Hi there everyone.

I'm a music producer in the early stages of my career. I have always been a musician first, but have become much more focused on engineering over the last few years.

I spend a lot of time researching and finding old bits of analoge equipment and figuring out a use for them, and this has lead me to become interested in modifying some of this equipment, however, im a unsure of where exactly to start with this.

i have some very very basic electrical experience in fixing my guitars, changing pick-ups, and i have converted an old telephone handset into a microphone, but nothing beyond this very basic level. when i get to a circuit board i am pretty much lost.

i wanted to see if anyone here had some advice on where i can begin to learn some of the basics of circuitry that could be useful in the modification of music gear? or even better, if anyone knew of some common beginner modifications to tape decks or really any commonly available piece of music equipment they would recommend for a beginner?
any advice is welcome as this is a new world to me
thanks for reading anyway!

https://www.musikding.de/
It's also fun to buy a kit of your favorite equipment from a site that handles DIY kits and learn about the parts while assembling it. Once it's completed, you can use it for music production as it is, or you can change some of the parts to your own taste and see how the sound changes. Even a single resistor can make a big difference in the sound, and you can feel the change in sound with a variable resistor. If you have a goal, you can probably get information on many of the methods immediately, such as how to reduce noise, what connection methods are available, and how to create a device that generates white noise.
Some synths have service manuals that are publicly available, and you can sometimes get detailed information about parts and circuit diagrams. If you can get a simple old synth, it might be interesting to modify it.
One interesting piece of equipment that I could use would be something like a spring reverb, which uses a metal plate, a spring, pickups, and other electronic components.
Repairing your favorite synth can be a fun experience, as it allows you to revive it and extend its life.

that all sounds like a great idea, thanks im going to look into getting started with some kits. do you know of any common synths that are simple and easy to modify? thanks!

Yes, I agree that a spring reverb is a very usefull and fun project; it's probably the first effect that I played with when I was in 6th or 7th grade and I've built two or three. I think the best designs are ones that put the drive device and drive coil in the feedback loop (the last one I built had an opamp driving a pair of transistors). This design uses the inductance of the drive spring to minimize the low and and accentuate the highs so that pre and post emphasis in the drive and recovery amps is not needed...Genius! (not me but the guy who did it first... Craig Anderton ??? IDK) Here's Anderton's "Hot Springs" https://paia.com/dp/6740K_Hot_Springs_Reverb_Kit/