The SRE-555 is the flagship of the Chorus-Echo range. It is basically an RE-501 in a stromg 4U rack mounting case.

An inner frame, locked by the 2 large thumb screws near the handles, slides out on rails. This allows full access for tape replacement & head cleaning. This baby was really built.

A metal plate, held by 4 small thumb screws, covers the mechanism. under this the tape compartment has a transparent cover, held by another 4 small thumb screws.

* The first picture, at the top of this page, is of the tape compartment, with this cover removed. Showing, as does this picture, window reflections in the polished chrome-work.

TB-303, Bass Line. (Click on image for a bigger one).

This silver baby has an amazing history. Introduced in 1982 with the TR-606, Drumatix, sharing a common look & programming style.
The two were intended to replace a bass player & drummer. For one man bands & small groups unable to afford the human originals. In that they were not very successful, the sound was not in the least realistic. The TR-606 was used by a number of musicians as a reasonable drum machine. When they came out we did a fair amount of work modifying them to be more useful.

The most useful 'mod' was individual outputs, these enabled the TR-606 to be used through a mixer, almost like an expensive professional machine. We drilled the required holes in a lot of those silver plastic boxes.

The TB-303 did not fair so well, programming is difficult to master & the sound is quirky. Roland stopped production after 18 months or so. Then one day, the story goes, someone started twiddling the controls whilst a machine was playing live, and so Acid Rock music was born. Up 'till then the instruments had been changing hands for reducing prices. Down to around £30 or so from the original £200 plus.

Once the true use (not the intended one) for the instrument was discovered, they became sought after. Prices started to rise, and kept rising. When they reached £500 in the early '90s we thought the bubble must burst. But they kept on, through the £1000 barrier, eventually reaching around £1,500. Not bad for a little silver box with one octave of tiny buttons.

Again we did a fair number of modifications, MIDI was the most useful. The D-50 turned out to be an ideal controller, a 5 octave keyboard & one unusual feature. It has a glide button that is sent over MIDI, neatly positioned on its left cheek block. Perfect for controlling the progammable slide that is such a unique feature of the Bass Line.

A web search, some time ago, showed that a few owners were trying to get $1,800 for the standard model. One modified model, in Britain, was on sale for $4,000. We don't know if they succeeded in selling them for this kind of money. An average seemed to be around $800, British prices were harder to establish.

Is it worth the money? If it is the instrument for your kind of music, the answer must be yes. No other instrument sounds like it & it is quite reliable. None of the software 'clones' come close. Don't buy one if its C.P.U. is definitely down, they can't be obtained. Get an opinion from a Roland recognised service centre.

The example in the image above sounded quite crazy, not a good sign. After a good service in our workshops and a lot of new parts it is 'as good as new'. If you click on the image you will get a larger, less compressed one. Not such a good idea if you are still stuck with 'dial up', unless you are patient.

The 'Back' button returns here, a number of sites specialise in this instrument, I may add some links one day.