Can I FIX this 1980s Synth / Keyboard Beauty?

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Hi, in this video I attempt to fix a beautiful 1988 Yamaha PortaSound PSS-680. This thing has it all, synthesizer, drum kit, you name it, this has it. Purchased from eBay for a mere £30, it was listed as no power, not working with batteries or the power supply.
Can it be fixed and work as intended once again? Let's find out.
If you would like to support these videos, please click here / mymatevince
Remember that this is just for entertainment and I am not an expert in these repairs. The processes in the video may not be the best way, the correct way or the safest way to fix these things. I do love fault finding and trying to fix broken things, so I hope that comes across in this 'Trying to FIX' series. Many thanks, Vince.

[@lalalalalala8147]

I still have one of these. It cost me £600 in 1989. It works perfectly.

[@TayWoode]

What?!! Mine was £199 brand new from Dixons. Where did you buy yours from?

[@SaturnV2000]

There is a special compound available specifically for repairing these worn pads. Caig Caikote 44. It works very well when used properly. I've used it on synth keyboards and other carbon membranes. You must let it dry thoroughly before reassembling.

[@TobiEstosWorld]

Made my day this will fix sooo many of my retro game console controllers ❤

[@guitfidle]

Thank you!!

[@spig021]

John Shuttleworth would be proud of that repair, well done Vince! Ooof 🤓

[@pallsmortion4750]

Maybe, might be a bit of a southern softie

[@keepitpeel]

He's got a Roller, F reg, F reg, F reg.

[@TheBearbertie]

​@@keepitpeelfull or half fat?

[@Iffy]

Frank Sidebottom would've been too

[@FourthDrawerDown]

“ two margarines on the go ..🎵”

[@PCBWay]

Just can't thank you enough for your sweet support, Vince It feels so GOOD to have you by our side 🙌🙌

[@Mymatevince]

Thank you 👍👍👍

[@arturoaviles8143]

This YAMAHA PORTASOUND PSS-680 was my second keyboard, in the 80s, where I practiced Musical Composition. Currently I still use it (and I have two) despite having a Recording Studio with a lot of modern equipment.

[@davyarthurs]

Snap. I have one too and the original box!

[@billkrussick6477]

i sold mine years ago and really wish i hadn't, it's a unique piece of gear.

[@TheSynrgy1987]

A good use for used solder braid is for cracked PCB trace repair for thick tracks.

[@antonjansenvanrensburg4145]

yep i use braid for my dc socket repairs, this is pretty normal on older keyboars

[@Rep2369]

Amen to that! Better bodge wires! Thicker, esp with physically broken pcb's and much better amperage can go thru braid (not rly needed here obv, but numerous uses for higher amperage circuits!)

[@john-do1cw]

For the conductive buttons, try thinning a blob of silicone sealant with lighter fluid until it's like a thin paint then add graphite powder until the consistency thickens a little. Scratch the faulty pad with sandpaper, clean with IPA then apply a thin coat of your conductive silicone paint.

[@mystery_pond]

Don't silicone sealants off-gas acetic acid when they cure? I've never tried this method, though I wonder whether using a rubber cement like copydex might be a bit better in that regard.

[@johnhodgetts6617]

Are you sure India Pale Ale is a suitable cleaning agent? (Yes, I'm joking. Of course you mean Isopropyl Alcohol.)

[@rupertwilson7020]

Use neutral cure silicone (not acetyl cure - releases acetic acid). Neutral takes 24-48hours to cure, where acetyl takes 1-6 hours.

[@xaelgolden7134]

Had One back in 80's bought in Chicago in USA, brand new and after I exchanged in my many trades...many years out of sight ..it has return to me.. and that one will be kept. It was part of my Musical venture when teen. Great video. Thanks!

[@RetroBoxRoom]

According to the Argos catalogue of Autumn/Winter 1988, says on page 281, item 17, that the RRP was £249.99, but they were selling it by then for £199.95. Looking through old Argos PDF catalogues are always a nice place to grab old prices from here in the UK.

[@Mymatevince]

Excellent, thanks for finding it and posting the price 👍👍👍

[@DaveCollison]

Oh, and you published this video on my 52nd birthday. 35 years after I got the keyboard.

[@redsunmtm]

Hi Vince...i use REMOTE RESTORE to restore flex boards of remotes and controllers it's carbon paint in spray... i spray a bit in a little container and use a paint brush to redo the pads ! works amazingly !

[@MIK_F40]

For the drum pads, best option I found was to use kitchen foil. Use a paper hole punch to get the perfect size, glue shinny side of the tin foil to the 'middle' contact as you ONLY need one of these on each of the pad, (just the one contect in the middle). Glue wise, the green pritt stick that glues everything including metal is what I used, leave for 24hrs to dry just for good measure. Depending how much you use the keyboard you may find the start/stop pad might loosen just a tad if you use the drums and record a lot, it will still work though. BTW the space between contact and board is so tight that cutting off the middle contact which I have done, and replacing them with a brand new one can cause some to continuously touch, its not like a TV remote gap but a hairs width tight. Wish someone could come up with a 3D printed replacement that has space to use any modern day console controller contact.

[@Dubdroid]

Tried this for drum pads and tv remotes 👍… kitchen foil, hole punch, superglue on each circle … quick, effective, long lasting.

[@audiocoffee]

I wish I'd known this years ago!! however, bought a roll of 'natural' slug repellant from 'one below' for £1 - a roll of thin copper tape. just need to find my hole punch and I can start fixing the glorious mess that is my pss-680. the tape is as wide as your average roll of selotape, so, should be able to punch a ton of holes in it and fix stuff without too much effort.

[@azielok]

I had a problem with my guitar hero controller's fret buttons which weren't registered every time. I just bought "remote control rubber buttons" in pack with glue. Those conductive rubber pads really made controller work again. Look them up :) I didn't play on the controller for 100 hours, but the glue really set them well. Of course you will have to change them again after some time, but that shouldn't happen just after few hours of playing ;)

[@Mymatevince]

Thanks azielok, I have just bought some from eBay and also a wide selection of carbon pads. Hopefully when it comes through I can glue them on and this will be a lasting repair. Cheers for letting me know what to look up 👌👍

[@6581punk]

You can get keypad conductive paint for painting on the existing pads. I've had to do that with two drum machines so far and those have twin pads for velocity sensing.

[@Mind-your-own-beeswax]

@@6581punkI tried some of that on the drum pads in mine and it didn’t work for me.

[@og-ol-timer]

😂 flashes of Ross in Friends and his keyboard playing

[@HavingFunRepairs]

@29:50 if you're concerned with false presses try small strips of aluminum cut to shape of the pads only and a very small dab of glue on one side to adhere to the pads. I did this on several of the tamagotchis I repaired on my channel. Those membranes are still working really well.

[@Mymatevince]

Thanks Shawn, I was thinking of gluing just onto the pads, but I thought they might have more chance of coming astray than a whole section of copper tape. I have since bought some carbon pads in different sizes and silicone glue, hopefully this may be a lasting solution 👍👍👍

[@VOLTRONDEFENDER4440]

did you watch this early why does it say 1 day ago when the video was just uploaded?

[@meetv7700]

​@@VOLTRONDEFENDER4440Havingfunrepair is patron of this channel , they get an early access to videos.

[@HavingFunRepairs]

@@Mymatevince no matter what, you worked around the problem to provide a solution. Anyone can recommend an improvement, but the initial work is what's important. Well done Vince!

[@sdjmchattie]

@@VOLTRONDEFENDER4440 My Mate Vince Massive get early access to videos

[@andrewpeat6342]

Before you pulled the roll off copper tape out, I was thinking hole punch and copper tape would suit that out. Great video as ever Vince.

[@doskungen]

The "weird thing" that happens on the left side of the keyboard is because you have it in chord/accompaniment mode where you can play with different accompaniment styles. I had a Yamaha PSS-170 as a kid. That thing is an absolute BEAST! :D

[@brazilianmegaman258]

Big V has now set the standard for playing us out in every video. Absolutely loved it!

[@Mymatevince]

😂👍

[@jay3fox]

My freinds brother used to have this model back in the day and it was so impressive we had lots of fun playing it

[@6581punk]

Had a bust one of these years ago. It just went a bit loopy. I think these days I'd stand a chance of fixing it but back then I was clueless. I even saw one outside someone's house next to the bins a few years back. Wish I'd grabbed it.

[@89ludeawakening1]

You can make your own CA glue kicker out of 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda and 1/4 cup of purified water. You can also spray CA glue with alcohol and it functions as a kicker. The baking soda route is better because it actually makes the glued joint stronger. For fixing worn down carbon, the MG Chemicals Rubber Keypad Repair Kit works perfectly and it's a long time solution.

[@sclarke103]

1988, my 9th birthday, I had the PSS780. Best birthday ever!!! Great video

[@omegamark4155]

14:49 Vince, for faders and carbon track switches you should be using the green DeoxIT, not the red one. The red one will deoxidize the carbon oxide layer (there are some questions about that) and we don't want that;). The red one will work for now, but you are shortening the lifespan of that volume fader. EDIT: The green one also has some lubricant for faders or you can even get a dedicated fader grease. It's also safe with plastic parts. I've seen some videos about old audio receivers being doused with the red DeoxIT and then some composite material boards simply disintegrating.

[@rfmerrill]

For plastic safety the bigger difference is between the thin solvent-containing products (D-5 and F-5) versus the thicker non-solvent containing ones (D-100 and F-100). The former are pretty much just the latter, but diluted in a solvent that makes it work in an aerosol can and get more evenly distributed without using a ton of it. The solvent is, unfortunately, not safe for all plastics.

[@Mymatevince]

Thanks Omega Mark, I was told about this before so I have just purchased the DeoxIT Fader aerosol from Amazon, £26, but hopefully it will last a long time 👍👍👍

[@omegamark4155]

​@@Mymatevince Vince, use the F100 whenever possible on these faders and carbon tracks. The aerosol is for tight spaces, flushing action and has very little lubricant. That F100 is for longer term solutions, as it better stays in place and gives fader movement a better feeling. Didn't try their fader grease, but you need something good quality for some pots and faders (especially in old audio equipment). I hope you got the one with the old style straw that allows for better control. The new one with that big plastic on top and bigger diameter straw is atrocious due to overspray and it leaks all over the place. I'm surprised they still sell these. They also have DeoxIT Gold for plated surfaces (gold plated (and other precious metals) fingers, etc.).

[@Mymatevince]

@@omegamark4155 Not sure which one it is as the pics on Amazon are not always identical to the one you get. I did see the Gold stuff for sale too, looks nice. I'm a big fan of DeoxIT so looking forward to receiving the fader version. Cheers again for the help👍

[@RuCatania]

I had one. I've been spending many hours a day when I was 15 playing guitar over the backing tracks I recorded with it. Super useful. And music is still my job after 30 years, so yes, I suppose it was actually useful. Thanks for sharing this, dude!

[@frankgibson3749]

Vince, my 6 year old granddaughter absolutely loves her Yamaha keyboard which she inherited off her mum who got it as a present in the mid 80’s.

[@808music3]

Blimey… had one of these synth when I started to to compose melodies in My early 20’s. Now I’ve become professional over the yrs. Way to go Yamaha 👏👏👏

[@marksieczko7766]

I had one in the early 90s. A fun key board/drum machine. Really came into its' own when coupled to a DAW (Music X on an Amiga) . Copy n paste a track then detune that using a a tiny amount of pitch bend. Sounded great.

[@theopeneye]

I used to own one of these. Totally loved it. You could record 6 tracks of music and would loop your creations. Even made a sick little G-funk track on it. A bit of a gem, even though it sounds awful by todays standards. The FM synthesiser was great fun too Turn up the feedback to get some really narly sounds.

[@jeffhohner9298]

Hey Vince, I don't know if you're still monitoring these comments, but in the past I have used that aluminum tape that you can get in the HVAC department of your local hardware store and just cut little squares of it, I didn't even round them off, and stuck them onto the membrane contacts.Or I guess you could get a small punch and punch out a bunch of round ones. I haven't tried it on a keyboard, but it has brought several of my remote controls back to life and seems to adhere surprisingly well. I fixed my Sony amplifier remote about 2 years ago and it is still going strong. Plus it will add a bit of thickness to the membranes if you think they are worn down. Cheers

[@paulbrowne3870]

I had one of these. It was a brilliant little keyboard. Made some great music with it.

[@benlovemusicuk]

We have this keyboard, at work it was donated. I work in a disabled day centre, where I do music with them. Our one still works, and we plug all the instruments guitars and synths, though a small pa and have a jam Tuesday afternoons. Our drummer, plays the donated drum kit over the top. For a retro keyboard it's got some nice, sounds and settings on it.

[@ColonelForkEyes]

My next door neighbour's parents bought him one of these exact keyboards shortly after it came out. I also had to make do with something miniscule costing £30. The thing about these keyboards with their racks of presets and style accompaniments was that they were fun to play with even if, like me, and in fact my neighbour's kid, you had no musical theory knowledge or playing skills. Nowadays everyone's a bedroom producer and I suppose the modern equivalent of this is buying loop packs to drop into your DAW. And I seem to remember seeing these sell for £199.99 on the High Street but never saw them get any cheaper, they'd usually be replaced a couple of years later with a new model at the same price point. I seem to remember this model being the most expensive consumer-grade keyboard you could buy on the High Street without going to a specialist music shop for 'serious kit' - these kind of things were classed more as home entertainment than aimed at actual musicians, hence the fact they were available at the likes of Dixons, Argos and Rumbelows, even though Yamaha were also making top end synthesizers at the time, they got sold through music shops instead. edit - also I'm fairly sure those bad membrane connections is why a lot of us lost interest in the instruments after we'd had them for a while. They couldn't stand up to six months of finger banging... I mean "drumming" - without starting to lose accuracy and after a while it became hard to play a beat in time.

[@kev1n726]

I got one for my Christmas. I'd be around 12. It came from Dixons. The edition before had yellow pads. Was approx £180.

[@mehere8299]

You were able to use a tube of superglue on two separate projects? And it didn’t harden in the tube in between? Truly, this is an age of wonder and miracles.

[@timpullen4941]

I'm a keyboard tech. I have repaired membrane circuits by painting a carbon conductive paint. Tape repairs are not succesful. The other thing is that I always put kitchen surface cleaner paste onto the rubber contacts and clean them. Then rinse well in Luke warm water and dry with a clean tea towel and then let the contacts air dry.

[@dash8brj]

My sister and I got keyboard like this one birthday - we ended up jamming together on them bashing out Jean Michel Jarre tunes. We took them to camp and performed on them in the talent quest and won :) I can chord now but back then "Auto chord" was a blessing :)

[@IanBourneMusic]

I have a PSS 790 tucked away in a cupboard. Complete with power supply and user manual.

[@jamesbuttigieg2879]

my second kid who is now 37 years old would have loved one of these when she was younger!

[@endotherm]

With the loose power supply DC plug, if it isn't the original power pack that came with the unit, you might find the hole in the DC plug has a different size than the pin in the socket. Common sizes are 5.5mm x 2.1mm or 5.5mm x 2.5mm. The larger one can fit on the smaller pin but will feel loose and may not make contact at all. There are also adaptors available to go from one size to another, search "2.5mm DC Plug to 2.1mm DC Socket Power Adaptor" or "2.1mm DC Plug to 2.5mm DC Socket Power Adaptor". The different sizes are to do with the current handling of the plug, 2.1mm is usually for low current devices (like CCTV cameras) pulling only an amp or so. 2.5mm is designed to carry a couple of amps or more.

[@rc-fannl7364]

These old keyboards have a certain charm. I did a similar repair on the power connector and headphones jack of my Roland E15, which I bought used. Luckily there was no circuit board damage in that case, but just some cracked solder joints. So just resoldering these connectors was enough to get it fixed.

[@hi-trackap947]

Wow! Brought back some memories when you hit the demo button there! I had 1 of these when I was younger. It had a quite nice FM synth section and was my first venture into synthesis ha Biggest secret to this as a relatively cheap home keyboard is that it also had midi ports. I had mine hooked up to my Atari St and used as a controller keyboard for other synths for a few years. Great video!

[@RevBillyG]

I had exactly the same setup :)

[@brutlern]

Nostalgia trip really. I had a buddy many many many years ago, he was showing off his synthesizer skills all the time. All the kids would just gather round whenever he would bring his Yamaha to school.

[@weep4me]

Wow that brings back good memories, I had that exact same model as a kid for Christmas. I thought I was a musician at the time. Brilliant video mate..

[@nicholas790]

I remember a carbon paint that came in a very small jar for repairing the membrane buttons on remote controls. As I recall it worked pretty well but took a long time to dry.

[@Bokooda]

I've still got a fully functioning PSS 790 - the one with the joystick and multi-channel recording. Cheers for the blast from the past 🙏🏽

[@MrJamesdudney]

I had one of these back when they came out (I was in Secondary School). Amazing keyboard. Learnt how to finger drum with it, but the blue pads were the first things to die. Great job restoring it!

[@wscottcrawford]

I'm glad I came across this video - brought back a lot of memories. Back in High School, we had the next model up the 780. Not that I was any good on the keyboard, but, I always loved these machines. I ended up buying a Yamaha PSR-47 when I started working that I tried to learn to play but, can only play a little bit. I managed to acquire a PSS-480 for my eldest son from a car boot sale for £3 then I managed to get myself a Yamaha PSR-4500 from Ebay.

[@Nervejam]

I have a pss-480. Haven't dug it out in years. It's similar except for the pads. Bought mine from Tandy in the 80s

[@Simon-qn5wm]

I have a Pss680, bought off ebay with a blown audio IC, changed it & now working. It's a good keyboard, only thing I wish it had was full size keys. I have used a pencil to repair worn out carbon pads, it lasts quite a while before needing to be done again.

[@kernowzx2]

Back pre 2000 I used to do Tech Support for Schools and Colleges in Cornwall. There was a special Yamaha Carbon Grease for the membrane pad contact points, usual service item at the time, but my google searching was unable to locate it. The Power jack/broken PCB problem was a frequent one we would see, easy enough to fix with superglue and 14 gauge tinned copper wire as long as the remnants of the PCB were viable (if I recall we had a DX100 that kept coming back, I personally repaired the PSU plug part of the board 4 times at least! Bloody kids!)

[@proudofyourroots9575]

thats exatly what i was thinking some sort of grease mix with carbon powder

[@davyarthurs]

I own this very keyboard. Have the original box. Owned from new since approx 1989-1990!

[@BlondieSL]

As for the worn carbon on the buttons, what I used to use, long long ago, was a product called, Aquadag spray that I used to use to recoat the bell of CRTs (picture tubes). Sadly, yet logically, I can't find this same product anywhere now. I do see some tiny bottles of Aquadag with small brushes, but I don't know how good those are or work. Plus, if/when they are available, they are RIP-OFF EXPENSIVE!!! I used to buy the big spray cans of Aquadag for around $10, I think it was. So long ago, I can't really remember. I just remember that it wasn't crazy expensive. Oh to have a time machine with a shopping basket on it. LOL 😁✨👍

[@Charlottesville798]

I fix these as a hobby. I have a vast collection of 70s 80s 90s vintage synthesizers. Good video Vince!!

[@TheModelator]

I tried most of the fixes, the silver paint (expensive) did quite a good job, but did fail in time. When doing an Atari games machine the joysticks are the same carbon contacts, nothing seemed to stick on them, I ended up buying a carpenters wide carbon pencil, put a dod of superglue where the contacts are and scraped the carbon from the pencil on to the glue. It's still going after aprox 3 years now. I've since fixed a few hand controllers with no problems.

[@Fletchr86]

Just checked when your Walkman video was (as that was one of the first I saw, I think you were in the low 10k's or maybe less in terms of subs) and it was 4 years ago! Can't believe how time flies. Glad to see you/your channel are doing well mate, always enjoyable to watch and taught me tons.

[@mikea683]

I had one of these for Christmas in 88. It eventually died when it fell off the top of the wardrobe where it was stored in the 2000's. I bought one last year on eBay for £60 and it was like being 6 again!

[@DaveCollison]

I had this exact keyboard when I was 17 and it was brilliant. And, incredibly, I found another one in Cash Convertors about two months ago which is in full working order. It's need a clean up and maybe some straightening of the keys, plus a door for the battery compartment, but it all works. £50 quids.

[@SharpblueCreative]

I had one of those back in the day. Exact same model. Based on the Yamaha FM synths like the DX7 at the time. Eventually led me to owning a load of real synths and a studio in the 1990’s.

[@count69]

One of the greatest machines ever created in the history of everything ever! I had one when I was 15 and you could use it like a complete recording studio creating recorded tracks to play along with. The synthesiser was amazing, and it taught me how sound envelopes work. To think this thing was primarily sold as a toy in WHSmith and the like, presumably because of the mini keys, it's only real downside.

[@ServisTOPRO]

Hallo VInce, for repair the trace like this i use a used solder-wick. The wick is allredy sucked with solder. I put it on repair parts and soldering it on the traces with litle bit of solder. It´s second life for the wick🙂

[@M1LAD81]

Hiya Vince. You can get Carbon conductive paint, maybe it would work better than the silver paint? Worth a try just to see what this carbon paint is all about. Another enjoyable video. Cheers. PS. Farnell seems to sell it.

[@theheadandthebart]

@mymatevince The material you're looking for is CaiKot 44. It's a bit pricey, but it's a carbon/silver conductive paint specifically for membrane repair. I have had good success with it. Cheers!

[@Mymatevince]

Nice one, I have never seen that before. I struggled to find it here in the UK, but I have just managed to get it from DigiKey. I'll look forward to trying it out 👍👍

[@suadcokljat1045]

That was my dream synth from childhood. Never had it.

[@LittleRichard1988]

It's not too late to buy one.

[@mikethemusicman1978]

I had the PSS 790 as a kid, my friend across the road had the 680, he played better than me though. Great repair, never seen underneath them drum pads before, loved it Vince.

[@thesunreport]

I got a lesser model than that one Christmas around 1987. It played 'Don't go changing' for its demo tune as it went through all of the sounds. I certainly remember trying to play Crash by The Primitives on it when that came out in 1988. I bought another similar one around 1997 to use as a MIDI controller, which I still have. Great Fun!! :)

[@hoodlumrocknroll1]

Never used a Yamaha keyboard, though in 1995, I got a Casio CTK-500 digital keyboard for Christmas. I also had the older Meccano brand Erector sets. One speaker went out on the Casio, so I found a working speaker, but it was smaller than original; so I stripped and added extra wire between smaller speaker and original circuit board wiring, then made a custom bracket using Erector set parts to reach original speaker mount holes and the 'X' made by Erector set held the smaller speaker in place. Keyboard worked. That repair and modification I did at 17, with no electronic repair knowledge.

[@keithwatkins3216]

Use the braid you just used to clean up the board makes a very sturdy connection and it doesn't end up in the bin

[@iletelyastraightmate]

That demo tune at the end brought back memories!

[@ianvicedomini2648]

I used to have one of these and I had hours of fun which gave me an insensitive to eventually upgrade. I've had a few yamaha keyboards and every one I've had has taught me a lot. But the one I have right now is a yamaha tyros 1 and it's been playing up a bit so reluctantly I'll have to open it up and try to remedy the problems. Great video mate 👍🏽 👌

[@PADR]

Still have mine in full working order. Great keyboard in the day. Works great in midi mode too. I now use a DAW and VST’s.

[@SaccoBelmonte]

I remember as a kid spending an entire night playing with that keyboard, borrowed from a friend. I knew it wasn't the best thing compared to what I wanted but it was still a ton of fun being my first experience with multi timbral synths with recording.

[@andrasszabo7386]

Nice keyboard, Vince :) I bet the 8-Bit Guy(David Murray) would say a thing or two about it. He knows these inside out :) Nice fix, too.

[@JonPadfield]

Great fix Vince! Definitely had a few of these in the music room of my secondary school. Always used to be a battle as to who could get the best keyboard to mess around on, and most of us were tone deaf 😂. If this had been in a school, it could explain the wear on the drum pads. None of us kids could play a tune, but we all thought we were gods gift to drumming 😂

[@acheface]

Holey moley! My first ever keyboard. I loved it.

[@michaelturner4457]

Yamaha and Casio still make home keyboards, but they are not nearly as popular now as back in the 80s and 90s. There are a couple of YT channels that do specialise in home keyboards if anyone is interested, Keen on Keys and Casio Chaos Theory.

[@clivebarrell6448]

Nice repair. For the power input, I wonder if it would have been worth mounting a power socket on the case, cutting away the board section where the power input was, then running wires from the input jack to the board.

[@ray73864]

It's what I would have done. I would have bypassed that broken section completely and not bothered to try and repair it.

[@pauldavies6037]

yes same idea me

[@TheWinoTu]

@Mymatevince next time try baking soda with super glue. It makes really strong bond and hardens quickly. Few layers should be more than enough.

[@kirkula]

I posted it as a reply to Having Fun Repairs, but I'll put it up here as well to make it more visible. I agree 100% with gluing alumin(i)um onto the pads. I did that on the copy button on a fax machine at a previous job, which was a button pressed hundreds of times a week, and worked perfectly well until I left the place a few years later. It was literally unusable beforehand, and my boss said he was just gonna replace it. I told him screw that, I'll save you a few hundred bucks right now.

[@anders_lindqvist]

Guitar cavity shielding paint works great on contact pads. I used it to repair a MIDI controller key a few years ago, and it still works.

[@AndyHullMcPenguin]

Graphite from a pencil does work. You could try "lock lubricant" graphite powder thinned with PVA glue.

[@AndyHullMcPenguin]

Since the button pads are round you could try using a hole punch and the copper tape to make small round copper pads.

[@shadowkrutshov3083]

You could start playing at weddings with this Vince and make big money! LOL Good job!

[@Mymatevince]

😂😂👍

[@Jesuslife39]

I wouldn’t say just your kids when I try to show my daughter things that amazes me when I was younger sometimes I have to check for a pulse a different generation for sure

[@sinatra2007]

I had this as a kid brings back so many memories I never learnt how to play it but was fun to mess around on

[@captainuseless3806]

my buddy linked me this video because I inherited one of these from an older family friend, very cool

[@athek7081]

I had one of these when they came out. They do still look good today. I recall a 'super accompaniment' option.

[@Dave64track]

Great fix I have in the past used a very soft HP pencil and had no issues with it failing later on. I noticed near the socket you repaired where the screw holds the board down it looked like a track maybe cracked near the fixing hole might be worth checking just incase it is open circuit. Time stamp 2.56 near the screw if you look at the video.

[@Mymatevince]

I see it Dave, looking on my big screen it is a discoloured patch of conformal coating in this instance. Cheers for pointing it out though 👍👍👍

[@davidw2820]

I've had one of these from new and it was a great intro to keyboards/synths etc. Also used the MIDI with my Atari ST but, sadly, the ST is long gone. The PSS-680 is still in great condition though and is in deep storage under the bed. As I now do synth repairs as a hobby this was a great repair video and, yes there are lots of conductive carbon paint solutions made just for this kind of thing. Just look for rubber key pad repair paint.

[@nuetral2374]

Great idea with the copper tape my partner puts it around her plant pots to keep slugs an snails at bay 😊😊

[@petewmids]

Another great video Vince! For this sort of repair I have successfully used small disks cut from thin cooking foil (aluminium foil), stuck in place with superglue.

[@simonhood_music]

Raced to get to one of the few of these we had in music lessons at school, absolute beast! Amazing some of the stuff you could get it to do.

[@LittleRichard1988]

I have a Yamaha PSS-680 that I bought in 2021, one reason you tend to find many of these keyboards being sold second hand is because many people who sell them bought these for their kids back in the day but when the kids moved out they no longer seemed interested which was the case with my Yamaha PSS-680 although in my experience 20 years ago another reason many people didn't seem to bothered about keyboards like this was because many people thought they sounded outdated in the 21st century which for some people is still the case but I'm no longer swayed by what other people think as long as I like it otherwise I wouldn't buy it. But when I was growing up in the 90s I had the Yamaha PSS-790 which was one of my main keyboards from 1993-2004 but the PSS-790 uses AWM samples of actual instruments which were quite realistic sounding for it's time, I actually have 2 PSS-790s because I bought another one in 2022 because one of the buttons stopped working on the original PSS-790 so that one is basicaly being kept as a spare. I think the original PSS-790 was a catalog gift but the main reasons for my Dad buying the Casio CT-700 was so my Dad could play with headphones so he didn't wake me up playing the piano when I was put to bed but having both of those keyboard did get me into recording song covers from a very early age and also my Dad used to take the Casio CT-700 with him when he was away on buisness. I think it's sad that Yamaha and Casio's consumer level keyboards are something that's often overlooked nowadays although with the economy if consumers want a keyboards just to learn on or mess around with for some people the only choice is either buy a really cheap generic brand keyboard like an Acoustic Solutions or Alesis Melody or you can now buy keyboards like this one second hand for next to nothing. As I recently bought a Roland TR-505 and also a Casio MT-500 I wouldn't be too upset if the drum pads stopped working on my Yamaha PSS-680, I do like it's lofi drums but I also plan to get a Yamaha PSR-36 in the next couple of years which has some of these same drums, Yamaha have always been good at mixing and matching PCM drums in their 80s and 90s home keyboards.

[@Grimbo]

Thanks for this video - I had one of these and it brought the memories flooding back!

[@rhyswilliams1998]

I had that as my first keyboard. I remember it being about £180 but on sale at Comet. One of the drum pads split very early on!

[@markretro3612]

wow !!! i had one of them back in the day and before that i had the PSS480 (without the drum pads) ..

[@guitfidle]

Nice job! I had the same power jack issue on a Sega Genesis, still working strong 10+ years later. I also have the PSS-480 from this series, they are actually really powerful synths!! If you plug this in to an external audio system, even just a stereo console, they sound SSOOO much better than through the small built-in speakers.

[@dazboot2000]

I used to have this Keyboard MIDI out to VST instruments instant even better backing tracks

[@healinghands8356]

Use a Hole Punch in the right size and punch copper plates out of your copper self glued tape, then use emery cloth/paper to roughen the silicon and glue the copper plates on it.

[@IamNotANumber]

Nice! And at least when someone wrote the name of the note on the key it was correct! Years ago I went to buy a keyboard off someone from the local paper (remember those?) when I went to try it out someone had written the notes on but they were completely wrong! Woman goes 'I should probably let you know there's something wrong with it, nothing I play sounds right' So I gently told her the notes were written on there wrong and she looked mortified. So I cleaned them off and she gave me a pen and I wrote them on there correctly and said bye and came home. She seemed ever so grateful. I'd like to think, to this day, she's still sitting there playing it.

[@blackoptimusX]

Ive used aluminium tape before to fix it and it has lasted til this point for 10 years and still going strong

[@X22GJP]

Nice! I had one of those and funnily enough I was thinking about buying one again - it has what I think is THE best demo track of all synths of its type for the day, a very capable unit with basic FM and a 6 track recorder. Many years of fun was had! I seem to remember it costing my parents about £150, but man that was bargain of the decade for all the use and abuse it got! lol

[@ColonelForkEyes]

you might find someone has exported .mid files of the built in demo tracks...

[@astral276]

Late to the party, so I don't know if anyone else has suggested this (and I'm not reading through 500+ comments to find out 😊)... I save membranes from such things as defunct remote controls, calculators, etc. If I then need to fix a membrane I slice a good carbon button off an old membrane, slice the faulty carbon button off, and replace the faulty one with the good one - affixing with rubber cement. Works more often than not as long as the size and height are suitable and the 'fix' seems durable enough. I've seen good reviews (and a few bad) of the Caikote 44 compound someone else mentioned, but it seems very hard to get hold of - if it's even still in production.