“I stopped playing live 2 years ago and have since decided to sell off a lot of my gear. I purchased this JD-800 used off Ebay in very late 1999 (see scanned pics of the original listing; the reserve wasn’t met, but the seller offered it to the first person who responded afterward, which was myself….allegedly I’m the 3rd owner of this unit).
This unit powers up and produces sound, but is not fully playable in its current condition. At the forefront it suffers from the infamous red epoxy glue issue that many JD-800’s are unfortunately known for. A few keys sound, but for the most part the keybed doesn’t work. Also, the patch/bank buttons, arrow cursor buttons, and data transfer buttons at far right are inoperable. However, the other buttons, sliders, knobs, and pitch bend/modulation lever do work.
A couple months ago I had this unit at Winston Electronics (an authorized Roland service location) in St. Louis. The tech disassembled the unit to drop the control boards to clean the sliders, boards, jacks, and pots. Also, he said the battery is still good in this unit, so he didn’t change it. He did say the capacitors on the board are starting to fail, but that the unit can still be controlled with sliders and pots.
This JD comes with a case I purchased many years ago from New York Case Company (formerly Long Island Case Co., and Discount Distributors)….it’s plywood and metal with 1/2” foam lining, single handle, and two latches. Also comes with power cable and “Owner’s Manual II – Reference”….it didn’t come with an “Owner’s Manual I – User’s Guide”, but one can be downloaded for free from Roland’s website.” Click here to visit listing on eBay