Quote:
Originally Posted by
oldgearguy
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Ask yourself these questions -
Where are you going to take it for repair?
Have they worked on CS-80's before?
Will you have to ship it?
Are you going to be OK playing it without MIDI?
Figure $1000 US to repair, just to be safe. Likely it will need extensive work if you want it "right" (i.e. - PS stable, 4000 series CMOS replaced as needed, parts replaced, lots of hours of tech time).
Every CS-80 seems to be different. I had one that worked (mostly) and simply opening it up and moving some cards around changed behavior (wires becoming fragile? bad solder joints? who knows). Other folks have had better luck with theirs, but you won't really know how extensive the problems are until the tech gets in there.
Bottom line is - if you absolutely have to have a CS-80, buy it as-is for as little as possible and then prepare to spend many weeks and many dollars getting it back to 100%.
It's kind of hard to part out a CS-80 in the sense that everything is point-to-point wiring and you either unsolder every card and every panel component or you cut a bunch of wires and leave it to the buyer to unsolder it all. Of course, you have to be sure what you're parting out is either "as-is" or tested.
My personal opinion is that life is too short to be messing around with a CS-80 these days.
thanks for your insights.
I'm kind of in the middle now between:
- Should I buy a broken CS-80 for less money and hoping it could be repaired, spend the time and dedication to make it work again?
Or
- Should I wait, save some more, and buy a working one possibly a serviced one through a reseller?
or, secret option number 3: just give up