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Roland S-50
The refurbishment project
This series of videos shows how I approached the refurbishment of a Roland S-50 sampler that I acquired a few years back.
Background:
I acquired the Roland S-50 a few years ago after I had been on the hunt for a low-fi sampler. This fitted the bill with a sampling rate of 12-bits.
Not only is the Roland S-50 a fairly useable sampler, Roland and many other software / sampling vendors also crafted sample sets for both this and the Roland S-550 / Roland S-330 platforms.
When acquired my Roland S-50 there were a few problems.
The sampler was filthy. It was covered in a layer of dust and grime and generally horrible to the touch.
Some keys either didn't work or worked intermittently
The screen randomly decided when it wanted to work and when it did not want to work.
What I didn't know when I started this project was how involved it would get! And ultimately how long it would take to obtain the parts to fix it.
I have recently acquired a second Roland S-50 which I will use to diagnose the remaining problems with the first instrument.
Hopefully by the end of this exercise I will have two Roland S-50 working samplers.
While I have been using my S-50 Sampler since I acquired it, there have been a number of repairs that need to be undertaken to restore it to full operational health.
At the moment because of dead keys and where these keys are on the keyboard, I am driving the keyboard via MIDI. I want to be able to play the S-50 directly.
Other repairs include buffing out scratches from the display, fixing the intermittent display issue and replacing the tack switches.
Oh and anything else I find as I open the instrument up.
Click anywhere on the image or title to see the work undertaken on this sampler.
Part 2 of the S-50 restoration is all about actually getting into the sampler to effect the repairs that need to be undertaken.
It seems like a daft subject, but different manufacturers and teams create access in different ways.
Click anywhere on the image or title to see the work undertaken on this sampler.
Part 3 - The S-50 restoration continues. In this episode we are looking at the issues with the front panel switches and if we can see any obvious problems with the vacuum tube display that is fitted to this instrument.
While I have been using the S-50 I have noticed that a number of the front panel switches are hard to operate, including the 'Shift' button which is used to confirm most of the operations on the keyboard. It is a false economy just to replace one switch so all 30 plus tack switches will be removed and replaced with the new equivalent part. I have also gone for switches that require a little harder force to activate as these will be more durable.
The display is going to be a very interesting problem. It is a vacuum display that was incorporated on a number of Roland instruments of this era, thinking specifically of the JX-8P. There is as far as I am aware no modern replacement. So we will need to have general look at this one and figure out can it be fixed or is it foobarred.
Click anywhere on the image or title to see the work undertaken on this sampler.
Part 4 of the restoration of the S-50. In this episode I turn my attention to getting the key bed out of the sampler and stripping it bad to the circuit board and contacts.
The initial investigation on the keyboard showed two dead keys and one key I marked as intermittent. This could be directly contacts or something a bit more sinister.
Given the number of missing screws on this sampler when it was acquired, I know someone has been into the sampler before, but to do what I am not sure. I am also pretty sure that liquid has been spilt into the sampler as there are a few pointers to this having occurred. This was confirmed once I got the keybed out.
I haven't stripped the key bed for a Roland synth / sampler down in quite a while so this became a bit of a discovery as I reminded myself of the steps required.
Click anywhere on the image or title to see the work undertaken on this sampler.
In Part 5 I turn my attention to what do I need to do to the S-50 key bed to try and restore the key bed back to full operation. I know that 2 of the keys on the keyboard are dead. So we know that this is an issues that need to be repaired, in addition to any other issues I now identify.
The first task is to remove the glue used to attach the plastic key locks and also the material used to lock the keys against the keyboard frame. Label remover to lift the residue and IPA to degrease the area after the residue has been removed.
Next I removed the rubber strip key contacts that sit on top of the graphic contacts on the circuit board.
Finally in this episode I remove the glue from the plastic key locks ready for re-installation in a later episode.
Click anywhere on the image or title to see the work undertaken on this sampler.
Click anywhere on the image or title to see the work undertaken on this sampler.
In Part 7 of the S-50 restoration. I started with the job I wasn't looking forward to, cleaning the keys. Out comes the bucket of warm soapy water, tooth brush and rubbing pad.
The brush was then used to clean the circuit board. Again using warm soapy water to remove the dirt that had accumulated on the part that was not covered by the rubber key contacts. The contact pads were then lightly rubbed with IPA to remove any loose graphite. Rubbing lightly will remove contaminated and loose material, I didn't want to remove the graphic that was still attached to the copper contact.
I then moved on to inspecting the circuit board for dry joints and broken tracks. The joints have now been re-soldered and the tracks bridged. This S-50 circuit board is in poor condition and I am not sure how long this will last once put back in the machine.
Click anywhere on the image or title to see the work undertaken on this sampler.
Finally Part 8. Where I finally get to re-build the key bed of the S-50. Although I have re-built numerous key beds, these have been re-built over several weeks so the amount of time required to do the task was rather obscured by the length of time. 8 hours of video was shot for parts 5 - 8 covering the re-build.
The first job was to re-install the double sided tape required to hold the plastic key locks in place and as a space between the key and the metal chassis.
I then moved on to re-attach the keys to the chassis and re-attach all the springs.
The last part was to re-install the plastic key locks to complete the rebuild and restoration of this element of the S-50 keyboard.
Click anywhere on the image or title to see the work undertaken on this sampler.
After making my mind up I wasn't going to re-cap the power board on the S-50 sampler. I decided to just get on with it after I found a supply of the correct caps now to be available.
This is how I undertook this task.
Click anywhere on the image or title to see the work undertaken on this sampler.
Part 10 of the S-50 restoration and I re-fit the power board into the sampler. I know what happened to Part 9. The videos have got out of sequence.
After recapping the power board in Part 9. The power board is refitted to the S-50 and tested. Warning not all goes to plan!
Click anywhere on the image or title to see the work undertaken on this sampler.
Between part 10 and part 11 I found someone that had the key bed circuitry for the S-50 at a very reasonable price. So this was acquired and I have decided to strip the key bed down again.
While I have fixed the original key bed circuitry by bridging the track breaks, it is alway better to have a circuit that does not have any breaks in it for keyboard longevity.
This video runs fast and shows me again stripping the key bed down to allow the new key bed circuitry to be fitted to the key bed chassis. It runs through to the new key bed circuitry being installed and the key bed ready for re-assembly.
Click anywhere on the image or title to see the work undertaken on this sampler.
This video continues on from Part 11 where I am now rebuilding the key bed. The previous video stopped at the re-installation of the key bed circuit. This video complete the key bed re-build ready for re-installation into the S-50 chassis.
This video again like Part 11 mostly runs fast and shows me again re-building the key bed to the point it can be re-installed. Just slow it down to understand specific elements.
Click anywhere on the image or title to see the work undertaken on this sampler.
Here we are at Part 13 of the S-50 restoration project. This project honest feels like a marathon!
But after the failed re-capping where something on the power side is shorting. I managed to acquire a replacement unit from those nice guys in Texas (Syntaur). And now we are going to fit thin into the chassis.
Finally we have the key bed wiring loom to install and we can get the key bed also back into the chassis.
Click anywhere on the image or title to see the work undertaken on this sampler.
I cannot believe that this subject has run to 14 parts and there is to be honest after some research more work to do.
But for now I have completed the work on this sampler. It has not gone the way I expected. In all the time that I have been working on legacy synths I have never had a project go so wrong, but things do go wrong from time to time.
Look out in the future for how the Roland S-50 is eventually fixed and returned to service.
Click anywhere on the image or title to see the work undertaken on this sampler.