs adjusted further I folded the paper over to increase the paper thickness and did the process again. I've got to three folds so far - I'm doing this on my spare PCV so I'll have to find out how many folds I can get away with before the prongs are pushed too far... Hope this might be of interest to y'all! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dextrous Posted December 28, 2006 Share Posted December 28, 2006 Fair play.TBH though I can barely be arsed to fuck around with faders nearly as much as I used to. Especially in the early days of my cutting I wanted to have a fader that was like buttered silk but I'm not really that bothered any more. Yeah I'll give it a clean and a lube every 6 months when it feels like poo but beyond that, nah. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liam Posted December 29, 2006 Share Posted December 29, 2006 What I ended up doing was tearing up a long thin bit of newspaper thin enough to go between the rails, placing it down on the contact strips and moving the contact block so the newspaper went underneath the prongs and to the other side of the block Nice technique! Will bear that in mind if I ever need to mod someones PCV for 'em. Fair play.TBH though I can barely be arsed to fuck around with faders nearly as much as I used to. Especially in the early days of my cutting I wanted to have a fader that was like buttered silk but I'm not really that bothered any more. Yeah I'll give it a clean and a lube every 6 months when it feels like poo but beyond that, nah. Seen, I can totally identify with this. It's a good sign, though: you start out interested in it, you learn what can be done, what difference it makes and what you actually need. It's called experience! I barely fuck with my faders, but I'd say a prong-mod from the outset is worth doing, simply because they last longer and glide nicer. I'd still do it even if I stopped cutting and just mixed. Beyond that initial tweak the only thing I ever do is clean it when it's finally too grimey to use. I spent ages with ALPHA railglides and their one downside is that disassembly does slowly weaken the frames, so continually fucking with them does also have a negative impact; I've never owned one but I guess this applys to PCV's. Less so with the more readily dismantled faders like P&G and PX's Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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