I have a soft spot for hard luck cases; a trait you will come to recognize in me if I can manage to keep this blog up.  Case in point is this Juno 60 that I bought off Craigslist today for what I consider a good price.

Tape is for ‘transport’ as there are no screws holding it together. Yes that’s a penny peeking out where the D key should be -had a decent jingle worth of change rattling around in it.

I’m really not sure what the story is with the gold paint.  Fortunately it comes off pretty easily.

I like the description from the ad:

“I swear this Roland Juno 60 is haunted. It comes with Rumor and lore, a past where it was owned by Lenny Kravitz and saw sessions at “The Plant Studios” in Sausalito. It comes with a bonified history of having survived a Tesla Coil fire at the Oakland warehouse ‘Space’ during an ExtraActionMarchingBand show over ten years ago.
I discovered and pulled from the depths this creature during the dismantling of the “Xeno Drome”. It had the look of something possessed, and not just because the ‘J’ in Juno had electrical tape over it. Not just because 11 is an odd number of keys to be missing. Not just because it had a patina that comes from stories hidden in closets… but a combo of all this and more.
A voice said “plug me in”, and I obeyed- zap, the display lights up. The voice said “try me out”, and I herd a deep analog synth wave that harkens to warm milk. The voice said “Try and clean me up or replace any of my numerous missing screws, buttons, or sliders, and your screwed. I run on perpetuation, Orgone, and memories. Wash this off and I will be no more.”
As you can imagine, a vintage analog instrument that talks even when powered down is a bit spooky… and I knew I had something special. I’ve only powered it up a handful of times since, and always when I’ve been set up to record and sample all that comes out. I now have the fodder I need from it, and it’s time for it to go ‘live’ at a new home.
Hard to come up with an appropriate price, so instead I’m looking for best offers. Adding reasons why you would make a good new home couldn’t hurt either.”

I’m an engineer.  This is a machine.  A Japanese made machine no less.  It will survive a little well meaning attention.  Would be a shame not to have access to it’s kick-ass arpeggio settings.

If I wasn’t aware of how cheap and easy to find replacement keys are I’d have chosen to leave them off the treble end too.  How cute -the uno.

I tried it out on some headphones and it passed the ‘totally worth it’ test: all voices work, all filters work and the patch memory is selectable.  Worst case I can steal a few parts I need for my Juno 6 from it.

Ahh -how cute -green stars.

Ladies and gentlemen -that just might be puke on the power supply board.

Next Juno 60 post will have me sourcing parts.

Part 2 is here.