“This is my beloved Korg Poly 800 – I bought it when it came out and it’s been with me since.
As a synth it works perfectly well, the only problem is that as I left the batteries in for too long they oxidised, and as a result part of the battery bay and part that connects from there to the circuit board has been eroded a bit by that. As a result of this and the internal battery also being depleted, the machine currently won’t hold settings/presets after being switched off.
I have tried to fix that, and in doing that I did manage to have it on just with the batteries (as you can see from one of the main picture in this listed, where it’s on while not connected to the mains) – but the fix I did was a bit flimsy and didn’t last long. I am sure that some capable hands can sort this out very easily – I am just not that technically/manually minded so not the best person to do that kind of soldering etc.
I uploaded the full set of presets using a soundfile that mimics the original Korg tape and while a bit hit and miss, it did work a couple of times, so that function also seems to work fine – it just won’t hold them unless it’s left on, or the battery thing is fixed.
I also developed a sound just to check that the various parameters work OK and they did – see the video included in the listing (apologies, as I had no time to hook it up to an amp the sound in the video comes from the headphones).
Other niggles:
– the top of the wheel is missing
– the chassis has a few marks here and there – see pictures
– a key is not working – circled in red in one of the pictures
– the bottom side of a key is slightly chipped – see pictures
Otherwise tin relatively good state considering its age – now just waiting for its next, second owner who will take care of it and bring it back to full functionality after it’s been with me for a large part of my life.” Click here to visit listing on eBay