There’s something amazing about this machine, it’s stripped down everything you need in a drum machine. They nailed that like 50 year ago.

This is another project of passion not money for the time i put into it, but this was my first Yamaha vintage drum machine and I fell in love instantly the first time I tried it. I immediately bought an RX11 and RX5 and will never part with those. But this one, this one i want to spread like a virus to someone else and that person will become obsessed with these hahaha….

First time I used it was at night and I loved those classic 80s sounds from my childhood but there was no backlight on the lcd. So I have modded this with a backlight. It looks so cool with it now.

Here's a list of what I've done to it:

Replaced lcd with backlit lcd

Replaced battery holder and battery

Painstakingly cleaned and deoxidized every button tact and fader

Soaked and cleaned every plastic button and fader cap

Cleaned chassis

Cleaned inside of case and motherboard and other boards

Cleaned and deoxized all inputs and outputs including midi and power

Fixed all the corruption issues with memory when the battery gets reset which was not fun

So this thing is ready to go. The only known issue is that tom1 tact needs to be replaced. Right now when you press it may play one hit, two hits or even a roll of hits. Since there's three toms and it sounds pretty cool, I thought I would leave it this way to give this unit a bit more character.

Just in general, this is the purest form of drum machine I have ever tried. Don't worry about what sounds to play, you have the 12 sounds, just focus on making patterns you like. And the humanization or whatever algorithm is so nice, it just comes out sounding so good. and what I do to spice things up since there's only left and right out on this is pan the bd and snare left and the rest right and then send the bd/snare through some kind of drive or distortion. Sounds amazing.

Anyway I hope you have half as much fun as I have had with this and fully catch the RX fever.

Will pack and ship carefully for you!

Enjoy life!