This Roland was probably the most labor-intensive repair I’ve ever taken on. At first glance, the synthesizer looked to be in decent condition, apart from two missing potentiometers in the pitch bender section. But that was only an illusion. Once disassembled, it turned out to be a complete disaster. Economically, the repair made no sense at all, as taking it to a professional service center would most likely have resulted in a bill far exceeding the value of the instrument itself.

Below is a list of the faults and issues this instrument had:

• two missing potentiometers in the pitch bender section and the third one was non-functional,
• two missing potentiometer caps (knobs) in the pitch bender section,
• leakage of the infamous red glue from underneath many keys, including contamination of the keyboard PCB,
• several non-working keys,
• several non-working control panel buttons,
• collapsed plastic keycaps on part of the control panel,
• the inside of the instrument was covered with sticky, foul-smelling oil (most likely someone tried to revive the slider potentiometers this way),
• noise and crackling on the audio output.

Didn’t I tell you? A complete disaster.

The following repairs were carried out:

• the entire keyboard assembly was completely disassembled and cleaned,
• all glue leaks were removed, and the undersides of the keys were filled with white epoxy resin to prevent future leaks and restore the correct key weight,
• the keyboard keys were whitened and then carefully polished to restore their original gloss,
• all control panel tactile switches were replaced,
• all plastic keycaps were cleaned and polished to restore their shine,
• one complete keycap assembly (4 buttons) was replaced with a used original part sourced from abroad,
• new retaining tape for the button assemblies were installed,
• three new slider potentiometers were installed in the pitch bender section,
• three new pitch bender knobs were 3D printed in black resin,
• all conductive rubber contacts beneath the keyboard were replaced (a very unusual and rare type available only by special order),
• the entire interior of the instrument was thoroughly cleaned to remove the oil, odor, and all contamination,
• the electrolytic capacitors in the audio path and power supply were replaced.

How long did all this take? Far too long. How much did it cost? Far too little. But the fun and satisfaction were absolutely worth it. Below are some photos from this odyssey…

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