Great cheap keyboards , circuit bending shit and other gears

[YamahaPSR6]

Hello, I have another entry about Yamaha PSR -6 circuit bending , telling a lot about me and my stance towards music.

these last months I got some really neat cheap keyboards, and some are really awesome.

Most of this gear is usually cheap, but there is a golden rule in circuit bending: don't mess with anything you will be sorry for fucking up.

So, some of these keyboards are really neat as is, some only need an output jack to connect to external amplifier, and some really could use a new function or two.

So, onto my list. I would love to see other posters showing of cheapie gear they got for making music or circuit bent objects.

Two kid - accordions. The russian one sounds cool



Chord keyboards, that is fan-operated keyboards , one mains operated (ruaro) and one battery (bontempi)



Hohner melodicas!



awesome gear ! Behringer V-amp, a really great sounding and cheap amplification emulator with extra effects, and the not-so-cheap Roland EF-303 a great and versatily effect unit that includes a simple drum machine a simple synth and a simple but effective 303 bassline sequencer. The EF-303 is perfect for live electronics, noise and playing with simple/cheap keyboards.



Cheap acoustic 3/4 guitar, cheap Fender guitar with special strings downtuned and a bass (behringer) a recently borrowed from a friend that never played with it.



Not so cheap either, the awesome electronic hand percussion Roland HPD-10



This is a really great synthersizer, but its really cheap compared to what it can do. I wont go far, this is a digital analogue modeling synth, IMO it rules. One can buy one off ebay at reasonable prices

this is still in the not so cheap category, but honestly, this , the ef-303 and the hpd-10 are only 'decent' equipment I have, from pro brands I mean. This is as far as my purism gets. [oh I also got a set of real acoustic drums , pearl ]

Roland SH 201



let go to some of the more cheapies and introducing some bent devices too!

CASIO CT-670

A decent arranger keyboard from 1992. Even includes a small synth section to alter the sounds. I founds various bends and fianlly installed a 6x6 matrix with dip switches controllable with a button and switch. many crazy sounds produced. Further bends possible.



Yamah PSR-6 FM keyboard, plenty of space for bending, from 1988



Bontempi HF 222

awesome and pretty analogue sounding cheapie keyboard from around 1980 , with few vintage organ sounds, mains operated. Some trimmers on the PCB are interesting, so bending is possible



Bontempi Minstrel Beta

Awesome sounding, mostly analogue keyboard from around 1983



Bontempi MRS 52

Awesome sounding, mostly analogue keyboard from around 84-85



Ancient Quickshot (?) MIDI controller. I have used this a LOT !
I wonder what could be archieved with circuit bending it to match some other device. Any ideas?



Yamaha PSS-80

Nice and cheesy sounding keyboard, with interesting pseudosynth allowing many variations, reminding sounds of chip music , c64 and amstrad CPC stuffs.



These are some DIY boxes and bend toys.

guitar#1: pitch and vol pots, out jack
guitar#2: installed a 555 circuit on this one, I made it into sqeeking nicely. need to add a vol pot.
toy phone: nice sounding bent. pitch bend, glitch button and out jack

blue box: 40106 based generator . circuit bending mentality used in building it to combine the different schematics and produce more variations in the sounds. I am very happy with the result.

it includes 2 squarewave generators, one of which has also pulse width pot, resistor mixed with vol pots, one lfo osc, and a couple bending switches.

Grey box: a Atari Punk console variation, created to also be powered byt the 40106 blue box unit and they both interact. This has also space for more stuffs, so I will propably add something.

both boxes housed in old modems.



Casio HT-3000

This is actually a pretty good arranger/synth keyboard with oldskool and analogue sounding tones [indeed this has lots of analogue circuitry] from 1987. This is pretty good for someone who digs the mentality and sounds of the Casio MT/CT series and sounds, although the rhtyhm section is PCM samples, not the analogue rhythms of the older Casios. There's also the HT-700 with mid sized keys, that can be found even cheaper than ht-3000 and ht-6000 .



Pedal effects , you can never have enough of those. They are also nice targets for circuit bending projects. I haven't bent any of those, but the arion flanger I have experimented and it surely can be bent!



Casio MT-45

a pretty, analogue keyboard with cheesy tones , analogue rhythm and nice accompaniament, from around 1982.



Casio MT-52

again a pretty keyboard with lots of drum variations and lots of analogue circuitry, this asks for some extra switches like rhythm volume pot or at least mute, supposed to be pretty archievable. Haven't played with it yet. From around 1985



Casio MT-800

This has awesome sounding speakers and awesome sounds in general. The accompaniament section is not so versatile, but I like the chord and bass sounds. I need to find rubber contacts for this one, as one key is not playing well. Any ideaw?



Bontempi BT-605

Interesting sounding digital cheap keyboard, with some nice sounds. There are many models with '666 variations' and they're based on the same engine.



Bontempi b50
very recent buy, haven't checked it out a lot. Messy sounding monophonic keyboard. Should be better with bending!

Casio pt-22
I bought two of these, bent one and sold it on ebay. Should make a better one the second time.

monophonic cheesy keyboard with some pretty classic sounds of the pt-series and the characteristic rhythm blips know from 'da da da' hit song.

Bontempi es3200

digital monophonic keyboard with casio like blip rhythms and decent sounding digital tones. Have bent it pretty nicely and it can do a wide range of new sounds!



Casio SA-1

This is a classic with cheezy sounding, but awesome and retro tones. supposed to bedn well, but this is a classic, so I am not messing with it for now.

The pss6 I would have messed with it at least putting an out jack and maybe an ac adapter jack, but a friend of mine will buy it and he didn't want it 'spoilled, lol, the dude doesn't get circuit bending.

the pss6 has awesome sounds considering how toy-like it is upposed to be. There are other models with the same engine too,



=====

SPECIAL THANKS AND MENTION

WARRANTY VOID - AKA TABLE HOOTERS

that site of this great german dude was and still is for me the map of exploring and spotting and buying really nice sounding cheap keyboards off ebay, while at the same time learning about the technology, making some awesome bends and even repairing some bit or two!

Amazing job!

Cheers, I hope this was at least a bit interesting and not only worked as shameless showing off of my recent passion for building a keyboard collection - a collection to play with though, and maybe BEND through, not just to have sitting...

[YamahaPSR6]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87y7nh0FOmA

language greek , sorry!

the last 2-3 years the only stuff I get to record is a hiphop project. here's one of the latest track for which I made a shitty video, too.

the loop feats Hohner melodicas I rec'ed with the beatz

[jrpenno2]

Hello!

Would you consider selling me your Bontempi MRS52?? I would love to have it and play it lots

Thank you for your time,

-Jack

[new voodoo]

i'd say sk-1, i got one for 11$ recently..unfortunately places like ebay have cought on to how cool some of these "cheap" synths are..and they're not cheap anymore.
check my signature-the blog has some of my projects and the site has, (trying to make them available and keep the price reasonable) Sk=1's, many many speak and spells and similar (coleco talking teacher and the like) devices, as well as bits and pieces that I got for bending which I bought more than one of so I could (hopefully) sell one to finance the bend of the other... (so, in other words-all the stuff for sale at the site is doubles of things I got for myself)


jim