Vintage Casio Casiotone 701 (CT-701), 1981

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"A beautiful example of this classic early Casiotone full-sized keyboard. Its upper body is all metal, tastefully finished in a very fetching 'wood effect' livery, and its base is genuine plywood! This is the forerunner to the mini-key MT-70, which Hot Chip used all over their second album, 'The Warning', and almost all the sounds are exactly the same (I've just bought the MT-70 and compared the two).

Here's the spec:

61 keys (5 octaves)
8 note polyphonic
20 preset sounds:
Pipe Organ, Brilliant Organ, Diapason, Wood Wind, Tibia, Full Tibias, Flute, Piccolo, Jazz Organ 1, Jazz Organ 2, Piano, Electric Piano, Vibraphone, Marimba, Celeste, Chime, Oboe, Bassoon, Funky, Wah Brass.
Sound Effects:
Sustain, Vibrato (4 Types) and 2 Electronic Sound Effects
16 Rhythm Patterns:
Rock, Rock 'n' Roll, Disco, Slow Rock, Swing 1, Swing 2, Bossa Nova, Samba, March, Boogie, Waltz, Jazz Waltz, Rhumba, Beguine, Tango, Mamba.
11 different Fills
Tempo Control, Rhythm Balance Control, Tempo Indicator
Memory play functions:
Note storage capacity...Max. 345 steps
Chord storage capacity..Max. 201 steps
Pitch tuning +/- 50 cents
4" Speaker


Don't expect any of the sounds to be much like their names. Remember this is from long before the time of PCM 'Tonebank' type Casio keyboards and has more in common with a preset analogue synthesizer.

The drums are a particular highlight of this model, sounding every bit the classic analogue kit that they are, especially when used with the funky touch sensitive 'fill' strip, and the patterns presented here are a useful addition to anyones percussive toolkit. In fact it's almost worth having this model for the drums alone. They certainly trounce the drums on my MT-68, which is rightly praised for its analogue drum sounds and useful patterns.

The only limitations to this particular example are regarding the gimmicky barcode song scanner. There is no light pen or songbook included with this sale, so if you want to use the song scanning memory and playback function you'll have to provide your own. Also the battery compartment that stores these scanned songs looks like it'll need a good clean. I was only ever interested in using this as a keyboard for playing and never had any of the barcode songbooks anyway. FYI I've tested this feature with the light pen from my MT-70 and it works perfectly.

As you can see in the photographs, one of the vibrato rocker switches has lost its cover. This is merely a cosmetic flaw and the switch works exactly as it should.

Everything works exactly as it should, and just to ensure its longevity the internal power supply has been recapped.

I'll include a pdf manual on CD along with a, hard to find, Casio Text Book for this model, which provides a complete breakdown of the electronics of this keyboard, for anyone who's a bit braver than me and interested in modifying or hacking it.

I've put a bit more info about this synth on my blog at this address: http://ununseptiumwarehouse.blogspot.co.uk/"