Roland Jupiter 8 and 8a

[bochelli]

How many combined were produced in its history ?

[Psy_Free]

Approx 2000.

[urgetoplay]

Roughly 3300+ if you're going by serial numbers. 8a was the last few hundred of the run, easiest way to find out almost exactly how many 8a's were produced is to look at the service manual. There's a few threads here and at gear slutz that tackles the serial number system used by Roland and the often propogated myth of 2000 Jupiter 8s produced.

[urgetoplay]

So, I just checked my data base. DCB ports became standard on Jup 8 starting at serial $ 282880. For those who aren't aware, Roland's first 2 digits are a month/year from when Roland started and the last 4 digits are totals produced Caveat: The Jupiter 8 serial numbers started at 100 rather than 0. Serial # 030104 was the fifth Jup-8 made. Highest serial number recorded ( I might have another one slightly higher) was XX3269 making at least 3169 Jup 8's produced.
3269- 2880 = 389 Jup 8a's produced. Hope that helps.

[bochelli]

I ask as I own a Jupiter 8A I will check the S/N tomorrow ive always accepted around 2000 were made the posts today offer otherwise.

[nathanscribe]

Yep, the Roland/Boss serial number system uses a 6-digit number from some time in the late 70s till the late 80s IIRC. During that period the first two digits represent a month, as urge says, but it's a cyclical sequence and not directly related to the actual calendar names. For example, 25 would be December '82, 26 would be Jan '83, etc. The number resets to 00 after 99, which can cause confusion to those not certain of production dates, as there is more than one instance of at least parts of the range of two digits.

A quick and dirty, but not completely debugged, s/n decoder can be found here: http://www.bossarea.com/serial/sndecoder.aspx

[gs]

Wow, that's not a lot of units. No wonder these things go for (IMHO) some 2 or 3 times their otherwise vintage market value. I wonder how many Prophet 5's, Poly-Sixes, or OBXa's (or other competitor polysynths) were produced. Got to me more than ~3200. I mean, only a few years down the pike, hundreds of thousands of DX7's and M1's were being produced by these companies. Was it really that more expensive/slow to produce/assemble analog components in a factory setting, than digital components?

[bochelli]

Perhaps this has been debated at some time but I feel the massive Polysynthesizers maybe were not made in great numbers, ive heard 186,000 Dx7s were made , the set up costs in those days would have been used and these synths were not intended for a airhead to noodle and crack out blips , bands, studios I guess their destinations £500 back then was serious dosh.

[tim gueguen]

Wow, that's not a lot of units. No wonder these things go for (IMHO) some 2 or 3 times their otherwise vintage market value. I wonder how many Prophet 5's, Poly-Sixes, or OBXa's (or other competitor polysynths) were produced. Got to me more than ~3200. I mean, only a few years down the pike, hundreds of thousands of DX7's and M1's were being produced by these companies. Was it really that more expensive/slow to produce/assemble analog components in a factory setting, than digital components?

The DX7 sold in such high numbers in part because of its price. It cost just under 2000 bucks US when it first appeared, half or less of the price of a P5 or OBXa/OB8. Its electric piano patches may also have helped sell DX7s, as the sound became ubiquitous fairly quickly, and it allowed musicians to replace their Rhodes and other electric/electronic pianos with something that produced more sounds and was lighter than those instruments.

Wikipedia claims the production numbers for all versions of the Prophet 5 was 6000(, the OB8 3000.

[Cybercardinal]

Around 1000 PPG Wave's were made. I think I read somewhere 1800 Elka Synthex's were made

[synthroom]

Highest serial number recorded ( I might have another one slightly higher) was XX3269 making at least 3169 Jup 8's produced.
3269- 2880 = 389 Jup 8a's produced. Hope that helps.

I have Jupiter 8 SN 413272. (41XXXX indicates it was produced in April 1984.)

So I take it I have the last one made?

[Bitexion]

Not very unlikely. They had a pretty short lifespan before them new-fangled digital synths took over the world. AKA the Yamaha DX7.

I vaguely remember that the dad of a kid I used to babysit in the 80s when I was little had a Jupiter-8 in a case underneath the bed. I was never allowed to touch it, but saw him play on it sometimes.

That's the only time I've ever seen a JP8 in person.

[urgetoplay]

@synthroom. I couldn't tell you if is the last one but definitely at the end of the run. 3 more than my previous highest.Somewhere around the studio I have a list of Jup 8 serial numbers and all sorts of misc data about the synth. The idea was to build a website similar to the Rhodes Chroma site. ( Probably the best single synth website out there).Never got off the ground. If you could post a pic of your serial # I'd appreciate it.

[synthparts]

There's a service bulletin than mentions SN 333050 which means Roland only sold 222 (or even less) JP-8s in the 10 months from 6/83 - 4/84. That shows just how much the DX7 and others killed off these big analogs at that time...

[Bitexion]

Yeah it seems like late 83/early 84 was the death of the giant analog polys for sure. People were throwing them out of studios for pennies.