Yamaha DX7 Restoration/Refurbishment

In 2022 I bought a vintage Yamaha DX7 keyboard. It was in a reaaly bad condition. The previous owner connected it on a 220V power line (The keyboard is 110/127V) and the transformer burned. He tried to rewind the transformer but it was a really bad job and the kayboard was still not working.
Althrough, after changing some voltage regulators it was possible to bring it back to life. The transformer was changed anyway, because it was heating up and making an anoying noise.
You can contact me on instagram @adailton.emerick or mail adailton at gmail.com

[@lars1588]

My personal DX7 was full of drywall and had gunk all over the exterior before I restored and modded it (SuperMax+ 3.0 modchip). I didn't remove the surface rust because then I would've had to paint it, and I had already spent a lot of time and effort on it. Some of the buttons still have issues, so I think I need to hit them with some contact cleaner. Otherwise, it's been a joy to have.

[@adailtonemerick]

Hi @lars1588.. thanks for your comment. About the buttons, i had something similar with the NO button and two or three othres, can't remember now. At the end it was a bad contact in one pin of one connector (probably by high number of assembly/disassembly by the previous owner). You should check if there's a problem on the soldering of those buttons, also a problem on the button itself, that you can check with a multimeter. In my case, all buttons passed on the test and also I resolder the pins, so started to find where else there will be a fail point. Looking at the schematics, the buttons failing have the same common connection...

[@lars1588]

@@adailtonemerick I plan on testing the continuity of all the buttons and wiring at some point. For me, buttons 8, 16, 24, and 32 all work only occasionally, so they probably all share a common connection somewhere that is faulty.

[@adailtonemerick]

@@lars1588 According the schematics, Buttons 8, 16 and 24 shares the same signal pin (S8). 32 is the pin (S16). Maybe you can check the buttons and the connectors C3 (Buttons board) and C16 (Main board)

[@matthewgaines10]

That was a fairly large project. Glad you were successful bringing it back to life.

[@adailtonemerick]

Yes... months of hard work just on free time. Hard to find some parts like potentiometers, but it is done. Thanks

[@framax67]

Fantastic 💗 DX7 black édition 🙏👍 very good restoration my friend 😊

[@adailtonemerick]

Thank you.

[@Jenairaslebol27merde]

very nice video and lovely how this DX7 got a second life ;) and i also liked the music btw ;) but i would have appreciated some more detaillled explanations of your steps; but with the very fast time lapse only it is almost impossible to understand what is happening in detail, where to pay attention etc. ... maybe you could make this into a (of course much longer) very explanatory how-to video :)

[@Dougsoueu]

Meus parabéns, ótimo trabalho eu também adoro reformar e construir as coisas, nos últimos 6 meses retornei a tocar teclado, a 22 anos sem pegar em um. Comprei um Ensonic MR76 com problemas na placa principal e com muitos arranhados e pintura mal feita por terceiros, eu mesmo reparei a placa e revitalizei a pintura ao mais original possível, agora ja comprei um Korg Triton Le e um Roland Xp50 e estou fazendo o mesmo trabalho de reparo e revitalização. O DX7 é um sonho pra mim devido aos pianos eletricos, se Deus quiser um dia terei um. Parabéns pelo video.

[@adailtonemerick]

Olá, obrigado pelo comentário. Eu tive um Ensoniq SQ2 que em princípio estava sem som. O difícil deles é que não se acham esquemas. Contudo, no manual que encontrei, vi que eram muitos parâmetros e resolvi fazer um "factory reset" e voltou a funcionar. Estava bem sujo e com adesivos. Não precisei pintar, mas foi osso remover todas as colas. Um abraço!

[@Dougsoueu]

@@adailtonemerick posso entrar em contato com você sobre o DX7, se puder

[@Dougsoueu]

se sim, trintaeum novenove meiacinco novenove zerocincomeia

[@KuroMicra]

Fantastic work, restoring a classic. Hard to believe it’s over e0 years old

[@adailtonemerick]

Thanks... really very old and working fine

[@philipstrangio4887]

Cool video. Thanks for the technical Portuguese terms. My wife is from Brazil, so I need practice :D Love the DX7!

[@adailtonemerick]

Hi! Thanks a lot! Great! Where are you from?

[@philipstrangio4887]

@@adailtonemerick We live in California, but my wife is from Rio

[@adailtonemerick]

@@philipstrangio4887 I also live in Rio state, at the north part of the state.

[@anonymous_friend]

Great job! I would make sure you change out the rectangular gold capacitor on the power supply. They have been known to catch fire.

[@adailtonemerick]

It was changed

[@DoeMusicbook]

Wow... impressive ...

[@MrPrzekojot]

Great job and awesome music, well done!

[@adailtonemerick]

Thanks @MrPrzekojot. The sound track isnt mine: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nWfLimqad5pnmMU

[@nkogliaz]

I would never have used spray paint on that, I def would have prepped it a bit better though if I did, a paint job regardless of the medium you use, the outcome always depends on the amount of prep before laying basecoat, the amount of orange peel in the coating on the back alone is pretty rough looking, I would have at least tried to cut it / wet sand it / buff it out before making a video about it to be fair, internally everything else wasn't bad for a resto, but the paint job was not good at all, shame because you could have had someone prep it better and shoot it with a real gun and the end result would have been night and day better. Just kind of sad to see such an iconic digital synthesizer get a cheap makeover as it were.

[@adailtonemerick]

Hi @nkogliaz. Thanks for your comment and based on the video only, you were possible right. Although I have painted the lower part with srpay as seen on the video, but it was really crappy at the end. So I decided to hire a specialized car paint company to redo the painting on lower part and do the front panel (and as you are a detailed viewer, you noticed that I didn't hava a video painting the front panel 😉).

[@matthewgaines10]

You use the tools you have sometimes. Personally, if had to do this, it would be more money than it’s worth. Removing all the prior oxidation. Power coating the metal parts. Color matching all the original colors and decals. If I had a DX7 in this bad condition, I’d look for a better cosmetic and electrical condition unit and call it a day. I respect he did it at all. It’s a lot of work.

[@thenetware1]

Karl Casey - Last Stop... Combina perfeito com o vídeo... Cara, o DX7 ficou muito bonito... Onde fez o desenho do painel?? Saudações do Brasil

[@adailtonemerick]

Olá @thenetware1, tudo bem? Obrigado pelo contato. Eu fiz o desenho do painel usando o Inkscape e depois enviei para uma gráfica fazer em adesivo vinil transparente. Tive que converter para Corel Draw, que era o formato requerido pela gráfica.

[@gueusoulmusic7288]

Genial mano! parabens

[@adailtonemerick]

Obrigado!

[@giorgiomulti3871]

Hi, How did you print the white adhesives? Thanks for sharing your work. Well done. B.R. Giorgio.

[@adailtonemerick]

Hi, thanks. I just found a company here in Brazil that do this type of work.

[@lasselakken]

Great job! Which transformer did you change it to? I am looking to convert a DX7 from 110v to 220v.

[@adailtonemerick]

Hi, thanks. I bought one in a marketplace here in Brazil that has a 110/220V primary and a secondary of 6,3V-0-6,3V and 15V-0-15V, 2A. I used the support from original transformer and some plastic mass to fix it on the support. This is the link of transformer specs: produto.mercadolivre.com.br/MLB-1673266809-transformador-2a-1515vac-2a-6363vac-_JM

[@lasselakken]

@@adailtonemerick Thanks - I’ll see if I Can find something like that.

[@gianlucaungarelli800]

Complimenti per il lavoro molto ben fatto , una curiosità, dove hai trovato gli adesivi ?

[@adailtonemerick]

I made it in Inkscape/Corel Draw and then sent it to a third party company for printing on transparent vinyl

[@gianlucaungarelli800]

@@adailtonemerick my compliments for a job well done

[@wayfinding.segnaletica]

Ottimo lavoro, sto cercando anch'io un DX7 da riparare. Se non ricordo male, il colore originale della tastiera era marrone cioccolato fondente che non si trova nei negozi. Bisogna farselo fare in colorificio.

[@adailtonemerick]

Grazie! Sì, e questo è stato il mio caso. Il colore era vicino, ma più scuro

[@DTime]

Nice project! Well done :-)

[@adailtonemerick]

Thanks

[@FKL]

Excellent! How many hours did you spent?

[@adailtonemerick]

Hi. Thanks. In total it was about 80 hours to do, using just free days or free time. The fine painting job was made by a friend that works customizing cars.

[@diegomorales3934]

Would you fix mine

[@adailtonemerick]

Well... where do you live? At video description you can find my mail

[@carlomeoli8236]

Ma per essere ridotta così dov'è che stava, in una discarica? Poverina, è vero che è un "oggetto" (per modo di dire) ma ridurla così....

[@adailtonemerick]

Il proprietario forse è stato molto negligente

[@rudi6127]

Paint work is awful

[@adailtonemerick]

Its really terrible to do that. I just paint the "primer" and hire a more specialized guy to do the painting, after trying to make it by myself and fail miserably ahaha