i’ve finished with the little red keyboard i got the other day. it was a pretty quick and easy bend, and a lot of fun!

the knob on the lower left is a pitch bend. i recycled the potentiometer and knob from an old busted ricochet tv game system i found at a second hand store. i was pretty bummed i couldn’t make it work again, but at least i can recycle most of it.
the two thumb tacks are body contacts that also bend the pitch.
on the back there is a 1/8″ jack recycled from a set of old computer speakers.
first switch, starting from the left, is a kinda wimpy distortion i found by bypassing a resister on the circuit board.
second is a sustain switch. the sound normally trails off once a key is played, flipping this switch holds the note until another note is pressed.
third switch is power on/off (this toy had no off switch).

having the sustain on and playing with the pitch knob and contacts sometimes causes the toy to crash, but it resets instantly so all you have to do is keep playing it and it’ll keep making noise.

i’d typically paint up something like this to make it look rad, but i kinda like the neglected toy look this thing has going on. i even left the $1.99 TOY sticker on it from the thrift shop.

i’ll get a recording of it sometime soon, and probably a video, as this thing is going on etsy or ebay to fund more parts for more projects.