OK, I’m totally spamming here, but last thought, is that as a middle-age man with kids, a closed system is more efficient to actually making music than an open one, like the ESX. Feel free to disagree, and I am also in the afterglow of getting a new piece of gear, but that is my deep thought for the day.
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You really have to think about what you want to achieve with an instrument or a module or whatever, you don’t necessarily need it, you can make a tune on your sofa.
Congrats, such an awesome machine. I’ve owned the ESX-1 and EMX-1 since around 2008. I still love them to this day. I’ve played with changing out tubes over the years and honestly never notice a difference. If you have not checked out SnowMetal on youtube he has a playlist of ESX tutorials. I learned so much from him, he is an absolute master of this device. Have fun and never sell it!!! 
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I originally had a purchased a EMX-1 in 2003 but traded it in for a Trition Extreme within the 90 day exchange period. Fast forward 21 years later, just bought a dead stock EMX-1SD from Japan! I love this thing! It came with the Ruby tubes which to my knowledge is what they came with instead of the Electro Harmonix after the 2010 refresh and adding the SD card. They distorted pretty bad after 11 o’clock position. Just put a matched pair of JJ ECC803S Gold Pins in it and made the cable and calibrated. Night and day difference!!! These tubes sing instead of distorting like a typical guitar amp tube.
Now I’m on the hunt for a dead stock or mint ESX-1SD!!
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Niiice!
That looks great condition too. My main encoder is so jittery now it’s almost unusable. Makes me sad.
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Looks minty
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Which encoder? Maybe just get it repaired?
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Its in great condition ! Birthday pressie from my GF. Came with a really good manual too.
5 x Plaits before Plaits existed with a drum machine. BOF!
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The one used to access the main menu area (patterns etc). I should look in to it.
Hello, I’ve seen the topic so I will ask for help 
Anyone has a clue on what is the problem on my Emx1 ? :
Screen light up but do not show anything, EMX is working great, I can launch my pattern and pley with it.
I love this gear, my first groovebox
what a cool girlfriend. what even compares to the emx-1 these days, the syntakt?
i have a real soft spot for the old electribes but was never lucky enough to own the esx-1/emx-1
someday
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That encoder was a bit jittery on mine. It would jump backwards and forth as I turned it. I just sprayed some contact cleaner down the shaft which sorted it out. I wouldn’t do that on a parameter knob as it will remove the grease and make it loose and wobbly, but it’s fine on that knob as it has indents.
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Isn’t there some fix using baking paper or something?
Seem to remember that from when I owned an ESX.
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From earlier in this thread:
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If contact cleaner doesn’t fix it for you it’s a pretty easy part to replace. There is more disassembly than you might expect but nothing crazy. The actual part swapping is easy if you can solder and the replacement encoder isn’t expensive.
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Is there a reliable way to recoat the pad backs?
I use CaiKote and it sorta works but I keep needing to redo the Mute and Solo buttons and I’m sick of taking it apart and cleaning and recoating them just for them to become unresponsive a few minutes later.
Not that I’ve tried. Everything seems to wear off eventually but there are probably a number of products I haven’t tried or heard of.
The esx (I don’t have an emx but mechanically speaking they’re pretty much the same) isn’t as bad as other pieces of gear in that regard. The mmt8 is a nightmare (wonderful otherwise though). I’ve considered modding something with the “contact pads and circuit traces” design to a tact switch implementation for reliability but I’ve never gotten around to it and I wouldn’t start with my beloved esx.
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