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Roland JX-8P Synthesizer  |
The one I found is a little road worn. It has one dead key (the low A) and the volume slider needs some help (it only goes to 1/4 volume or to 11). Even with the dead key it can still be controlled fully via MIDI - which is how I normally control these synths anyway. And, when I record, the volume is cranked to send the most signal through the lines. So, a couple pretty easy fixes which aren't even a priority for me.
Parts of this machine are pretty worn so I might do some custom work to it. I normally avoid doing major cosmetic changes but anything I do to this thing will be an improvement at this point. Perhaps a total paint job - Bright Red! I'm not sure yet. I need to crack it and see how the guts look first.
She's a tired old girl but she sounds good - and the aftertouch actually still works. (shock!)
 The guts. |
 The guts - location of battery. The Roland JX-8P uses a soldered on BR2032. There is plenty of room to replace the soldered on battery with a BR2032 battery holder. |
 More guts |
 The top of the keyboard and a row of springs. |
 The underside of the keyboard. I had this machine apart to fix a dead key. |
 The key switches are pretty simple and easy to access. They are just a series of thin copper strips which contact when the key is pressed. |
 The dead key on this machine had the bottom copper contact bent out of shape. It took about 30 seconds to tweak it back in order. |
 An interesting thing for those with a JX-8P with some dead keys - when I put this back together I caught the underside of the keyboard on my shirt. I didn't notice right away but I bent a few of the T-shaped contacts inside with the other contacts (they just sort of snapped in). When I reassembled the keyboard and tested it, all the keys up from these bent contacts no longer worked. It was simple to pop the T contacts back out. Something to keep in mind if you have a chunk of keys which don't work on a JX-8P. |
Insert fantabuliousy specs..
Specifications
Polyphony - 6 voices
Oscillators - 2 DCO's per voice (12 oscillators)
Memory - 64 patches + External memory cartridges
Effects - Portamento
VCF - standard VCF
VCA - ADSR envelope
Arpeg/Seq - None
Keyboard - 61 note keyboard with velocity and aftertouch
Control - MIDI In/Out/thru
Date Produced - 1985
Acquired: 2009
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