1984
(better pictures sometime in the future)

This is another mythical 80’s casio that I am going to bust wide open. Occasionally one of these shows up on ebay and goes for vast sums, of course I o not own one but have desired to for a very long time.
Not any more.

As you can see from the picture this could be the most desirable casio EVER because it is a ghetto blaster. Then check out all those buttons - what kind of casio could this be? Some super duper MT-68 that’s programmable and has pitchbend? Is this a fantasy dream casio made real in plastic?

Now consider this: many ‘collectors’ on the internet have paid vast sums for this and not one, I repeat not one, has posted up anywhere how it actually SOUNDS. Perhaps, just perhaps, it sounds like crap and not worth recording with the inbuilt tape deck?

My tech people had a perusal of the service manual for this mythical beast - it uses the standard PT casio sound generation chip. The drums could be HOT on this thing but the tones you actually play … ultra crap. It could be a Casio PT-30?? As for that tantalising numeric keypad - for programming tape positions, cool yes but not quite what one would wish a numeric keypad on a casio would do. As for the pitchbend wheel - it will take further investigation but most likely a radio station tuning wheel.

Sure it looks cool, and as a ghetto blaster it is DA BOMB, but as a playable, useful Casio it is DA STINKY BOMB. Let the rich kids have it I say!

ADDENDUM: I was w w w w rong … this machine IS the bomb (shh though - lets not let anyone know)

Some comments from ACTUAL users rather than armchair critics:
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You know not whereof you speak! I own one of these Casio’s and have had tons of fun
with it in my younger days. It’s sound is not at all bad for it’s era, and even better,
it has great in/out jacks, letting you connect it to a stereo system, a home entertainment
system, or about anything you could think of. The versatility of this thing is awesome,
Casio was way ahead of it’s time with this. I’m about to sell mine on Ebay and hope it
brings in a “vast sum”, as it is well worth it.
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My KX-101 got most of it’s use as a boom box, and the line in and out jacks set it apart.
A comment on the recording deck - curiously, you cannot record audio from the keybouard. Rather, it is a digital back-up for the settings and notes you have played, sort of like MIDI. If you were to record a tape of your performance, it would only be playable on another KX-101. However, you could use the deck to record from radio, built in microphones, external mic or line inputs.
The auto-acompaniment and ability to program in a series of chords, repeates, etc give it some utility but the tiny keys are barely usable.
Another quirk was the auto-panning. Up to four notes can be played simultaneously, and they are arrayed L-R across the stereo field. However, if you play one note at a time it hops L-R in four steps. Definitely an odd beast.
I still have mine in the original box with manuals and am about ready to part with it
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Just picked one up at a fleamarket. Haven’t tried out the tape features yet, but its not quite a pt-30, though the silver keyboard is monophonic, and the large dial on the right is a radio tuner, not a pitch shift, though there is an inset (screwdriver controlled) sharp/flat pitch adjust on the bottom of the unit.

9 tones:
3x piano, harpsichord, organ, clarinet, flute, horn, and mellow.

6x volumes:
poly , mono, chord, arpeggio, rhythm, master
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I just inherited one…it’s a total(ed) beater. Is there a service manual out there? Mine is missing the speakers and it looks as though its been a door-stop for the past 30 years. BUT it sure looks COOL as HELL!!!