Electronic Home Keyboards

These are just a few random details of the keyboards and other electronic musical toys I've accumulated over the years, which should hopefully prove useful to others who enjoy the sounds produced by these old electronic instruments.

I'm mainly interested in the 1980s and early 1990s keyboards - these old keyboards all had their own unique sounds, and while I would not call myself a "collector" as such, I have accumulated a few that I particularly like the sound of over the years.

From the beginning, the market for these small, home keyboards has been dominated by two manufacturers: Casio and Yamaha. These two have consistently been the main innovators and market leaders, and this remains the case even to this day.

If you have any comments, corrections or suggestions, please don't hesitate to drop me a line.

This site was last updated 15th August 2010.

Casio ROM Packs, Yamaha Playcards and Other Keyboard Media

I am particularly interested in the Casio ROM Pack and Yamaha Playcard systems. These were roughly contemporary, presumably competing, systems for storing pre-recorded music information, for playback on home keyboards. Both systems also have 'training' modes which teach you how to play the music stored on the media, and both work in very similar ways, generally using small LEDs above each key to show you which key to play next.

The earliest Casio ROM Packs I have seen are dated 1983, while the earliest Yamaha Playcards are dated 1982. This suggests that Yamaha were first to market with their system, but I am not sure about this - please let me know if you know who was first and can prove it!

There are also some notes on Other Keyboard Media - if you know of any formats I've left out, please let me know.

Casio Keyboards

Casio ROM Packs

Casio Bar Code Media

Yamaha Keyboards

Yamaha Playcards

Other Yamaha Media

Yamaha PS-1 (c.1980)
Yamaha PC-100 (c.1982)
Yamaha PS-300 (c.1982)
Yamaha PS-400 (c.1982)
Yamaha PS-55 (c.1983)
Yamaha PS-200 (c.1984)
Yamaha PSS-260 (c.1985)
Yamaha PSS-360 (c.1986)
Yamaha PSS-460 (c.1986)
Yamaha PSS-160 (c.1986)
Yamaha TYU-30 (c.1986)
Yamaha TYU-40 (c.1986)
Yamaha PSS-130 (c.1987)
Yamaha PSS-20 (c.1989)
Yamaha PSS-780 (c.1989)
Yamaha PSS-6 (c.1994)

Saisho Keyboards

Other Keyboards

Medeli MC-36
Amstrad Fidelity CKX-100

Cheap Toy Keyboards

Cyber Piano 2 (aka Cyber Keyboard)
Boots Toy Keyboard
Unbranded Toy Keyboard purchased from WHSmith

User Manuals

User Manuals for most Yamaha keyboards are available from the Yamaha Manual Library.

Manuals for the Casio SK series of Sampling keyboards can be found at the Casio SK Series Keyboards site.

Here are some Casio manuals that I have not been able to find elsewhere:

Casio PT-82 Operation Manual (English Only)
Casio PT-87 Operation Manual (English Only)
Casio MT-18 Operation Manual (English Only)
Casio MT-600 Operation Manual (English Only)
Casio VL-1 Operation Manual (English Only) -- Originally sourced from www.oldschool-sound.com, which is no longer available.

(Note that Casio manuals are usually bi-lingual, containing English and Spanish sections. Only the English parts of the manuals are included in the above PDF files, which explains the "missing" page numbers.)

I also have an Instruction Manual for the Saisho PRO.SYNTH.

Service Manuals / Technical Documents

Casio SK-8 Service Manual (This is a fixed version of the document available from the Casio SK Series Keyboards site, which was corrupt.)

Yamaha PC-100 Service Manual and Parts List (The "missing" pages were blank in the original document.)

Circuit Bending

Sorry, I'm not really interested circuit bending; I like the keyboards in their original unadulterated form.

If you're looking for an excellent detailed keyboard site with more of a circuit bending bent, try WarrantyVoid.