Ensoniq ESP-16 Plus Sampler Restoration

Bag of Spanners

Did I mention that the first Ensoniq EPS-16 Plus sampler that I acquired was a bag of spanners. By that statement I mean that it was mis represented before the sale and when it arrived it wouldn't power up correctly.

I have watched and read several videos / blog posts where people have started the restoration of Ensoniq equipment and run into issues.  I am hoping that this will not be the case with the two Ensoniq EPS-16 Plus samplers that I now own.  But until you start the restoration you do not know what you will find.

EPS-16 Plus issues

There were several issues with the Ensoniq EPS-16 Plus:

• The disk drive will not spin up.  Irrespective of a boot sequence.

• On the second machine the disk drive spins up but will not load the operating system

• A fuse has blown

• The display and user interface appears stuck in a test loop

• As usual for a machine of this age previous owners have been inside and not put it back together with all the correct screws!

Until I get some life out of the instrument at this point it is difficult to understand what else needs to be tackled to return the instrument back to full health.

This sequence of videos will show how I have tackled the restoration of the instrument and whether it can be restored to full health.