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Roland CR-78 with Roland WS-1 Write Switch

“For sale is a vintage Roland CR-78 with original manual and a Roland WS-1 write switch with original box and manual. The drum machine and the write switch are in excellent condition, both inside and out.

Externally, this CR-78 is extremely clean with only very minor wear marks, worthy of the keenest collector. The manual does have a couple spots on it, which is to be expected of a 40-year-old document. The WS-1 write switch is in immaculate condition and works very well; its manual is still tethered to the cables and the $61 price tag still stuck to its box!

Now for the fun part: This drum machine has a new lithium battery and a modified charging circuit, as well as a completely new set of high quality electrolytic capacitors. The CR-78 is known in the tech community for leaky Ni-Cad batteries and leaky Matsushita purple capacitors. The nickel cadmium battery can leak its potassium hydroxide electrolyte and wreak havoc on an unsuspecting CR-78 (and other synths from the 80s); it should ALWAYS be replaced. In addition, purple Matsushita (Panasonic) capacitors from this time period are “change-on-sight” in my shop as I have never encountered a synthesizer with these installed and NOT found at least one leaking its electrolyte and eating away at the PCB trace (typically, 90-100% of these purple capacitors are leaking in a piece of gear of this vintage). That being said, I found zero corrosion from any of the leaking Matsushita capacitors in this CR-78, and the battery only had a wet band around its middle. Given another year or two, the internals of this unit would have gone from pristine to near unsalvageable.

 Lastly, this unit has two new voltage regulators as an added precaution, delivering 5 and 15 wonderful, beautiful volts of direct current.” Click here to visit listing on eBay