My next fixer-upper - JX-8P

Synthaholic · Post by **Synthaholic** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 3:01 pm

I did the "resistor mod" yesterday and now the aftertouch works like it should.

Still can't find any slider caps. Surely someone has some kicking around...

Wife says time to sell, so it'll be going up for sale this week after I shoot some more pics.

voltageHead · Post by **voltageHead** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 3:19 am

I have heard that the JX8P sounds kinda like a jupiter.I have never seen a JX in person.

Synthaholic · Post by **Synthaholic** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 2:27 pm

And ze'JX is complete!

Click on a pic to see a larger version.

Mr. Black · Post by **Mr. Black** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 8:56 pm

The way you can find out the year it was produced,when powering up hold buttons 1,2, it will display the month, day, year, mine is 626779, 05-29-85 is what my unit displays, which if i am reading correctly is a little later than your's.I believe the preset names on the membrane buttons where added to later models,also the early one's had a different key action a little clanky they switched to the JX10 keybed later on.Hold down button 4 while powering up it will read "Thank's Eric and Dan" Eric Persing, the programmer's for the JX8p.

jim777 · Post by **jim777** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 3:29 am

Mr. Black wrote:The way you can find out the year it was produced,when powering up hold buttons 1,2, it will display the month, day, year, mine is 626779, 05-29-85 is what my unit displays, which if i am reading correctly is a little later than your's.I believe the preset names on the membrane buttons where added to later models,also the early one's had a different key action a little clanky they switched to the JX10 keybed later on.Hold down button 4 while powering up it will read "Thank's Eric and Dan" Eric Persing, the programmer's for the JX8p.

I'll check all this out when it gets here

jim

Synthaholic · Post by **Synthaholic** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 4:07 am

Mr. Black wrote:The way you can find out the year it was produced,when powering up hold buttons 1,2, it will display the month, day, year, mine is 626779, 05-29-85 is what my unit displays, which if i am reading correctly is a little later than your's.I believe the preset names on the membrane buttons where added to later models,also the early one's had a different key action a little clanky they switched to the JX10 keybed later on.Hold down button 4 while powering up it will read "Thank's Eric and Dan" Eric Persing, the programmer's for the JX8p.

Mine (well, Jim's now) displays 5-30-85. This is a firmware build/revision date, not the date the synth was manufactured. There's a thread on here describing how to compute manufacture date based on serial # for vintage Rolands, and I got a 1/86 build date from that. Yours (serial # starting with 62) is also a 1/86 build. Does yours have the presets printed on the buttons?

I think it was the older units that had the presets printed on the buttons.

Jim, your JX-8P is boxed up and ready to ship out tomorrow (Wednesday).

Mr. Black · Post by **Mr. Black** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 4:56 am

No mine's like your's (well what used to be your's) no preset name's on the buttons ,interesting that's cool so mine's from 86 not 85, i know there was a Roland serial number system topic a while back, i kinda forgot about it, sorry for the misinformation .I'll probably be putting mine on ebay soon or untill i land a JX10, or Mks-70.

DX · Post by DX » Wed Mar 26, 2008 11:40 am

Mr. Black wrote:The way you can find out the year it was produced,when powering up hold buttons 1,2, it will display the month, day, year, mine is 626779, 05-29-85 is what my unit displays, which if i am reading correctly is a little later than your's.I believe the preset names on the membrane buttons where added to later models,also the early one's had a different key action a little clanky they switched to the JX10 keybed later on.Hold down button 4 while powering up it will read "Thank's Eric and Dan" Eric Persing, the programmer's for the JX8p.

Nice input!. I will check mine and let you know (Sorry by the offtopic but is an useful JX8P info).
And regarding Jupiter sound, it is true the JX can reach some similar sounds (Of course, never mind a JX doing all the same, but some timbres are close....).

Mint restoration BTW!

crystalmsc · Post by **crystalmsc** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 12:28 pm

well done, congrats for the restoration.

D-Collector · Post by **D-Collector** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 7:04 pm

It looks very nice! Great work

DX · Post by DX » Wed Mar 26, 2008 11:03 pm

* About the serial number /Year of manufacture / membrane names question:

Mine is a serial # 569XXX and test shows 30-MAY-85. And it has the voice names printed on the membrane buttons.

Synthaholic · Post by **Synthaholic** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 12:38 am

DX wrote:* About the serial number /Year of manufacture / membrane names question:

Mine is a serial # 569XXX and test shows 30-MAY-85. And it has the voice names printed on the membrane buttons.

That synth rolled off the assembly line in July 1985. Shortly after I graduated from high school.

So it's about 6 months older than the one I had, with no preset names on the buttons.

I believe the date you get on the test is a firmware build date. Mine said version 3.1 IIRC, and 30-MAY-85.