Lift the Continental's keybed and set it on its back. Before working on it, support it
from behind (see photo below).
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Several of the keys on this Vox Continental made onset noise or sputter, a
sign of dirty key contacts.
To access the contacts, you must separate the keyswitch assembly from the
keybed.
Start by removing a hex nut from
each end of the assembly.
In this photo, an arrow points to the nut at the low end of the
assembly.
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In this photo, an arrow points to the nut at the high end of the
assembly. Take note of the key contacts for the topmost key.
Each key has four contact wires. When you play a key, each wire
gets pushed against one of four metal bus bars that run under all the keys.
Sawtooth tones pass from the contact wires to the four buses (16', 8', 4', and IV), carrying them
to their drawbars.
The IV bus gets a mixture of four ranks: 2-2/3', 2', 1-3/5', and 1'.
In other words, two upper octaves, a third, and a fifth.
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After removing the two mounting nuts, remove a handful of mounting screws from the lower
flange of the keyswitch assembly.
Here, arrows point out two of the screws.
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Finally, back out the adjustment screw circled here. In the photo,
it's already backed out of the vertical strut.
Normally, the tip of the screw touches the angle bracket, and the locking
nut touches the strut.
Leave the locking nut where it is so you know how far to advance the screw when you reinstall the assembly.
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At this point, you can carefully separate the keyswitch assembly from the
keybed.
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Rotate the assembly to expose the keyswitch wiring. The wire looms
have enough slack for this maneuver.
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Spread the wire leads to access the contacts for any
particular key.
Notice that 4 leads (1 yellow, 1 black, 1 blue and 1 violet) connect to one
of the contact wires (for the IV bus), whereas just 1 lead connects to
each of the
other contact wires.
To clean contacts, use a non-lubricated contact cleaner or a high
percentage (>90%) isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol.
Contact cleaners with lubricants don't evaporate and tend to capture dirt.
Pipe cleaners are ideal for
reaching into the tight spaces. Bend the pipe cleaner to reach and
wipe dirty
contact wires and buses.
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