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Zodiak Mini-Modular

Casio CZ-101 I absolutley love this little synth but mine has developed a fault. I think it is just a dead capacitor but its a swine to work on and there are dozens of them to swap, many of which are not clearly marked. Despite not being touch sensitive and having a weird sound system I find it so inspiring and intuitive to use, I would hate to lose it now.

Roland PC-400 MkII MIDI Master Keyboard Controler This is my main instument, even though it doesn't actually make any sound itself. It is 4 ocatves long, but can switched +/- one xtra octave, has a nice light action, it is portable and touch sensitive.

Roland MT32 I love these units, early LA synthesis and very easy to programme. They are multitimbral ie can peoduce many sounds at once) but only have one out put makes mixing them a real pain so I have two :)

Yamaha FB-01 I bought this REALLY cheaply on e-bay for just one sound, the electric piano, which I think it delivers really well. Its a pig to programme and I need to get some software and a libraruan to make more use of it. Despite not editing it the 128 presets layer really nicely with the MT32, and the touch sensitivity works really well too.

Yamaha EMT-1 sound expander Very limited preset sound expander. Its touch sensitive but the sounds are all pretty bland even with effects. I only keep this as a backup in case something else dies during a gig.

Kawai R50 Drum Machine Nice 12bit PCM sounds, but not very "rock". I only really use it as an expander, but nowdays I mainly use my laptop for drum sounds.

Dynelectron long horn bass That picture is not mine!! I bought it second hand after some animal had tried to get the gorgous honey and strawberry sunburst paint job off with a sanding disk!!! I spent ages restoring it with 22 coats of yacht varnish on the neck and a nice white body, but in a fit of enthusiasm I had it sprayed back by a "professional" and it has nver loked as good. It still has all teh originall fittings, except the bridge as the original was just too bad to use. The wiring is non-standard. I have replaced one volume control with a 4 way switch (front, back, inphase, out of phase) and a single volume control. It is only a short neck but is a joy to play and really "breaths" throuigh a decent amplifier. I only play with a pick :)

RDL 12>2 Live mixer Bought second hand because it is based on old technology and doesn't need any special parts. Unfortunately it was assembled by apes. The PCBs are not at right angles to the front panel and the pots are only held in place by their solder tags. At last count one treble control and all the pan pots will need replacing. These last ones because being the last on the PCB they have probably taken most stress I am going to replace the damaged pots as soon as possible and see if I can fit mounting brackets to take the strain off them. Noise is only noticeable at really high levels, so I am probably going to replace the op-amps in the first 4 channels with low noise versions, and use these for particularly sensitive work. The only other REALY annoying problem is the headphone amp will only work on 400ohm headphones, so I need t replace it with something a bit beefier as all mine are 8 ohms.

Soundcraft - Spirit Folio Notepad mixer This is one of the few bits of kit that I bought new. It has been fantastically useful and has been used for keyboard mixing, general PA, and even Karaoke! It has been rock solid apart from when an op amp melted, which was probably down to an issue with the phantom power. Fortunately I was able to buy a service guide and fix it. However it isn't perfect. I don't like the way the Jack sockets float about in their holes, which means stressing the PCB whenever I use one. I also don't like the crappy power connector, which was common to the whole folio range :(

Alesis Midverb2 Trusty old friend, that needs a new "mix" pot because its been used so much :) Some people hated this device because you only have 99 fixed effects, but that includes all the ones I want, so I prefer that to having to fiddle around with a panel of knobs!

Other kit JX-3P - I got this dead, as a complete wreck and with the help of a good friend (Hi Kam!) rebuilt it into a working state. Originally I built it as a stand alone module, but have just decided to put a 4 octave keyboard in it. MC-202 - This came REALLY dead, with battery leak damge, shagged out LCD, the lot, so I decied that this would become a 19" rack expander. This worked, BUT its a pain to use so I am looking for a 2.5-3Octave keyboard and will rebuild this as a stand alone mono synth. CR-8000 - This was the final bit of dead Roland kit that I still use, and I rebuilt that as a 19" MIDI racjk expander. Its very "Synthpop" but works well. The individual outputs that I aded are useful, but again this doesn't get so much use nowdays. ETI Transpozer - This is an 8/10 bit digital delay unit that can be used for very crude pith shifting. It works well, it can be fun but its not terribly hi-fi or musical. Zodiak Mini-modular - See elsewhere :)