E-MU Emax SE, Sampler

Repairing an E-MU Emax having a key always on

I’m about to sell my Emax since I don’t use it very much, and it takes up a lot space. It did have one problem though, that I hadn’t looked into at all. The problem is that as soon as the Emax had loaded a disc, the E4 note was always on. I suspected it had something to do with the that particular key, and hoped that maybe some cleaning with alcohol would do the trick.

I turned the Emax upside down and opened the bottom lid. I must say it’s very easy to open, less than ten screws and then you have access to almost everything. The key error was easily spotted as soon as I got the lid off. The spring wasn’t in position, so I simply put it back, did a little cleaning of the Emax, and put the lid back on. Worked perfectly.

This is the spring that needed to be put back in place. After doing that, that note wasn't always on anymore. A very easy fix.
This is the spring that needed to be put back in place. After doing that, that note wasn’t always on anymore. A very easy fix.

So, if you ever hear about an Emax with an always-on-key, it’s probably a very easy five minute fix.

Some other stuff worth commenting regarding my Emax.

  1.  It has the revision 3 CPU board, I’ve read that this is the easiest one to upgrade to SCSI.
  2. The Emax was probably factory upgraded to SE, all the SE markings are separate stickers as you can see on some photos. The serial number of the Emax is fairly low, so this is one more evidence that this is an upgraded non-SE.