Roland "Keyboard Instruments" Catalog, 1976

Roland "Keyboard Instruments" 16 page colour catalog including SH-3A, SH-5, SH-1000 and SH-2000 synthesizers, RS-101 strings instrument, and EP-30, EP-20 and EP-10 combo pianos from December 1976.

Well... time for a bit of a break from the Akai MPC stuff. And I thought, since this year marks the 10-year anniversary of the blog (I know... right?!?!?) I wanted to post something special so I've dug into my archives.

A quick look online didn't bring up any good scans of the English version of the catalog (I did find scans of the Japanese version online), so I figured this was a good candidate.

I love Roland's catalogs from this time period - they did everything right. Always a nice cover image. And highlighting each keyboard's features are large photos turned into diagrams. Each page includes lots of white space and simple, readable fonts.

In particular, I'm really digging those two pages dedicated to the SH-5. It's one of the few synths still on my bucket list.

The synth itself has only popped up on the blog twice... once in a Roland retail price list, and the other is this memorable "Groupies aren't everything" advertisement from International Musician (right).

The other section of the catalog that really got my attention was the half page dedicated to Roland's keyboard accessories. I love vintage accessories and will often go out of my way to hunt them down. Cases, bags, pedals... all of 'em. And now I have my eye on two more - that KS-10 keyboard stand and carry bag.

Un-frickin'-believably... Roland has kept the KS-10 name alive in their KS-10x keyboard stand.  Seriously - over  40 years later!  You can find a better photo of the original KS-10 here. Dang... that's some sweet hardware, don't you think?!?!

I've got a few more catalogs to post... hopefully sooner rather than later. We'll see.

Roland Alphabetical Retail Price List, September 1978

Roland Alphabetical Retail Price List for September 1978.

I had recently come across this price list and thought it was interesting enough to share. Don't really have much to say so I'll just start typing and see what comes out.

Well, gotta say it's a great list of historic gear that includes price lists for Roland's early synthesizers, drum machines,effects units and a wack of other things.

One of the highlights for me is seeing the retail prices for the System 100 synthesizer:

• S-100 Synthesizer System - $2,425
• S-101 Synthesizer - $795
• S-102 Expander Module - $650
• S-103 Mixer - $360
• S-104 Sequencer - $495
• S-109 Monitor Speaker Set - 149.50

Also, seeing prices for the System 700 and in particular the Laboratory system is kinda cool.

• S-700 System Synthesizer - $13,500
• S-700L Laboratory System (Blocks 2 & 8) - $3,100
• S-700M Main Console System (Blocks 1 & 2) - $4,995

The pricing for the individual S-700 blocks is also there, but because the list is in alpha order, I almost missed 'em because they are on other side of the page. 

Block 1 Main Console - $4,495

Block 2 Keyboard Controller - $650

Block 3 Sequencer - $1,695

Block 4 VCO Bank - $2,795

Block 5 VCF, VCA Bank - $1,995

Block 6 Interface/Mixer - $1,195

Block 7 Phase Shifter / Audio Delay - $1,150

Block 8 Lab Console - $2,565

Keep looking and you'll find pricing for the early TR drum machines and the SH- family of synthesizers. The RE-101, 201 and 301 Space Echos are also here. And those cute early Boss mixers.

And see those asterisk symbols by the TR-33, TR-55 and TR-700? Those indicate that the units were recently discontinued, giving us a fairly accurate date of when these early drum machines were taken off the market. Roland Canada's drum machine history page tells me these only came on the market in 1972, giving the three machines less than a two-year life span.

This list is pure gold.

Roland RS-101, SH-1000, SH-2000 and SH-3A, Contemporary Keyboard 1975

Roland (from left to right) RS-101, SH-1000, SH-2000 and SH-3A synthesizers from inside front cover of Contemporary Keyboard magazine November/December 1975.

Scanned from the second issue of Contemporary Keyboard, this is one of Roland's earliest ads from the magazine, and includes four of Roland's 1973-75 collection of synthesizers/string ensembles.

It also features Roland's first free demo record - something I've never been able to hunt down, but have this inkling an MP3 is sitting out on the interwebz somewhere. If anyone has an idea where I can get a copy, please contact me.

One other thing that interests the amateur graphic designer in me is what looks to be latin text below the record image at the bottom of the ad. Looking similar to the 'lorem ipsum' text often used by computer layout artists as a temporary substitute for real text (so the client will focus on the design), similar 'lorem ipsum' text was apparently included in the Letraset catalogs of the 1960's and 70's - often used by advertising agencies in print layouts for the same reason. Did they just forget to replace the text? Or maybe the ad agency thought the relatively low-res printer would keep the text from being legible?

But I digress.

Vintage Synth Explorer has some basic reference material on the SH-1000 and SH-2000.

The site also has information on the SH-3A, which, according to a quote on Synthtopia, was put into the market after Moog sued Roland for the original SH3’s filter design.

Surprisingly, there is just bits and pieces of information on the RS-101 lurking around the Internet, even at the usual synth hangouts, but you can find the instruction manual at the Roland Vintage Gear Manuals Web site. In fact, take a look at this site for a wack of different user and service manuals. Great stuff.

BTW, Sound On Sound has a great article on the early history of Roland online. Definitely check it out if you haven't already.