Hi,
This is my attempt to gather numbers of people interested in a brand new specifically manufactured parts kit for Ensoniq SQ-80 Fatar keybed Polyphonic AfterTouch renewal, based on the exceedingly limited availability hen’s teeeth Syntaur kits…
You see what has happened is that I’ve fallen in love with this keyboard and I want to develop a globally available kit to keep them maintained for future users.
Unlike Syntaur I do not want to make these kits out of secondhand parts, I aim to have them specifically manufactured for purpose from brand-new materials.
I encourage and invite Syntaur to be a part of this if they are interested?
Although going on previous experience, I highly suspect they will not be and I expect them to keep the proprietary knowledge of the subject absolutely secret because they made it clear their interest lies in commerciality rather than enthusiasm. Fair enough, business is business, I trust they will not have a problem with me posting this here.
I really would like to involve Syntaur though because they could very much help us to produce these parts correctly and with less R&D, equally I would be just as happy if Syntaur were to decide to produce these in large numbers instead of myself and keep their proprietary knowledge, if Syntaur would like to take the idear and roll with it instead of me please contact me and let me know, otherwise I will proceed unassisted.
Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love Syntaur just sad you never produced enough of these kits to meet demand. That said I especially love your repair videos <3, I just recognise that you are a commercial entity primarily and so cannot afford to be purly driven by enthusiasm and love as I am : ) Well that’s what you told me.
I will be clear though, I do not wish to lose money doing this, however, I am not solely focused on profit making, in fact I aim to keep costs low and still maintain quality.
So a large part of this effort reflects an exercise of community and sustainability, as well as musical enjoyment and the prosterity of these amazing pieces of equipment for future generations.
Although I am aware it may be a controversial opinion, I believe that the SQ-80 is as much fun to use as a Juno with even more diverse sound creating capabilities, as a analogue digital hybrid synthesiser capable of full PolyAT, I believe this keyboard should be more valued and I think that they will be an important part of musical history.
Therefore I would like to encourage everyone to show their interest so I can get an idea of the numbers interested as market research for parts development.
Please leave a comment if you make yourself contactable in the forum I will try to gather email addresses and stay in touch. It’s just an initial test message for now.
All the best,
SF