Vintage Synth Explorer Forums

I purchased a CZ-1000 on ebay, the guy claimed he took very good care of it and that the synth worked when he shipped. I believe him since he also had the manuals in nearly pristine condition and the original box. So that's another story, but what I need help with is a technical problem. The synth turns on but doesn't operate correctly. It typically gets stuck at preset 1, I can't punch in anything on the front panel, and it doesn't make any noise. Once in a while by turning it on and off enough times I can get it to play a few notes, but then it will just hold a note and become unresponsive again. I've tried running off the wall plug (original) and batteries. Once I was able to select preset 2.

There where a few broken wires from what looks like corrosion in the "ribbon wires". I replaced those with individual wires. That helped, but not a ton.

It feels like the CZ is "thinking," kind of like when a computer gives you that spinning ball.

Anyone have any ideas of what I might be able to do? I don't see any more obvious problems.

when items that were truly working prior to shipping show up not working, its usually a connection issue.
when items the seller *claimed* were working before shipping but show up not working, its sometimes BS.
i dont know the seller, and dont know what happened in this case, but we have received items in the past that the seller supposedly checked out and verified to be working properly, but theres no way they actually did or they wouldve reported a number of problems that were immediately obvious as soon as we powered the items on (and which certainly didnt happen as a result of shipping).
anyway, if theres corrosion in there, its likely batteries were left in there and leaked acid, which can do significant damage. good luck and keep us posted.
mini

Here's what I thought was the problem. I have since fixed this but it didn't fix the CZ. You could imagine how this damage could have resulted from rough shipment, given the wires weakened by corrosion.

Well, I've taken it apart twice now, and still can't find anything obviously wrong with it. Has nobody ever had to trouble shoot a CZ on the fritz?

Looks like it's going to be a "spares" unit. Sigh.

Have you gone through the service manual?

mine did exactly the same thing as described by the op. I had given up on it as I had tried using batteries or the ac adaptor and would get the same result. I left it alone for about two weeks, turn it on to try to jiggle things around but guess what!?! it worked perfectly, no issues at all. don't know if it is a common problem or if it will fail again, but it has been about a month and it still works perfectly.

twitchmonitor wrote:

Here's what I thought was the problem. I have since fixed this but it didn't fix the CZ. You could imagine how this damage could have resulted from rough shipment, given the wires weakened by corrosion.

Not a flame, just advice from an old codger who's seen most everything:
With Ensoniqs and Casios, check EVERY CONNECTION...then DO IT AGAIN!!! Corroded, broken wires/connectors can be the MOST frustrating pain-in -the-a*s problem in vintage synths.
In this case, be sure none of the button switches are stuck open or closed. If you find more than two bad, figure on replacing them ALL.
Next, get a scope and begin looking at logic signals for a bad IC gate, etc.

yeah, id recommend doing a continuity test on that connector if you didnt already.
mini