CASIO pr0n

The Casio SK-1 is one of the absolute greatest sounding, cheap keyboards ever made. Even without any bends, put that bitch on monophonic, hit the portamento button, and listen to the fullness of that freak flute sound!

Gotta love the SK-1, the greatest of Casio’s SK series, and you’ve gotta love the people that take a classic device apart, short the circuits, add a bunch of knobs and a patchbay, then rehouse it the proper Moog-esque casing it fucking deserves.

Michael Stein’s bent sk-1. Link found from http://musicthing.blogspot.com/2006/05/simply-astonishing-casio-sk1-mod.html

I haven’t been able to find anymore info on Michael Stein, but his construction is fantastic and the bends look great. I love the mod wheel on the left and the x/y potientiometer joystick on the right. Note that this isn’t technically a Casio SK-1, but a Realistic Concertmate 500 (an exact duplicate of the SK-1 made by Radio Shack).

Built by qrsrstcdetuvcde
More info here.

This was the first super sk-1 I had ever seen. The switches on the yellow strip are for a step sequencer, the posts on top (over the orange) are bend points, allowing the bends to be turned on and off depending on the sequencer. So the bend points, speed of the sequencer, and number of steps (up to 8) are all adjustable.

Built by Casper Electronics

“The right side of the panel is the glitch patch bay. On the left side is a timer module and four modular switches. The bottom left panel holds three modular adjustments with on/off switches and momentary ON pushbuttons.”
There are sounds available on the site, also check out the super sk-1 on the home page… Amazing! Casper is truly doing some unique stuff, although his case work may not be up to par with Michael Stein or Highly Liquid’s, his ideas are great. Also worth checking out is his custom made step sequencers here. these can be used with any patchbay device.

This is more of an honorable mention, than a super mod, but going along with a case mod theme, Highly Liquid was working on a key-tar kit for SK’s. Due to tons of trouble working with an online metal worker, I believe he has decided to hold off with the project until he could get higher quality work. Here is a closer view of the bends on the neck. The bends on the neck are all temporary on buttons. Cool for activating one or two bends (if they are close together) at a time, but a little difficult for multiple bends. Still it’s a good solid and consistent sounding device for live shows.

*(lube not included)

**I’m hoping to start posting on www.DrownRadio.com again about musical devices, so we’ll see how that goes.