A Dead Strumplate Is No Longer a Death Sentence
Suzuki stopped supporting these instruments a long time ago. For years, a dead strumplate on an OM-27 or OM-84 meant one of two things: hunt down a donor Omnichord and cannibalize it, or shelve the instrument for good. The few strumplates still circulating are decades-old new-old-stock — a finite hoard that, once it's gone, is gone forever.
These are newly manufactured. Not salvaged, not the last of an old supply — new strumplates, fabricated to order for the Omnichord OM-27 and OM-84. No donor unit gets destroyed, and the part doesn't run out.
And I'm not keeping it to myself: the fabrication files are public on GitHub — order your own from any PCB house if you'd rather do it yourself. If you'd rather I just handle it, that's what this service is for.
Why This Matters
The strumplate is the Omnichord — it's the thing that makes the instrument what it is, and it's the part most likely to fail. Underneath, it works as a bank of switches: each note contact fires when it's shorted to an interleaved +12V comb, and a conductive layer on top is what makes that short happen when you press it. Over decades that layer wears through, traces crack, and corrosion creeps in — so notes drop out one by one until the strum goes patchy, then silent.
The Scarcity Problem
Suzuki hasn't supported these models in decades. What's left in the world is new old stock — a dwindling pile of original parts that were manufactured 40 years ago and are never being made again. Beyond that, the standard advice has been to find a donor Omnichord and strip it, destroying one instrument to save another. Every repair made the next one harder.
Making Them Instead
I had new strumplates manufactured — modern PCB fabrication, built to order. Nothing gets cannibalized, no second instrument dies, and the supply doesn't run out. Send me your Omnichord and it comes back strumming cleanly across the whole plate. The design files are open, so this part is simply not scarce anymore.
If you've had an Omnichord sitting in a closet because the strum died — and you were told to go find a parts unit, or that it simply wasn't worth saving — that's no longer the situation.
See It Work
A replacement strumplate in action. Watch on YouTube »
The Files Are Open
I want to be straightforward about what this is: I'm not doing anything magical here. I designed a replacement strumplate and had it manufactured through a PCB fabrication service — the same way anyone can. The only reason it hadn't been done is that nobody had drawn up the files and put them somewhere public.
So that's what I did. The fabrication files are on GitHub, free for anyone to use. If you're comfortable ordering a PCB and doing the swap yourself, go for it — you don't need me, and I'd rather these instruments get played than gatekeep a part.
What you're paying me for is the rest of it: sourcing and fitting the plate, getting the old one off cleanly without wrecking the shell, the ribbon connection, testing every note across the plate, and sorting out whatever else turns out to be wrong once it's open — which, on a 40-year-old instrument, is usually something. If you'd rather not learn all that on your own Omnichord, send it to me.
Is This Your Omnichord?
- Certain notes along the strum plate don't sound at all — dead notes
- An entire zone of the plate is unresponsive while the rest still works
- Notes only trigger with hard pressure, or come and go intermittently
- The chord buttons and rhythm section work fine — it's only the strum
- Visible wear, discoloration, corrosion, or peeling on the touch surface
If the chords and rhythm play but the strum is the problem, the strumplate is almost always the culprit — and that's exactly what this service fixes.
What's Included
- A new replacement strumplate, fabricated and fitted to your instrument
- Full strum test — every note verified across the plate before it ships back
- Contact & connector cleaning on the strum circuit while it's open
- Basic function check of chords and rhythm, so it comes back fully playing
- Photos of the work on request
A note on how these play. On the original, the conductive layer that bridges each note to the 12V comb is one continuous strip — which is why notes bleed into each other and picking out a single note cleanly is so hard. My plates break that layer into 12–13 separate sections, one per note, so each note is electrically isolated from its neighbors. You feel each note individually, and you only play two at once if you meant to. It's a genuinely different playing experience — more articulate and controllable, though the original's continuous strip does give a smoother glissando. Happy to talk through which you'd prefer. Full technical write-up here »
Models currently offered: Omnichord OM-27 and OM-84. Have a different model with a dead strumplate? Get in touch anyway — the list is growing.
Worth bundling: while your Omnichord is on the bench and already open, it's the ideal moment to add Reverse Polarity Protection or a full recap for very little additional labor.
Other Omnichord Services
While your Omnichord is on the bench and already open, these cost very little extra in labor. Worth bundling with a strumplate job.
Reverse Polarity Protection (RPP)
The age-old Omnichord tragedy: someone (your roommate, your bandmate, past-you at 2 a.m.) grabs the nearest wall wart, plugs it in, and the polarity is backwards. The Omnichord doesn't forgive that. One wrong adapter and the unit is dead. It's one of the most common ways these instruments die.
Reverse Polarity Protection is a small internal modification that guards your Omnichord against a reversed-polarity adapter, or the wrong supply entirely. Install it once and stop worrying about it.
- Protects against reversed-polarity and wrong-voltage adapters
- Fully internal — nothing changes about how you play or power the unit
- Cheap peace of mind, especially for gigging or shared-space instruments
- Ideal to add while the case is already open for other work
Recap & Restoration
Every vintage Omnichord is running on capacitors that are pushing 40 years old. Electrolytic caps dry out, drift, and eventually fail, which is the single most common point of failure in an instrument this age. A full recap replaces them all and heads off the intermittent gremlins that come with aging electronics.
- Full recap — all original electrolytic capacitors replaced
- Diagnosis & repair of dead units, dropouts, and intermittent faults
- Cleaning & detailing — contacts, buttons, pots, general refresh
- CMOS logic chip service — replaced or socketed for easy future swaps
- Optional add-ons — RPP, strumplate replacement, new power supply
Every unit is different, so restoration is quoted after I hear what yours is doing. Tell me the symptoms on the form and I'll give you an honest assessment and estimate.
How the Mail-In Service Works
- 1. Reach out — fill out the form below with your model and what it's doing.
- 2. I confirm the fix, the price, and the turnaround, and send you a shipping address.
- 3. You ship it — I'll send packing guidance so it arrives safely.
- 4. I do the work, and send photos along the way if you'd like them.
- 5. It ships back to you, insured, strumming like it should.
Local to Gainesville, FL? Skip the shipping entirely and arrange a drop-off.
Request Omnichord Service
Tell me about your Omnichord and I'll get back to you with a quote and next steps.
Prefer to reach out directly?
Text/call (352) 325-1222
or email greg@keyandcable.com