Just got back from the day's RT60 session, the first in which we used the Yamaha CS5. Yes, that Yamaha CS5.

For those not hip to the story, a couple years ago an AI reader in Seattle gave me this CS5. (I'm extremely embarrassed to admit that I can't remember whom. Please present yourself in the comments.) To say it was broken is to do a gross injustice to the word "broken." It was absolutely in throw-away condition. There were no end-pieces at all, everything was disconnected, several of the pots had failed, the metalwork (including the face panel) was bent all to hell, several of the ICs unique to the CS5 were burnt out, and worst of all, the main board, the actual synth itself, was broken, and many of the traces had failed.

When he gave me this synth, I was like "hmmm, maybe I'll have it rack-mounted or turned in to a desktop unit or some such." I just stuck the bag (of broken parts) on a shelf, and forgot about it. A year or so later (last April) I came across it again, and thought I should throw it out or sell it for parts or something. Then I got to thinking that would be a damn shame. I hate to see something irreplaceable leave this mortal coil. So I started casting about for someone that was willing to work on it.

Several places laughed at me outright when they saw pictures of the condition it was in. Two places here in Oregon absolutely refused to do it, for any amount of money. Most everyone I contacted thought it was a stupid proposition to do what needed to be done to such a simple synth. (The CS5 has only one EG and one OSC. Not, I'll note, entirely unlike the 303.)

But Stephen at Synthwood saw a challenge where others saw impossibilities. He took it under his wing, and after many false starts, a herculean search for the chips with no modern equivalent, and some fairly clever work-around action, it has returned to my loving embrace, only 13 short months after we embarked on this journey.

I won't go in to great detail on everything he had to do to get this thing in even barely working condition, never mind what it's at now, because we just don't have that kind of time. Highlights include dark walnut end-cheeks (and he had to fashion these en situ, as we didn't have the originals to work from), fixing all the metalwork and the frame, full cleaning, replacement of all the busted parts, repairing the broken circuit board, replacing the power supply, swapping out the fixed power connector with an IEC jack, and giving it MIDI.

We were going to add one of the clear DSI modwheels to it, in the normal Synthwood style, but we had to back out of that for technical reasons. But the slot the pitch bend goes in is now wheel-sized, should I decide to go down that garden path again.

Right now it isn't that much more (if at all) than a normal CS5 would go for. Plus it's unique, and I get the satisfaction of bringing back something that was absolutely destined for the dump. I'm getting custom-machined knobs made for it (in for a penny, in for a pound, right? Those chickenheads are just until I get 'em...) so that'll probably put me over the top. But otherwise, I'm extremely satisfied with Stephan's work, and very happy to get a new Shiny, and in better-than-new condition, at that. Stephen even used his CS15 as a donor for some of the parts to speed the process along, and for that I'm truly thankful. So much props to Synthwood for a repair job that was way above and beyond any reasonable expectations.