Roland RS-505 49-Key Paraphonic Synthesizer

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via this Reverb listing

"The RS-505 is very interesting as an instrument. It is nominally a "stringer" but many aspects of its construction are quite unique; it is hard to pin down in the history of Roland instruments. It is very old school and vintage -- there are big (and gorgeous sounding) styrene caps in many of its circuits and lots of antilog VCAs. This particular 505 also has four incredibly rare and beautiful Reticon SAD512 bbd chips for its ensemble/chorus circuit -- the same sort of chips used in the famous Serge WAD analog delay module. Each one of these chips can cost almost a hundred bucks on their own nowadays! And for good reason: they make an incredibly lush chorus sound, and with the input jack you can use the RS-505 as probably the most unwieldy and large (but amazing-sounding) stereo chorus pedal ever conceived of.

Besides those design quirks there's just a really interesting fun factor to this instrument. Fully restored, they remain very 'alive' and unpredictable by their design. The envelopes are never quite exactly the same between one note and the next; there's just the tiniest bit of chaos and personality built into every note; like there would be with a human string player. And of course:

The bass.

This is perhaps the most interesting bass synth of all time. There is a fizz to the bass oscillators that is just incredibly exciting to the ear. The sound is powerful. It just has an incredible *conviction* that is undeniable. With the ensemble turned off and the contrabass on, it is just raw power, like the crest of a tsunami wave that is going to envelop you no matter what you do. When the ensemble turned on, some of the fizzy edges and upper harmonics smooth away roundly and it feels softer and lighter; it's a sound that fits perfectly into any mix.

And I think that is sort of the secret sauce of this instrument: it offers a simple and straightforward set of carefully thought out options and sounds that don't take your head out of the song. You can turn it on and get exactly that little thing you need for the mix, and there's no struggle or complex programming or deep fiddling to take you out of writing. It is a fluid and effortless thing that gets songs done and then gets out of the way. Strings on one hand, bass on the other -- it's a great writing tool to develop and refine musical ideas, if you're a keyboard playing sort of person.

Anyway -- working great. Meticulously recapped, restored, future proofed, and ready to rock for another 30 years. Local pickup and delivery within Los Angeles available. Also comes with hardshell case!"