Looking for Casio Symphnoytron 8000 and information on how it works.

[silent]

Hey, I have been looking for some obscure Casio synths for a friend for a while now, and I was looking for how to get one of these, if anyone happens to have one, feel free to reach out to me on the Scenesat Radio discord server, and we can discuss from there, or in private messages on the forum.

Here is a video of it.

 

[Chas]

They're very rare, especially a complete system. According to the internet (i.e. not confirmed), only 100 were ever made.

 

They're based on similar Vowel Consonant sound hardware as used in the MT65/ 68, CT405 and some other related Casio models circa 1983/ 4.

 

Someone in the Casio Freaks Facebook group picked one up within the last year or so. He lives in the Czech Republic. A partial system turned up in New York last year, and another partial system came up for sale in CA or AZ (I forget exactly).

 

Good luck with finding one,  I've had it in my saved search list for years with no luck.

[Mike Martin]

My boss at Casio had one. I'm pretty sure he sold it. I'll confirm. 

[silent]

On 4/13/2024 at 1:19 AM, Chas said:

They're very rare, especially a complete system. According to the internet (i.e. not confirmed), only 100 were ever made.

 

They're based on similar Vowel Consonant sound hardware as used in the MT65/ 68, CT405 and some other related Casio models circa 1983/ 4.

 

Someone in the Casio Freaks Facebook group picked one up within the last year or so. He lives in the Czech Republic. A partial system turned up in New York last year, and another partial system came up for sale in CA or AZ (I forget exactly).

 

Good luck with finding one,  I've had it in my saved search list for years with no luck.

At a thrift store I used to work at, they got one in, and it almost immediately ended up in the trash because the people there couldn't figure it out or didn't think they could sell it. Oh, btw, it was a complete unit. IDK if it ever went out on the floor, but I do know that if it did, I was unable to afford it at the time, and it never sold.

Sad, because those are super rare...

I hope I find one that's intact soon enough before they all go the route of that poor unit or just stop working.

And no I am not happy that one got destroyed, that's an EXPENSIVE thing.

The moral? Don't trust thrift stores.

[silent]

On 4/13/2024 at 1:37 PM, Mike Martin said:

My boss at Casio had one. I'm pretty sure he sold it. I'll confirm. 

It's a cool keyboard. Maybe some people on this forum could provide links to where one could be purchased?

[Chas]

On 4/20/2024 at 2:41 AM, silent said:

It's a cool keyboard. Maybe some people on this forum could provide links to where one could be purchased?

 

Many of us have been looking for a long time to purchase one... Remember, they are very, very rare. 

If they ever turn up for sale, you're most likely to find one advertised in the usual classifieds - Facebook Market Place, Craigslist, Gumtree etc. Then you have places such as Reverb and of course eBay. Classifieds are likely to be the place to find a bargain, as you can hope that someone has one to sell (house clearance, deceased relative etc.) and they just want rid of it, so you might get a bargain (as long as you have the ability to collect it). With Reverb and eBay, sellers tend to check completed listings and price accordingly. Plus vintage Casios/ Casiotones are now quite collectible and prices tend to be quite a bit higher on those sites than they used to be.

 

Also bear in mind that many large old home organs are very hard to sell because of their size and because they are difficult to transport, and though the Symphonytron 8000 is much slimmed down in comparison to some of them, it's still a sizable system. Most large home organs, unless they are vintage Hammonds or Wurlizers, are often advertised for very little, or even "for free".  Thrift stores also tend to not want the large home organs because they aren't very popular, take up floor space and not many people have the means to transport them. Sadly, it's meant that a lot of those old home organs simply got sent to landfills. 

[CYBERYOGI =CO=Windler]

With home organs there are highend and household models. Things like Wersi Helios or Farfisa Maharani likely still find buyers, while a lowend Bontempi B370 (possibly even some Yamahas) gets scrapped. In a TV report they even smashed a >100 year old antique harmonium to pieces in a so-called "anger room" because nobody wanted it (the thing was pretty with lyra ornament, but had only 3 registers which made it unsellable).