Yamaha CS80

Thanks to David for starting this interesting group!

I recently got a CS80.  I must say for many years I had little interest and used 
to think who needs an old heavy synth with a few patches, but in recent years 
started appreciating its features and started looking for one as it was the only 
major synth I didn't have. 

The guy I bought it from said everything was working but it needed tuning (he 
had partially tuned it once with a guitar tuner).   The history of this unit seems 
to be that it was used and probably gigged for part of its first decade, but has 
hardly been used at all in its second.  Turns out this guy was an engineering 
student when someone gave it to him nonworking.  He and his fellow students 
did an analysis and found the only thing wrong was a burned out chip, which 
they replaced.  But the guy wasn't a keyboard player, didn't really know how to 
play it so it just basically just sat there for years, turned on periodically.  

When I played it it sounded pretty awful, but I figured I'd repair it and took it.  
But when I got it home and adjusted the controls it sounded great.  As far as 
tuning goes he had left the Detune II lever down.  Once turned off it actually 
sounded pretty much in tune.   It only goes out of tune on a held sustained 
note, which is more a bit of oscillator drift I believe. 

So I've lucked out; apart from some worn and torn Tolex everything inside is in 
perfect working condition and everything is functioning.  

On tuning I've been looking what to use, although I have a pretty good ear.   
Someone recommended a Conn Strobe which is pretty pricey for what I would 
need it for;  I've come across a cheap Korg CA-30 chromatic tuner that does 
C1-C8, and I'm wondering if that might be adequate.  Does anyone have any 
opinions on tuners for this purpose? 

Another (dumb) question:  Where is the serial # located?  I can't find it to enter 
in the database.  Thanks.

Last time I had to tune the 80, I used the frequency counter on my Fluke DMM. 
That worked better than when I used a cheapie Korg guitar tuner the time before.

I imagine a strobe tuner would be ideal for eyeballing the fine amounts of fudging that it 
requires.

Max

--- In yamahacs80@yahoogroups.com, Jim Combs <jwcombs@b...> wrote:

> >Cybermooks said:
> >I've come across a cheap Korg CA-30 chromatic tuner that does
> >C1-C8, and I'm wondering if that might be adequate.
> 
> I used a Korg CA-30 along with Old Crow¹s excellent instructions to tune my
> CS-50 and it worked fine, but then again, I¹m only dealing with 4 voice
> cards and you¹ve got 16. My CS-50 is in excellent condition, so didn't need
> more than tuning.
> 
> -Jim
>  www.touchxtone.com