Hi all,
New to this forum. I found a topic posted about the JD-800, and saw a reply from Sam (Syntaur Owner and CPU) about the methods Syntaur uses to remove the glue and clean up.
I replied to Sam’s reply on that thread, but the last post to it was 3 years ago… Not sure about cross-posting rules, but I thought I would include what I wrote to Sam as the main body of this topic, as I think this might be a title that other VK-7 owners might want to find. Most of the Red/Pink glue posts I have seen are about the JD-800…
I assume the VK-7 has a different internal layout of the circuit boards and may be either MORE finicky and easy to break something (like the JD contact board?) or less… Before I start any cleanup I was hoping to draw on the most recent experiences of the Syntaur folks and also see if any of the forum members might have some advice to offer…
Below is my reply to Sam’s comment, he mentioned that Syntaur deals with the glue on the JD-800 but putting the keys out in sunlight for a few days until the glue gets runny, then the keys are soaked in a cleaner called “Awesome”
My Reply: (edited slightly for how many years it sat)
Hey Sam, Long time YouTube subscriber, love your channel and the journey you and your team have taken me on from day one!
I am a new Forum member as of today though…
I have a Roland VK-7 Organ that I had stored in my basement studio for 13 years where it is always relatively cool year round. Never had issues with red glue during the time it was down there…
I had to move it to a back bedroom on the first floor when the 13 years idle basement studio was taken apart and obsolete huge pieces of gear were sold off.
That bedroom was not a hotbox during the summers, but it was not as cool as the basement.
Found out that the VK-7 appears to have the pink/red glue problem…
There aren’t any keys stuck together yet, but there are a couple of small mounds of the glue in two places on the rail beneath the tips of the keys. None of the weights have fallen out yet.
I am not sure of the layout of the circuit boards, so I don’t know if i am already in imminent danger of stuff having dripped onto the organ’s vital… um organs?? lol…
I powered it up about 6 months ago and it was still booting and the display worked and the buttons all seemed to. But I have not tested it with it’s main outputs connected to a mixer, nor even with headphones in a while…
My main question is:
Have you evolved any changes to the way you approach removing the red glue?
I am on Long Island in New York, it is winter here, and putting them in the sunlight is a bit of a non-starter right about now…
I am relatively good at taking stuff apart carefully and putting it back together, (did some service on my Kurzweil PC-88mx to get a jumpy mod wheel De-oxit-ed and the 2032 battery replaced, but not sure how tightly packed the innards of the VK-7 are…
I am only able to address this stuff now, as I just renovated a bedroom to use as a dedicated music / room studio space, and I am cleaning up and repairing all the gear as I go that I have not had the space to deploy before… The VK-7 is something I have been dreading dealing with.
Thanks in advance! Hope you are well!
Chris.