"These are pics of my modified Casio DH-280 digital horn. The DH-280 is rare enough in the US, but even the white ones are rare in Japan (which is where I ordered mine from). The stock DH-280 has the basic DH sound generation circuitry for it's horn voice, plus the circuitry from what's essentially a Casio MT-18, which is driven by Casio's proprietary ROM packs. Unlike all the other DH series horns, the DH-280 does NOT have a MIDI out.
Well, I never did like the MT-18 blip sound technology and I think the DH controllers are the 2nd simplest way to get breath-controlled MIDI, so the DH-280 was lacking. The final "issue" with this horn was that it had teal colored keys/buttons, which made it look a little ugly, dated, and cheesy, in my opinion.
So I modified it:
1. I recast new keys out of white resin by making silicone molds from the old keys
2. I removed the sound boards and ROM connections from this DH-280 and replaced it with the sound circuitry from another DH-100 I got cheap, which DOES have MIDI.
3. In an effort not to molest the space age design of this horn, I installed an M-audio MidAir wireless MIDI board so I wouldn't have to graft on an ungainly MIDI jack.
In my opinion, this is the coolest design of all the DH-horn series, because it doesn't really try to look like a toy sax. It's inspired by a soprano sax, but is clearly an electronic instrument in it's own right. And with the almost-all-white look, it now reminds me of the early 70's plastic designs from Panasonic."
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