I wish the synth will last long. I have cleaned it inside out. I uninstalled and cleaned the front panel fader circuit boards today. I am still going to replace the main volume potentiometer (makes some clicks and pops, it is old) and the 6 micro switches. Then it is fully working. I have to get a proper stand for the synth. I don't know where I will put the chair. I don't have much room left here anymore.
edit. Still have to say that played the synth an hour last night and it truely sounds amazing! The strings card set is actually very good, some say the best expansion card for the JD series and I believe them. By mixing the real strings with the synthesized ones gives nice results. Actually the real strings sound very good alone too. I can't believe how Roland managed to build a digital synth sounding this good in 1991!
Actually I am planning to put my XV-3080 and the expansion cards for sale. It is also a nice sounding synth but the JD-800 beats it hands down in the ease of editing. It is sad that synth companies don't put as much effort in designing new synths and programming sounds as they did years ago. From now on, I am mostly interested in old synths with less options than new synths with too many options because the old ones really seem to have more soul, even the digital ones.
Next on the list are FS1R, JD-990 and Prophet-8 (that synth really has a soul!). There were 2 FS1R's for sale in ebay at the time I bought my JD-800. It was a difficult decision, which one to buy, the JD or the FS1R. I would have won the FS1R if I had bid but decided to get the JD first.
And yeah, I guess the JD has _the_ pizzicato sound. At least I played one that sounds about identical to the one Faithless used. I like their music alot. I would like to see them live because they never play the songs the same way as on the albums. It's very progressive, almost like jazz and I like it.