Replacing nonfunctional pads of a MC 909

Please read if you also need new Pads: i got lots of mails asking where i got my replacementpads. Here is the answer: i had to ask my official roland gearstore. They ordered the pads from roland for me. roland does NOT sale them directly to you as a customer (at least here in germany). So just ask your gearstore to order them for you.

Some pics and info here about replacing old, smelly, yellow, nonfunctional pads with new, white ones.

I thought about getting this one for some years now. In search of inspiration for a game-music-job i grabbed one on the bay ... "like new, rarely used"  HA HA HA! The bay is getting worse and worse. the pots looked all right but as often - this thing was used by a SMOKER - bah!

After playing around with the unit i was very disappointed at first by the rigid sequencer-concept. My beloved Yamaha RS7000 is a lot more flexible and intuitive concerning the sequencer. But the synth-system of the Roland is amazing. The presets are full of these disgusting, ridiculous, unusable, loud charts-techno sounds. but well, you dont have to use them, you can make your own. With the well known fully featured 4-Tone-Layer synthengine. I decided to keep it. So i had to get NEW PADS because the ones inside the unit smelles like an ashtray - especially when the unit is getting warm.

After about 2 weeks i got some brandnew pads (sequecer-unit and 16 step-pads) for around 35 EUR.

The first thing you have to do is tear all knobs and slidercaps off. Th mainboard has to be lifted to change the pads later.

Next, you should remove the black metalpart to get access to the interior. Please put a blankit or some nom-nom-pop-nom-pop-pop- airfoil on the table to protect your pots and sliders.

On the pic you see the large mainboard, the powersupply-unit to the left (has to be removed), the daughterboard with RAM and SRX-Slots (has to be removed), the outputboard (has to be removed) and the boards for USB and powercable (guess what - has to be removed).

Get a (good) screwdriver and remove all the boards. The cables are just pushed in their sockets, you can pull them out. Dont hesitate, take your time and keep some feeling for the science. Pull of the cables only on one end, the end at which they are attached to the board. no use to tear them out on their other end. Keep in mind how they should be reattached, draw a sketch if you got a bad memory :)

There is ONE special cable which needs its socket to get pulled somewhat above for the socket to release the cable. Its the one to the far right, connectiong mainboard and outputboard. The socket has a top which need to be lifted. then carefully tear the cable out, but keep it parallel. It has individual cables which MUST go in their appropriate slot when you put it all together again. 4 pix below is a pic of this cable. Take a look there.

Important: lay all boards beside in separate places and keep the appropriate screws just with the,. Some screws are different, especially for the outputboards!

As i mentioned above, the mainboard has to be lifted. That means you must remove ALL screws which you find on the board. On the pic i drew some arrows of damn screws, which ly in placed that unfortunately force you to remove all the boards above. Now you got a NEARLY loose mainboard.

There is areason for laying the mc in that way, face down: after the mainboard is loose, the switch-knobs on the front are relatively loose. THat means when you remove the mainboard they could fall out of their holes. Thats not a catastrophy, i removed them all intentionally to clean the metalbox under the shower with soap. The knobs are secured with some doublesided tape, but by laying the mc this way, nothing can fall out of it.

the boards for the beams can stay in place as long as you only want to replace the pads.

A pic showing the difference of smoked and new pads. guess which is what.

After mainboard is loose, carefully lift it above on the front of the mc. Have a look on the screwpins in the metalbox, they stand out quite wide and the mainboard could bend too much if wou dont lead the boardholes around the outstanding pins.

Pull out the old pads and replace with the new ones. My old pads didnt only stink, they also werent responding to velocity, 2 pads even didnt work at all.

on the pic you see how to push the multiwirecable back in their sockets. Attach it precisely in the middle of the socket and press it parallel inside, with caution.

This is the cable with the individual wires. Take care that they keep parallel and each one findes its appropriate slot. Dont forgat to push the top of the socket to secure the cable and guarantee contact.

The mainboard has some BLACK scresw which are longer than the gold ones. In case you forgot where they should be reattached, have a look on the pic. If you look on your board, you can also see, that the slots for the black screws have kond of black layer under the mainboard, the hole is longer.

Thats it, an old but well functional MC-909 with absolutely NEW pads.