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This is what happens when someone sells me a dead "obsolete" keyboard or parts. The Studiologic board had a big "X" in sharpie marker on it, so I assumed it was probably dead and it wasn't. The QS-8 is now parted out except its key assembly which is working fine in my 2nd 8HD-still have the QS8 endcaps which I will refinish-these are either pine or (possibly) a hardwood under the paint.
The shame of it is that this TP-40 assembly as old as it is, was always in excellent condition-probably because the prior owner detected the unbalance between the black/white keys and never played it, definitely feels really playable with my mods in it and with this Studiologic board. Leads me to think that this particular early TP-40 might not have caused mismatch problems in other controllers or digital pianos, but did not match up with the 8HD Fusions until fatar sent the upgraded TP-40, or if your Fusion alreay the older TP_20 which did not exhibit this problem at all AFAIK.
I used 3/4" clear pine because it is lighter and easier to finish and work with but still quite strong. The top finish is a piece of case molding, which is roughly 1/2" thick but still strong enough to retain rigidity for the top. I also used Zinzer shellac instead of varnish-thought I might be able to get a finer finish with shellac. The cabinet adds less than 10 pounds to the bare Fatar key assembly-haven't weighed it yet-but I am guessing it is coming in at between 40-45 pounds.
Yes I could buy a used Studiologic for a few hundred dollars-but only the later models had the newer Fatar actions and after disposing of the top and bottom steel panels on the old QS-8, I am sure I have come in at a lighter weight than Studiologic, and definitely lighter than my 8HD's. Yes it is a dumb controller in the sense that it has no pitch or mod wheels-I have an external programmable joystick controller custom made in the UK for that through the midi DIN port, very compact. This IC board is from the Studiologic SL990 XP, and the control buttons can be used for anything I would need-program/bank changes, midi channel changes and storing my settings for all that, very nice I think. Glad I saved this, will probably use it with the Korg M3 module. And should I come across another Studiologic board-there are a few different models-hypothetically I could easily install another of these-also considered installing a small sound module-but it would have to be very small-the size of small IC board but could be done-and would become progressively more complicated-just as easy to use outboard modules with this-my QY-100 will fit nicely on top!
