Yamaha CS80

Hi Gang.

I'm relatively new here, but we all are really aren't we?
My names Tom, from the UK.

I own CS-80 #1585. Bought it around 1986 for £250 UKP....;^)
It is pure sex on chrome legs. It stays in my bedroom and has been in
tune ever since I went through the procedure shortly after getting
it... was it really 18 years ago? (Managed to get hold of the service
manual from Japan as well)

I've only ever had the one problem with it. About a year after
getting this baby, it just blew a fuse and went silent ever now and
then. A strange fault that was quite hard to track down. Eventually,
(after a few hundred fuses) I found that whenever I pressed the
highest Bb - POOF - off it went.

There is a cct board right underneath the keyboard assembly, and it
has a row of those little blue 'tantalum' capacitors - one associated
with every key. Well, the top Bb one was short circuit. If ever yours
has a similar fault, and it's quite un-nerving I can tell you, you'll
know where to look.

Cheers for now.

TOM

I have CS-80 serial #1650. Purchased about a year and
a half ago. This CS has a full MIDI (in)
implementation - it responds to poly aftertouch and
everything. Pretty neat.

I've tuned it a couple of times, using the strobe mode
of a Korg digital tuner. Basically the tuning is
stable, but I wouldn't say it's perfect. I moved it
from one end of the house to the other (on a rolling
rack... I didn't have anyone else around at the time
to help) and it's been in need of a minor tuning tweak
since then... it's still quite playable but off enough
to annoy me a little. However, anyone who's tuned one
of these knows why I've been putting it off...

Cosmetically this CS is very good. Some of the tolex
on the bottom is scratched up, but everything topside
is in great shape. And the pitch ribbon works just
fine. I need to get it to my tech to fix a minor
problem with the MIDI implementation, but again those
who have moved a CS know why I've been putting that
off too.

Since I've had it I've used it on a number of
projects, including a remix for Sophie B. Hawkins
(track #13 on her new album 'Wilderness' in case
anyone's interested).

Every once in a while I think about selling it - after
all, it does take up a ton of space, is hard to move,
etc. etc. But when I play the ol' bastard, I usually
forget about all of that. The CS sound is definitely
in a class of its own. I've A/B'd it with the Arturia
CS-80V and found that while the software emulation
does do a pretty decent job of capturing the overall
flavor of the CS filters, there's just nowhere near
enough depth/low end/balls/whatever to call it a CS
"equivalent". So I'll just have to stick with the real
thing.

Mike







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Mike & Tom & others,

thanks for the input. I'd appreciate it if you clicked on the
Database page, clicked on 'CS80s in the world', clicked on 'Add
Record', and put in your info. I think it's set up that anyone can
add records. Please let me know if you have a problem or if you
have any suggestions for changes to the fields.

David

--- In yamahacs80@yahoogroups.com, Mike Fisher <hciassociates@y...>
wrote:

> I have CS-80 serial #1650. Purchased about a year and
> a half ago. This CS has a full MIDI (in)
> implementation - it responds to poly aftertouch and
> everything. Pretty neat.
>

This reminds me of something I learned when speaking to Gerd Drogemuller,
formerly the head honcho of Yamaha CS-80 distribution in Germany: Some power
supllies on the CS-80 tend to create odd voltages that can fry the entire
machine. Something to check out, I think, even though he pointed out that
this bug occured only with the earliest machines and actually is no issue to
get worried about.

Stephen
"Human beings are a disease, the cancer of this planet, you´re a plague. And
we are the cure." (Agent Smith / Matrix)

Visit the official [´ramp] website at www.doombient.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Quazimodo" <noddyspuncture@...>
To: <yamahacs80@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, August 15, 2004 1:09 AM
Subject: [yamahacs80] CS-80 #1585 reporting for duty....


Hi Gang.

I'm relatively new here, but we all are really aren't we?
My names Tom, from the UK.

I own CS-80 #1585. Bought it around 1986 for £250 UKP....;^)
It is pure sex on chrome legs. It stays in my bedroom and has been in
tune ever since I went through the procedure shortly after getting
it... was it really 18 years ago? (Managed to get hold of the service
manual from Japan as well)

I've only ever had the one problem with it. About a year after
getting this baby, it just blew a fuse and went silent ever now and
then. A strange fault that was quite hard to track down. Eventually,
(after a few hundred fuses) I found that whenever I pressed the
highest Bb - POOF - off it went.

There is a cct board right underneath the keyboard assembly, and it
has a row of those little blue 'tantalum' capacitors - one associated
with every key. Well, the top Bb one was short circuit. If ever yours
has a similar fault, and it's quite un-nerving I can tell you, you'll
know where to look.

Cheers for now.

TOM





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