The Yamaha AN1x Synthesizer mailing list

A friend sent me his AN1x for a test drive and service. Although I'm 
not professional I like to get these things back to work as a hobby. 
Something had fallen into the unit causing damage to PCB tracks and 
resulting in 3 dead keys. For those curious guys there are pictures 
of the surgery in the Photos section of the list.

http://photos.groups.yahoo.com/group/an1x-
list/lst?.dir=/AN1x+Surgery&.src=gr&.order=&.view=t&.done=http%
3a//briefcase.yahoo.com/

Regards,
Arnaldo.

PS: 68 screws to get to the keyboard PCB for service. ;^)

--- In AN1x-list@yahoogroups.com, "arnaldocortega" 
<arnaldo.ortega@u...> wrote:
> A friend sent me his AN1x for a test drive and service. Although 
I'm 
> not professional I like to get these things back to work as a 
hobby. 
> Something had fallen into the unit causing damage to PCB tracks and 
> resulting in 3 dead keys. For those curious guys there are pictures 
> of the surgery in the Photos section of the list.
> 
> http://photos.groups.yahoo.com/group/an1x-
> list/lst?.dir=/AN1x+Surgery&.src=gr&.order=&.view=t&.done=http%
> 3a//briefcase.yahoo.com/
> 
> Regards,
> Arnaldo.
> 
> PS: 68 screws to get to the keyboard PCB for service. ;^)


Thanks for the photo's Arnaldo - very interesting. And yes, Yamaha 
went a little crazy with the screws, didn't they? ;-)

Jon

Hi Jon,

>Thanks for the photo's Arnaldo - very interesting. And yes, Yamaha 
>went a little crazy with the screws, didn't they? ;-)

Yes, they did, but I don't think Yamaha's the only one.  I recently had to repair a broken key on a Korg N5, and it, too had a lot more screws holding it together than I would have liked.  It was especially hard to put back together, because without the screws the N5's body is flimsy as paper, and lining things up was a hassle.

I guess it's part of the move to lighter, lower cost cases to keep the manufacturing costs down (and improve the portability).  All-plastic keyboard cases rarely have a lot of inherent firmness, but it's amazing what an extra dozen or so carefully placed screws will do to make the case rigid and more immune to drops.

One might question why Yamaha took this approach on the AN1x, however.  It certainly wasn't in the low-cost workstation price class -- at least, not when it first shipped ($1895 or $1995 SRP, IIRC).  It probably saved them a bundle to recycle the CS1x case.

Regards,

-BW
--
Bruce Wahler
Ashby Solutions\ufffd   http://music.ashbysolutions.com
978.386.7389  voice/fax
bruce@...