Please nobody laugh...
I have a (obviously old) DG8 which I unwisely bought from someone. It was my 75th birthday present to myself - I'm starting to learn to play. It's in very good condition and sounds incredible, but now it's developed scratchy and crackly noises in the sound system - speakers, headphones and line outs. No technician around here wants to even look at it because you can't get schematics etc (let alone spare parts). I'm in Melbourne Australia. I wonder if anyone can help with that, or with other suggestions.
I haven't yet tried cleaning the sliders, and I will do that, but it doesn't sound like that's the problem, as the noise doesn't change at all when I move them. As a last resort I'm even willing to try fixing it myself if that's the only way I can save it. I have the Reference Manual and the Service Manual, but they're obviously not enough. Also, it's an absolute monster weighing 39 kg (85 pounds) and will take 2 men just to turn it over.
One technician I spoke to laughingly told me to take it to the tip (garbage dump in Aussie English). I think it'd be a terrible shame, and I really don’t want to throw out such a beautiful instrument for the sake of something that I hope could be quite simple to fix.
Also, I believe that Dave Bryce is something of an expert on this machine. If someone could put me in touch with him I'd be grateful. Can't find his email address anywhere.
