So I re-knobbed my REV2

[philroyjenkins]

Heh, so some of you might not agree with my choices but its only knobs after all.

Personally, I'm loving it so far. The knobs themselves are easier for me to tweak with one finger and I find it easier to quickly tell how they are set at a quick glance. Oh and the giant cutoff knob begs to be tweaked live.

I went with the duo color scheme to further section off certain areas I use more often and I have to say, this was a game changer in the way I experience this synth. I feel like I'm playing the synth more now rather than just making patches and playing those.

[chysn]

Looks sharp, I like the MXR-style knobs on the Rev2.

[LoboLives]

I’ve been tempted to do this on my P6 as I really would like larger knobs on it (ala Moog).

[dsetto]

I can see how those two things can improve functionality. ...
Do the existing knobs simply come off? Is there a dimension you match when finding new knobs?

[dslsynth]

It looks pretty good! Well, pretty and good!

[DHTech]

The only Knob you need to worry about is the one controlling it

[philroyjenkins]

I can see how those two things can improve functionality. ...
Do the existing knobs simply come off? Is there a dimension you match when finding new knobs?

They come off but take a bit of force. I have used vice pliers and a piece of leather to avoid making any marks on the stock knobs. Once I got the process down, they came off pretty quick. The rev2 knobs are most likely 6mm. I used 1/4" shaft knobs because these were the style I wanted. Worked fine though. For the giant cutoff knob I added a little shim to make it sit better.

Thanks everyone, glad you all dig them. I actually thought I'd get some hate on em. Heh. This was kind of a symbolic move for me too since anytime I'm with a piece of gear long enough to know its a keeper, I end up modifying it and making it my own in some way. This was the Rev2s right of passage.

[trashdinner]

It's really sexy! How did you decide what knobs were white and what knobs were black?

[dsetto]

Thanks for the info.

[philroyjenkins]

It's really sexy! How did you decide what knobs were white and what knobs were black?

For the most part based on looks, but I wanted my resonance knob to be white like the cutoff and I only wanted the ADSR of the filter section to be white. I don't use delay nearly as often, and even then its not hard to find since its only 1 left of the white attack knob. Being able to barely even turn my head yet know which 4 knobs are my ADSR has gotten to be pretty nice.

I've actually changed it since this post to mostly this

with only the exception of the delay and resonance knobs being switched so that the resonance is white and delay black like i mentioned earlier.

[LoboLives]

It's really sexy! How did you decide what knobs were white and what knobs were black?

For the most part based on looks, but I wanted my resonance knob to be white like the cutoff and I only wanted the ADSR of the filter section to be white. I don't use delay nearly as often, and even then its not hard to find since its only 1 left of the white attack knob. Being able to barely even turn my head yet know which 4 knobs are my ADSR has gotten to be pretty nice.

I've actually changed it since this post to mostly this

with only the exception of the delay and resonance knobs being switched so that the resonance is white and delay black like i mentioned earlier.

Don't happen to know what size/style knobs were on the original Prophet 5 do you?

[philroyjenkins]

Don't happen to know what size/style knobs were on the original Prophet 5 do you?

No idea. I did find this though https://i.imgur.com/k8UrgzE.png

So they look to be push on D style which typically have 6mm shaft.

[Murphy]

Looks great! I might have to do this too.

[Tom]

How did you pull off the knobs safely?

[philroyjenkins]

How did you pull off the knobs safely?

With care 

Real answer: I used vice pliers with scraps of leather around the knobs so I wouldn't scuff them. They do simply pop off, even though they were tight.

[Kai-vD]

You inspired me to do the same with my REV2. I even decided to chose the same knobs, after looking at alot of knobs, because I didn't find any other that would fit better for me on this synth, and they really look and feel nice. So thank you for this great inspiration

How did you pull off the knobs safely?

With care 

Real answer: I used vice pliers with scraps of leather around the knobs so I wouldn't scuff them. They do simply pop off, even though they were tight.

I found out that a spoon is also a very helpful tool, to pull the knobs off easily.

[philroyjenkins]

You inspired me to do the same with my REV2. I even decided to chose the same knobs, after looking at alot of knobs, because I didn't find any other that would fit better for me on this synth, and they really look and feel nice. So thank you for this great inspiration

Post a picture when you finish! Did you go all black? Or some other color scheme?

[Kai-vD]

You inspired me to do the same with my REV2. I even decided to chose the same knobs, after looking at alot of knobs, because I didn't find any other that would fit better for me on this synth, and they really look and feel nice. So thank you for this great inspiration

Post a picture when you finish! Did you go all black? Or some other color scheme?

I orderd the knobs yesterday, so I hope to receive them in a few days...

I'm afrard the picture of my REV2 will look very similar to yours. I must confess I followed you in every way: I coundn't think of a better color combination than black and white (creme).

(Just one color (all black) woudn't have the helpful effect, to find the desired knob easier/quicker while performing/in the workflow).

Even your idea of the bigger knob for cutoff is so good, that I also overtook that.

So, in my opinion you came up with the far best possibility for re-knobbing.

The only aspect where I perhaps will differ is the grouping, so I orderd a few more blacks/whites to be free for other shemes. As I am still quite new to synths I'm not shure about my personal needs in that way yet. But for shure your idea of white knobs for the ADSR's is also great!

I also thought about treating the 10 endless regulators on the REV2 different, as their knobs don't need a mark, and that it could cause slight irritations always seeing a mark there, that points to - nothing defined.
As I didn't find these knobs without a mark, I will perhaps try to paint over the white mark on the black knobs...

[philroyjenkins]

You inspired me to do the same with my REV2. I even decided to chose the same knobs, after looking at alot of knobs, because I didn't find any other that would fit better for me on this synth, and they really look and feel nice. So thank you for this great inspiration

Post a picture when you finish! Did you go all black? Or some other color scheme?

I orderd the knobs yesterday, so I hope to receive them in a few days...

I'm afrard the picture of my REV2 will look very similar to yours. I must confess I followed you in every way: I coundn't think of a better color combination than black and white (creme).

(Just one color (all black) woudn't have the helpful effect, to find the desired knob easier/quicker while performing/in the workflow).

Even your idea of the bigger knob for cutoff is so good, that I also overtook that.

So, in my opinion you came up with the far best possibility for re-knobbing.

The only aspect where I perhaps will differ is the grouping, so I orderd a few more blacks/whites to be free for other shemes. As I am still quite new to synths I'm not shure about my personal needs in that way yet. But for shure your idea of white knobs for the ADSR's is also great!

I also thought about treating the 10 endless regulators on the REV2 different, as their knobs don't need a mark, and that it could cause slight irritations always seeing a mark there, that points to - nothing defined.
As I didn't find these knobs without a mark, I will perhaps try to paint over the white mark on the black knobs...

Yeah the black/cream is a super nice look. I was inspired by Vermona stuff. Look em up if you haven't seen it.

I know what you mean about the endless knobs and I considered that issue myself but in practice it really hasn't bothered me. In fact, its somewhat helpful. I know that if I reset the line to the same place on something like the FX selector, I know how I can get to certain effects if I move slow and stop a certain point. hard to explain, but to put it simply, its helped in how I select effects quickly and on the fly.

When I posted this, I wasn't expecting anyone else to try it themselves so I didn't really include any helpful info. I ended up getting 1/4" knobs since that was all I saw available in this style I wanted. They are slightly larger than the 6mm shafts. I got a couple of straws from starbucks because they are the perfect size and a little thicker than most (and because my gf was stopping by there on her way home.)

I cut the straws into a bunch of small pieces that I slid onto the shafts before screwing on the knobs. This helped them sit a little more centered and snug.

The large cutoff knob was a challenge because the screw set was a little higher than the shaft itself. I ended up using some scrap metal (the metal part from where a pencil holds the eraser) and making a shim to get it perfect.

All in all the whole job took a fair amount of troubleshooting but I'm kind of used to that and like I said, I wasn't making a how-to kind of post so I didn't mention a lot of this, I just wanted to show off the final result. Hopefully you don't run into any trouble fitting yours! If you do, just give me a shout.

[Kai-vD]

Thanks for these tips!

In fact, I didn't expect the re-knobbing to be so tricky, as I thought the little grub screws on the side of the new knobs would make it easy to tighten them. But of course, if the size is to big...

But you really came up with outstanding improvisation ideas!

I didn't receive my new knobs yet, but as I orderd them all for 6mm shafts, they will hopefully fit better than yours. I'll let you know how things are going on...