Ventura
Been here for ages!
one of the early bones of contention between me and Roland and
something i eventually caused them a considerable amount of
embarrassment over, and i see after perusing the service manual
(ty jerry)
that while a few areas are improved, they STILL to this day drive screws
directly into the plastic in many areas to hold things together
contrast this with a $20 DVD player for your home entertainment center..
the Chinese built device has metal threaded inserts embedded into the
plastic so that the device can be easily dis-assembled and re-assembled
without damage or loss of body integrity
contrast this with these expensive accordions, screws directly into plastic,
which implies that these are intended by design to go through repair no more than
one time (if even that)
therefore, a device intended as disposable once it passes it's basic life cycle
even the speakers are held in with screws through plastic, though there is
a bit of stick-um around the edges too
plastic distends similar to particle board when you drive an graduated inclined plane
into it. The resulting threads created by this force are not particularly stable
as the material has basically been stressed toward fracture level. particularly if the
powered screwing device used during assembly was not calibrated perfectly.
this was famously noted with multiple bass strap failures, as well as bass
section housing fractures, due to improperly torqued screws on the original
run of FR3 models
it is appalling to me that even after raising the prices into the stratosphere
initially with the FR8, they still, with foreknowledge, chose to continue to
use this piss-poor method of build. It would take minimal investment
(if the Chinese can do it on $20 retail electronics devices, so could Roland)
to build these accordions to LAST, or, at least, have half a chance to last.
but lets see.. historically they never did support these products
with any real effort toward available spare parts, circuit boards, sub assemblies...
on the contrary, even the disposable wear-out items like spare Battery packs
were at times impossible to get from Roland.. perhaps they never intended,
from the outset, to see these devices last beyond the warranty period.
something i eventually caused them a considerable amount of
embarrassment over, and i see after perusing the service manual
(ty jerry)
that while a few areas are improved, they STILL to this day drive screws
directly into the plastic in many areas to hold things together
contrast this with a $20 DVD player for your home entertainment center..
the Chinese built device has metal threaded inserts embedded into the
plastic so that the device can be easily dis-assembled and re-assembled
without damage or loss of body integrity
contrast this with these expensive accordions, screws directly into plastic,
which implies that these are intended by design to go through repair no more than
one time (if even that)
therefore, a device intended as disposable once it passes it's basic life cycle
even the speakers are held in with screws through plastic, though there is
a bit of stick-um around the edges too
plastic distends similar to particle board when you drive an graduated inclined plane
into it. The resulting threads created by this force are not particularly stable
as the material has basically been stressed toward fracture level. particularly if the
powered screwing device used during assembly was not calibrated perfectly.
this was famously noted with multiple bass strap failures, as well as bass
section housing fractures, due to improperly torqued screws on the original
run of FR3 models
it is appalling to me that even after raising the prices into the stratosphere
initially with the FR8, they still, with foreknowledge, chose to continue to
use this piss-poor method of build. It would take minimal investment
(if the Chinese can do it on $20 retail electronics devices, so could Roland)
to build these accordions to LAST, or, at least, have half a chance to last.
but lets see.. historically they never did support these products
with any real effort toward available spare parts, circuit boards, sub assemblies...
on the contrary, even the disposable wear-out items like spare Battery packs
were at times impossible to get from Roland.. perhaps they never intended,
from the outset, to see these devices last beyond the warranty period.
