5 SH-2's on Ebay right now

[laikenf]

They seem to be in good conditions, but I don't know about paying $800+ for those synths; don't get me wrong, Roland's SH series are a truly great line of instruments (the classic SH's at least) but I just think that those can be found at way more reasonable prices.

Crazy how high these prices have gone for these vintage boards in the past 6 years; considering how many good modern analog mono-synths are out there at very good prices, some of them as capable or even more capable than their vintage counterparts (just like the case with the Roland TB-303, I still don't understand why the price). Oh well, guess I need to get with the times maybe, or learn how to make my own synths .

[gregor z]

Any link to schematics for that?

Roland SH-09 Mods - cykong.com

Interesting. What type of change did the new caps give? Less noise?

More punch, the bass goes "lower", mids/highs are clearer and it seems to me that tuning stability is improved.

I had one modified first and I compared it to the "original capacitors" one and there was no doubt which sound I preferred.

They both have additional modification - when you plug jacks into CV/gate inputs on Rolands - the keyboard stops working - so my tech built in a switch in the back of the Sh, that enables me to turn on the keyboard - very practical if you have all your synths connected to a CV/Gate patchbay, and you want to play them manually.

G

[Don Solaris]

Originally Posted by gregor z

Plus that I changed all electrolytic capacitors with Panasonic FC. BIG CHANGE!!!

Interesting to know. But coming from Roland - it doesn't surprise me. I suspect they did some change in component tolerance vs. SH-2 series (probably to reduce cost on SH-09). Because when i went to refurbish two SH-2's - first from Clusterchord, then mine - with new capacitors i've soon realized i'm wasting time. They've put military grade capacitors inside! 30 years later and those caps not only had original values, but some even larger (up to +20%).

Originally Posted by gregor z

Immediately when I bought first SH 09 , I played it side by side with SH 101, and in my opinion they can not be compared. SH 101 left my synth room soon after that.

Identical story. Though it was SH-2 vs. SH-101 i my case. I do sometimes miss that "rubbery" sound of 101 though. It does have some charm... sits perfect on 909's. While SH-2 is sometimes just too much power.

Still, i think you need to give SH-2 another shot. When you crank up 2 VCOs + Sub osc into that VCA... the bass... it rips body internals out.

Something like this schematic:

<--- you

<--- poor fellow in front of speakers

[Xero]

Originally Posted by Don Solaris

Interesting to know. But coming from Roland - it doesn't surprise me. I suspect they did some change in component tolerance vs. SH-2 series (probably to reduce cost on SH-09). Because when i went to refurbish two SH-2's - first from Clusterchord, then mine - with new capacitors i've soon realized i'm wasting time. They've put military grade capacitors inside! 30 years later and those caps not only had original values, but some even larger (up to +20%).

Identical story. Though it was SH-2 vs. SH-101 i my case. I do sometimes miss that "rubbery" sound of 101 though. It does have some charm... sits perfect on 909's. While SH-2 is sometimes just too much power.

Still, i think you need to give SH-2 another shot. When you crank up 2 VCOs + Sub osc into that VCA... the bass... it rips body internals out.

hah this is why i usually dont bother messing with the caps in my older rolands like my sh2 and jp8...military grade hah roland was going all out on some of their better old stuff...

in other news im still sorta fresh on the sh-101 vs sh-2 issue....i've got them both setup atm and I still think they sound very similar. yeah the 101 is more 'rubbery' you could say, i almost call it like more resonant/sharp sounding, but i still think they sound very similar for some reason, it's just the sh-2 sounds like less sharp, it sounds kinda warm and fuzzy...the sh101 is clean and the sh2 is DIRTY!!! so it depends what you want i guess but i still find the overlap to be pretty big....

i can say that i'm definitely not getting rid of the 101...the sh2 is new to me so it has to find it's place, but so far i am liking it as well.

[subby33]

Guess I'm just going to wait. Its just frusterating to see 5 of them online and I wont lay money down for any of them, because IMO the prices are just a bit too high. I think around 700 is fair for this particular synth. And as far as modern mono synths go . . . I dont dig the sound of most of them. A Little Phatty, I'd rather get a Moog Source. A Mopho, I'd rather get a pro one. A Voyager, I'd rather have a Minimoog. And the SE1x is very awesome and great sounding, but people are right about the slow envelopes.

The ATC1 or ATCX sounds very good, and I know people will hate on me for this but . . .ITS UGLY! God . .. its so ugly. I need a synth to look at least acceptable to be inspired. Lol. sorry.

[Xero]

Originally Posted by subby33

Guess I'm just going to wait. Its just frusterating to see 5 of them online and I wont lay money down for any of them, because IMO the prices are just a bit too high. I think around 700 is fair for this particular synth. And as far as modern mono synths go . . . I dont dig the sound of most of them. A Little Phatty, I'd rather get a Moog Source. A Mopho, I'd rather get a pro one. A Voyager, I'd rather have a Minimoog. And the SE1x is very awesome and great sounding, but people are right about the slow envelopes.

The ATC1 or ATCX sounds very good, and I know people will hate on me for this but . . .ITS UGLY! God . .. its so ugly. I need a synth to look at least acceptable to be inspired. Lol. sorry.

well, good luck, i haven't seen many go for that cheap in a while. $800 seems to be the current going rate ebay at the moment. your best bet for anything cheaper is to find a local sale or something...

[dougt]

I would probably part with mine for $600. Its got some dings but it all works.

[subby33]

Originally Posted by dougt

I would probably part with mine for $600. Its got some dings but it all works.

Hah. Wish u said that a second ago. I just bought an expensive one

[CoolColJ]

Originally Posted by Don Solaris

Interesting to know. But coming from Roland - it doesn't surprise me. I suspect they did some change in component tolerance vs. SH-2 series (probably to reduce cost on SH-09). Because when i went to refurbish two SH-2's - first from Clusterchord, then mine - with new capacitors i've soon realized i'm wasting time. They've put military grade capacitors inside! 30 years later and those caps not only had original values, but some even larger (up to +20%).




Identical story. Though it was SH-2 vs. SH-101 i my case. I do sometimes miss that "rubbery" sound of 101 though. It does have some charm... sits perfect on 909's. While SH-2 is sometimes just too much power.

Still, i think you need to give SH-2 another shot. When you crank up 2 VCOs + Sub osc into that VCA... the bass... it rips body internals out.

Something like this schematic:

<--- you

<--- poor fellow in front of speakers

Interesting, no recapping needed for my SH2 then

I bought a SH09 a while back to compare with my SH2, and both are using their original caps I'm sure, and they both sounded exactly the same, with the same settings.

[Teknobeam]

I have often looked at that Roland stuff from Japan (Awakeawalk). It always looks like it just came off the presses and well cared for. That stuff was built to last. I sold a Rythm Ace about a year ago that had a beautiful hardwood cabinet. I popped the hood and took pictures of it's circuitry. It was operating perfectly. I just didn't have a use for it but i wanted to keep it. JJ Cale used it extensively on "Naturally". When Depeche Mode toured the Violator album, they had an SH2 a on single tier keyboard stands stage left and right that was used to play some of the tracks. But lots of the stuff came from two 16 track analog tape recorders backstage. One multitrack for the program, the other one in sync in case something happened to recorder 'A" The vocals were live and there was another keyboard stand with something else.

[astraeus000]

I also have a SH-2 with midi box I'd part with for $650 or trade off for a Juno 60.