Roland U20 Repair

Synth Repair
1

I just picked up a used Roland U20, excellent condition, for $200.00. Everything works and it came with a nice thick manual.

I’m considering taking it in for some service, but I suspect it might be cost prohibitive…? Need some advice here on deciding whether I should take it in or do it myself.

  1. The volume slider is a bit noisy. How easy is it to clean it or replace it myself?

  2. Maybe a factory reset might be in order? I notice when I scroll through the patches, after a certain point the sound I hear doesn’t match what’s being displayed on the screen - it’s off by one or two patches. What’s up with that? Does a factory reset involve replacing all the sound files via MIDI from a computer?

  3. Maybe it’s time to replace the onboard battery? This keyboard was produced between 1988-1991.

  4. Are there any other contacts that might need to be cleaned, once I’m inside?

Thanks, everyone.

2

Cleaning the Volume slider is a snap - just be sure you use the right stuff. DeOxit is unbeatable:

https://syntaur.com/Items/D5S6.html

A quick spray into the slide pot will work miracles - just squirt, then move the slider lever back and forth for 10 seconds or so.

DeOxit is our version of Windex in My Big Fat Greek Wedding - we swear it will fix anything from unmovable slide pots to arthritis. DO NOT use anything you are not sure is good for contact cleaning. We’ve seen people who used WD40 and other things, and it ends up terribly.

Replacing the battery is easy too, since it just slips into a holder. And if you remove the battery, it may reset the factory internal programs (sometimes it takes a while for this to happen). If you still need to do a software reset, there is usually a combination of buttons that are pressed to do this, but I don’t have that info at the moment.

3

Thanks, Sam. I’ll go get a can of DeOxit from Guitar Center and give it a try. I assume I clean that slider from ABOVE the case, without taking it apart?

I found how to reset the U20 here:

http://forum.vintagesynth.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=49472

But if you scroll down the bottom, there is a lot involved to reset this keyboard. It requires a MIDI cable and a PC, apparently, to transfer a file to the keyboard. I can probably handle this myself but my real concern is all the screws I have to remove and dealing with all of the ribbon cables inside.

I’ll go over these instructions a few times and give it some more thought.

Thanks again.