Yamaha CS80

David
You made an amazing work with your CS-80 and even if we disagree onto some technical things I wish you can get the reward you deserve for such a work of love. I'm in Italy and unfortunately I haven't room for it , not counting the fear for letting the machine be tranported by someone else who's not me...I wish also the buyer will make a responsive use of the old boy and let it not take dust....
Max
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: David Rogoff 
  To: AH analogue heaven AH ; yamahacs80@yahoogroups.com ; arturiacs-80v@yahoogroups.com ; oldsynths@yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Monday, December 19, 2005 1:52 AM
  Subject: [yamahacs80] Yamaha CS-80 for sale


  For sale: Yamaha CS-80, not counting modulars (or it's god-father, the 
  GX-1), the heaviest, most knobs, most fun synthesizer ever built.

  We're talking 171 knobs!  50 switches! No LCDs, no menus, no MIDI 
  (although you can buy the Kenton MIDI kit for it)!

  The keyboard is in very good condition. The panel and keyboard are 
  almost like new and the tolex and hardware on the case is in pretty good 
  shape.  All the knobs work.  It's been in a smoke-free home for at least 
  the last few years, and has no signs of any smoke exposure before that.  
  It has not been moved around or gigged with for at least several years.  
  More details below.

  I've had a great time bringing serial # 1646 back to good health, but 
  it's time for me to sell it to a new, good home.  For better or worse, 
  I'm a much better techie/engineer than musician.  I've had my fun, but 
  now that it's all working well, it should be played and used to make 
  great music. And I need to sell it to be able to pay for my next project :^)

  I've owned/fixed up a few CSs over the years. I got a used CS-60 in 
  1981, which I had for a couple of years (and modified heavily).  I had a 
  CS-80 in 1986, which I fixed up and kept for about three years.  I got 
  my last CS-80 in 1995, and only had for a few months (lightening load 
  during a divorce).  I keep telling myself not to buy keyboards that 
  weigh more than I do, but the CS-80 is too much fun.  I hope by the time 
  (2015?) I feel the urge again, someone will finally make a new keyboard 
  that can rival it.  

  Here's some details about its condition and what I've done to it (there 
  are tons of pictures of the outside and inside during my restoration at 
  http://www.therogoffs.com/cs80):

  Electronically:
  To start with, this CS-80 has the second highest serial number I've 
  seen, so it was one of the last ones made.  This means, not only that 
  it's not as old as many others, but that it has the last rev of the VCO 
  chips.  These are the most stable for tuning and didn't require any 
  modifications for temperature tracking, like Yamaha recommended for 
  earlier units.  The tuning wasn't bad when I got it, and since I did a 
  complete tuning on it, it is super accurate over all keys, octaves, and 
  voices.  I often have to detune the second voice bank to make sure it's 
  there because the VCOs are dead on.

  CMOS:
  As well documented on Old Crow's excellent website (www.cs80.com), the 
  CS-80 had a few design mistakes.  Almost all the digital control logic 
  is built using 4000-series CMOS chips.  These chips, especially the 
  older ones, could be very sensitive to static and can also fail over 
  time.  Luckily, these are still made today.  As recommended by Crow, and 
  other CS techs, I have replaced every 4000-series CMOS chip with new 
  ones for many more years of life.  In addition, I have put all of the 
  new chips in sockets, so if there is a failure in the future, it will be 
  relatively easy to find and fix.  Yamaha also had very few bypass 
  capacitors on the digital boards (none on one!). These caps help keep 
  the power supplies quiet and the parts happy.  I've added a bypass caps 
  for almost every single digital chip.  In addition, I added larger 
  bypass caps on each board.  This work took a lot of $$$ in parts and 
  more rework hours than I can remember, but it's a great insurance policy 
  for the future life of the keyboard.

  Power supply:
  Almost every piece of electronic gear, from stereo amps, to 
  synthesizers, use electrolytic capacitors in their power supplies to 
  smooth the AC voltage from the wall socket into nice, smooth DC voltage 
  for the internal circuits.  These capacitors have kind of a gel in them 
  that drys out over the years, degrading their performance, until the are 
  non-functional.  In old amplifiers, this commonly results in increasing 
  hum.  I have removed all of these caps from the power supply and 
  replaced them with new ones.  Since modern caps are smaller than their 
  older, same-value parts, I was even able to put larger value caps in 
  some places (larger generally equals better for power supplies caps).  I 
  even replaced the caps used in series with the headphone jack.

  Keys: I removed all the keys and washed them.  There's a few really tiny 
  marks, but overall I'd give them an A.  They all feel nice too: initial 
  touch (velocity - can control volume, brightness, and pitch bend) and 
  after-touch (polyphonic pressure - can control LFO modulation and speed, 
  volume, and brightness) are working on all keys.  As most fans know, the 
  poly aftertouch is one of the keys features of the CS-80. There are very 
  few keyboards that had this (I own two other: a Kurzweil MIDIBoard, and 
  a Roland A-50, which I'm restoring - but neither feel as good as the 
  CS-80).  It's such a great and natural feature to be able to play a 
  chord and bring out one note by pressing that key harder. No keyboard 
  has been made with this for many years.  I wish someone would bring it 
  back!  I've also gone through all the key contacts, cleaning and 
  adjusting, to fix any intermittent triggering on any key.

  Ribbon:
  Besides the keyboard, the other great, rare feature on the CS-80, is the 
  ribbon controller.  This lets you bend an note up an octave and down 
  infinity to zero!  And it's relative, so you can touch it anywhere, and 
  that point becomes the starting point of the bend.  It's also great for 
  guitar/violin-like trills: press anywhere with one finger and then tap a 
  trill with another finger.  The ribbon works and looks perfect.

  Cosmetics:
  Panel: The front panel looks and works great.  All knobs, buttons, 
  sliders, and lights are 100% functionally and cosmetically.  I went 
  through every single one of the 171 knobs and 50 switches, including all 
  the little ones for the memories.  Everything does what it's supposed to.

  Case/Cover:  The cabinet is in good condition.  There are a few nicks in 
  the tolex and the chrome hardware isn't perfect, but overall a B+.  The 
  case cover is a little rougher, maybe a B-, but who cares since it's not 
  on when you are playing, but it is important to have, to protect the 
  panel and keyboard.  I've got the original casters that plug into the 
  case and cover.  They are very useful for moving the CS-80 around short 
  distances, but for big moves, you'll want a flight case.  I've also 
  replaced many missing washers that an unknown previous owner/technician 
  forgot to put back.

  Stand: It's got the original Yamaha stand.  A couple of the screws to 
  lock it to the CS-80 were missing, so I put together nice replacements 
  (metric #8 bolts!).  I also added plastic furniture caps over the metal 
  feet so it wouldn't tear up my wood floor.  There's some scratches and a 
  few small nicks, but it looks pretty good - maybe a B/B-.  I don't have 
  the fancy carrying bag for the stand and pedals.  The stand has a great 
  feature: it lets one person move the CS-80 by himself.  Since it locks 
  to the keyboard, you can pretty easily (and I'm not very big) roll the 
  unit onto its casters and then move it, and then lift it back up onto 
  the stand.  This is really helpful if there's no one around to help lift 
  it. However, it won't help when you get to a flight of stairs :^)

  Music Rest:  I could never find one of these!  However, I got the 
  outline of one and tried to make one out of clear plexiglass.  Well, 
  cutting plexiglass is harder than I thought, so it doesn't look that 
  hot, but it's ok, and it works, so it's yours, free with purchase...

  Misc:
  It's got the original Yamaha expression pedal, which can control volume 
  or a wah-wah effect.  I've got a generic foot switch, which can control 
  sustain and/or portamento.

  I'm also including a nice, double-sided printout of the owner's manual, 
  from the Yamaha site.  I'll also give you a CDROM with all the pictures 
  I've taken of the keyboard and every bit of info I've found on the 
  Internet, including schematics, calibration procedures, theory of 
  operations, and more.

  Sale info:
  I wanted to offer this to group members first (sorry if some people, who 
  are on multiple synth group/mailing lists, get duplicate copies of 
  this).  I'll keep it open to offers until after New Year's Day.  If I 
  don't have a buyer by then, I'll put it on eBay.  Bottom line: CS-80 
  that is better than A+ electronically and about a B/B+ cosmetically.  
  Comes with case/cover, casters, original stand, original expression 
  pedal, generic sustain/portamento pedal, music rest, and re-print of 
  owner's manual.

  If you want one that looks and works better than new, please see the 
  amazing work that Kent Spong does for RL Music (see 
  http://www.rlmusic.co.uk/mals_site/sale_stock_01.html - near bottom of 
  page), but it's gonna cost you about three times what I'm asking.  I'd 
  buy one if I had the money!  Speaking of which, I'm looking for offers 
  starting at $3700.  I'd prefer, and give priority to, local (Southern 
  California - Irvine) buyers who could come here, check it out in person, 
  and drive it away.  As an added incentive, I'll even give it a free 
  tuning (if it ever needs it) after a few months, either at my place, or 
  yours, if reasonably close by.

  If you need it shipped, you will pay all packing, shipping, and 
  insurance costs.  I will have it professional crated and shipped by a 
  company that has experience shipping large musical gear.  If you are 
  familiar with a particular company, I will check them out.  From some 
  postings I've read, I would estimate it would cost about $500 to ship it 
  to U.K./Europe, but that's just a ball-park estimate.

  I've been buying/fixing/selling synths over the Internet and through 
  local want-ads for about 25 years now (for fun, not for a living).  I 
  have an extensive, great record for deals, including a perfect feedback 
  of over 200 on eBay 
  (http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&userid=david72hq) 
  .  I welcome any questions and invite any local buyers to arrange to 
  come by check it out in person.

  Thanks,

  David




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