Roland System 700 716 mixer clone

Roland System 700 716 mixer clone front panel

It looks good, but it’s not very good.

Don’t bother trying to make a PCB of this one, you could stripboard it in half-an-hour or less, I’d imagine. As on the original it’s tacked onto the end of the sample and hold PCB.

Notice no screws for the slide potentiometers. The slide potentiometers are bunged on a bit of veroboard (at a jaunty angle to the strips), with acrylic spacers screwed to the board and glued to the front panel using JBWeld, which is as shit as it sounds.

I had a couple of failures before I got it to stick. I’ve also tried using some special/horrific acrylic cement, which totally failed. There would be a photo of the back of it here but it’s just embarrassing.

Since then I’ve reverted to making PCBs for the slide pots, with screws in the middle of the pot throw, which works much better, and helps reinforce the front panel.

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5 comments

  1. 23rd December 2019Spygyzy says:

    Hi ua726,

    was wondering if you had seen this?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zbc8MPaMrFk&t=0s

  2. 25th December 2019ua726 says:

    ooh, hadn’t seen that – sounds alright!

  3. 6th February 2021Steve Jones says:

    I am restoring several System 700s at the moment, there are definitely component variations between different serial number versions of some modules.

  4. 7th February 2021ua726 says:

    Blimey, several… sounds like fun. Apart from if the pots are knackered, then I imagine that’d be much less fun.

    Yep, I’m interested in the different VCAs – the schematics for the 3080 version are on the internet, but I’ve not seen anything beyond a single photo for the BA662 version. It looks like a different circuit to the 100M, although the end result might well be similar enough. And there’s the different caps in the two versions of the two-pole 703, but that’s documented in the service manual.

    There’s probably loads of other differences, I’d be interested to see a write-up of your fiddlings with the System 700s, I’ll keep an eye out.

  5. 2nd December 2021ben edwards says:

    Love your work on the System 700 – I’m very interested in them, I’ve got a 100M and many of the 70s/80s Roland monos and polys – SH3A, SH5, SH09, SH2, SH101, JP4, JP6 and a few of the sequencers (CSQ100, 600, MC4, MSQ700) I love all the Roland stuff from this period. I guess the 700 fits in between the SH5 and SH09 in terms of circuit design

    I had a full System 700 including main cab, 2 wings and the sequencer block in my studio for about a year (about 8 years ago) – on loan while the owners were rebuilding their studio. I was able to compare it to my other vintage modulars – Moog, ARP 2500, Buchla, 100M, Polyfusion, Serge, EMS, etc.

    Anyway, I would love to make contact with you and discuss the 700 and its “future” so to speak

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