The Electone E70 model was different in that it used the same circuit boards and preset voice architecture as used on the CS80. So basically, you're getting a preset CS80. Pretty sweet...
This one was saved from an imminent trip to the dump, after being slaughtered into pieces. Certainly glad we found it when we did; these are most likely becoming rare, and I don't think Yamaha produced a ton of them, so if one presents itself, it's best to grab it (providing you have room, have a means of hauling it, and have some friends that don't mind helping lift a 350lb organ...) At first glance it was exciting, but we quickly found that there were issues. First off, it was nasty. It smelled musty and moldy, it was filthy, and more than half of the key contacts weren't working. We also discovered that the second set of orchestral voices were not working either (more on that in a bit). Lastly, we couldn't get the bass pedals to work. So after accepting this as a project, we loaded it in the van and took it back to the studio.
A few days after getting it into the studio, it started to smell. Tom started coughing up his lungs so we needed to do something about it. I popped it open and started inspecting it. I was afraid of finding dead rodents inside, and God knows what else. To my surprise, It was pretty clean, sans the mouse poop... A good vacuuming took care of the surface dust but really it wasn't too bad; it just smelled. After popping the two manuals up and looking at the contacts, I tried to de-oxidize them but that didn't seem to work. Tom found a way of finessing them and re-shaping them so they worked again. Then came the fun part.
With a big tube of disinfectant wipes, some compressed air and the vacuum, I got down and dirty and began the nasty job of cleaning off all the nicotine and stains from the cabinet, inside and out. Surprisingly, that was really all I needed to use; I get a bit anal-retentive about projects like this so additionally I soaked and scrubbed every removable plastic knob and slider cap.
