HISTORY / INFO:
This is your standard black blob Kawasaki keyboard. It has 8 voice selections, 8 rhythm selections, a couple of demos, 4 percussion/sound fx buttons, 32 keys, and record/playback functionality.
This was my third bend. I picked it up at the campus area Goodwill store. It was covered up in a box full of stuffed animals, but I found it. This one intimidated me for a very long time. My soldering skills were still not up to par and the circuit board on this was pretty tiny with not much room for making mistakes. But I managed and when I was done, I still think it ranks as one of the best sounding. When the pitch is turned WAY down, the sound effect and percussion triggers take on whole new attitudes. I had a little trouble with mounting everything in this one. When I drilled the holes for the pitch down switch and pot, I got them too close together. I was trying to get fancy and it didn't work. I forgot that I would have to put a knob on the pot (duh!) so the original knob I had on it would almost touch the switch. Not very user friendly. I sucked it up and bought some smaller knbos at RadioShack and that helped a little, but if I were to do it all over again, I'd find somewhere else to mount the pitch down mod. Additionally, the mounting of the dual RCA jacks was a complete disaster. I was still being VERY cheap and refused to buy some decent audio out jacks, so I manged the keyboard until it worked. I used a cable tie to hold it in place. Doesn't get much more cheap than that.
PRE-MODIFICATION PICTURES:
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MODIFICATIONS:
1) pitch down - This can be turned on an off by a toggle switch. Like I said above, the percussion / sound effects are excellent when pitched way down.
2) RCA audio out
POST-MODIFICATION PICTURES:
 front view |
 back view |
 detail view |
 detail of the mangled audio out |
SOUNDS:
kawasaki.mp3 - Just a sample of me going through some of the mods on the Kawasaki keyboard
FUTURE MODIFICATIONS PLANNED:
1) I will probably need to rewire the audio outs. I didn't quite know what I was doing and I am certain that if I plugged it into a guitar amp or patch board that the output would be too hot to handle.
2) For giggles I might add a volume LED. I have some 5mm mounting bracket thingies and I haven't used them yet.
3) I may look for some distortion points using either diodes or caps.
4) There is probably a pitch UP (which is more the norm on black blobs). I just need to find it.
Last Modified: February 13, 2005