I picked up a beat up MicroKorg as a part of a bundle with some other synths.
It had 8 or 9 dead keys. First I tried opening it up and cleaning the contacts, but found that a lot of the traces had been eaten away. I could have tried repairing them with a trace pen but I really have no use for mini keys as I'm studio based and was gonna midi trigger it anyways.

So I cut them off and "Roland-ized" it

Keyboard came off with a handful of screws.
I cut off the mod/pitch control cables and spliced in resistors so they hold their neutral positions.
I used a dremel to cut the body flush.
I shortened the wooden end caps, fortunately they're the same colour as my hardwood floors so I just used the touch up pen from those to re-stain it.

And it worked!



Next up was covering the big hole I made.
Fortunately at my day job I have an industrial CNC laser and brake press.





Quick test fit.



And finally after some paint.





Next up I plan on chopping the keys off a MicroBrute

 

nice job

 

very nice work! I wish I had your craftsmanship and tools and I would do the same! respect!

 

it looks really nice, you did a great job on it.

 

@MYCbeats If you have as much talent for making music as you has shown with that mod the world is yours. That is the best mod I have seen in years. You should open up a side business doing just that.

 

Haha Thanks. Unfortunately I dont have as much talent in making music.

So my day job is an industrial engineer at a company that manufactures custom sheet metal furniture.
My dream job within the music sector would be a studio designer/builder or something at a music hardware company.

Other than the cover/stand combo which I modeled in Inventor, the rest of it was quite simple. Dremel, drill, screwdriver, sand paper. I was too lazy to use a saw so I just used the metal cut off disk on the dremel to burn my way through the wood lol. For the cover you could just use one of those blank 1U covers and slightly trim it to size.

One day I may make a post regarding my ribbon mic build that has a 3D printed motor chassis.

 

Fuckin great job mate!

 

Thanks for explaining it. Again, that is one hell of a mod. That is money. Keep them coming up!

 

Nice!

 

that looks fantastic!