“Roland TR-808 Analogue Drum Machine, with original flight case, plastic cover sheet, owners manual, and a Kenton Kadi conversion kit.
This machine is in excellent condition, and it has served me very well in my small home studio for the last 15 years. It was serviced by Tony Allgood of Oakley Sound in October 2008, where the 16 coloured tact switches were replaced, and the power supply was re-capped. He also gave it a good looking over, as I thought that the bass drum was playing up, but apparently that is just the sound of the 808 – massive!!! It has not been used much since its last service, but I have powered it up to check it all out, and everything seems to be okay for a machine of this age. Batteries have been replaced regularly, and it also comes with an original Roland plastic cover sheet, which fits over the top of the 808, and has kept it in excellent cosmetic condition. The plastic cover sheet is a little tatty, and it can be seen in a couple of the photographs.
I had previously installed a Kenton Kadi kit, which is included in the sale, but when I powered up the 808 and programmed a few rhythms into it, it didn’t play the hand claps or hi-hats as they should, although sound was still coming out, just a bit quieter and a little oddly. I then played the 808 via my Kenton Pro2000 Kadi port, and all of the sounds worked perfectly. I decided to remove the Kadi port, and since then the 808 has been playing all of the sounds perfectly well. The Kadi port is included in the sale, so if you want you can re-install the kit so that you can play the 808 over midi. That is if you have a Kenton Kadi controller, and you are reasonably good at soldering! The down side is that removing the Kadi port has left an unsightly hole in the right side panel of the 808, but this does not affect the sound or performance in any way.
The 808 comes with the original manual, and also the drum patterns book, allowing you to program in the original factory preset patterns, and write down your own patterns too! I am also including with the sale, the original Roland TR-808 flight case. Unfortunately the original inside foam inserts are no longer there, as I used to use this case to carry a Moog Prodigy. You could however take it along to a flight case specialist such as Swan Flight, and get some foam inserts put in to make a great and very cool case. The flight case is solid, but obviously does have a few marks and scratches as you can see in the photos.” Link
















































