Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Yamaha CS80

I bought my first CS-80 back in 1986 for the princely sum of £250GBP. I heard about it from another keyboard player who had been to a studio and they told him it was for sale. I had to go collect it from a music shop in Manchester. It was in their repair shop - although when I got it home all that was wrong with it was a voice was silent and it turned out to be some 'un-informed tweaker' had turned down the VCA presets on an M board! Soon after I had a fault with a fuse blowing. Couldn't work it out - very intermittent it was. Turned out every time I pressed a certain Bb, the fuse blew. A tantalum cap on one of the TSB boards. Never had a problem since up until just recently when I noticed that one of the filter EG chips wasn't working on an M board. Got a new one (thanks Kent) but still haven't changed it. Was about to do it when I had the roof leak this past couple of weeks. It's all moved out now so I'll tackle that when the weather improves and there is no more chance of it dripping in again.

Then, my second CS80 was a pure luck thing - about a year and a half ago I was out on the street near my house talking to a chap at a nearby metal-working shop about a trailer he wanted me to list on eBay for him, when a guy walks past and asks me: "Are you Tom?"... I said Yes, he replied - "Wanna buy a CS-80?".

I nearly fell over...

It was in a new music venue that was being kitted out not far from my house and it had belonged to Barclay James Harvest, the 70's prog band. I went to look at it, it was in a bit of a state, or at least looked it, with all this white powder inside on the metal work. One voice wasn't working, all others way out of tune with one particularly bad one that I hoped would 'pull in'.

Pointing out all the problems - I offered him £500 there and then. All the bits were there, pedals, lid, stand music rack. But he wanted £4000... I waited a few weeks, chewing it over and then I heard that a chap I was playing in a band with (at the time) knew the guy selling it and that he ..."owed him a few favours..." with his help I finally managed to get it for £1300GBP.

I couldn't believe that there was another CS-80 in town, let alone just about 100yards from my house. The tolex is pretty good on it, apart from where they drilled a hole in the side to put a different power connector on. I've rewired it a normal mains lead and have a piece of tolex to cover the hole with. The voices were fixed and then I set about doing the TSB board cap mod. Right after doing it I had a massive after touch problem which turned out to be broken wires. Many thanks to guys on this list for all their help on that one!

In the past month or so I have re-capped and re-chipped both power supplies and tuned them both up. There is a small level setting on one of the M boards that needs doing on this second 80, and then I will tweak the tuning again on both of them.

Funny how you can seem to go without noticing a small thing like a level difference (which probably was there all along) and then once you notice it, it stands out and bugs the hell out of you. And sometimes these things are only apparent on certain patches as well.

Anyway, it all keeps me busy and I just love playing them. One upstairs and one down. I am never too far from a CS-80...;^)

Cheers and a Happy New Year to all.
TOM