The SH-1000, introduced in 1973, was the first instrument produced by Roland, and probably one of the first compact affordable keyboard synthesizers in all of Japan. It was designed to complement a home organ. Above its keyboard is a wooden sheet music stand. Organ-style colored preset selector tabs are located below the keyboard. All the extra parameter controls are located to the left of the keyboard.

The SH-1000 is a monophonic analog synth with a single oscillator feeding a lowpass filter, an ADSR envelope, and two LFOs. It features 10 Preset sounds, but they are pretty weak. Fortunately you can create your own sounds for some really great mono-synth bass, lead, percussion and FX sounds. Basic square, ramp and pulse-width waveforms are available from the oscillator and the LFOs have sine, square and sample+hold. It has a terrific ‘Growl’ and ‘Wow’ effect for a pretty scary analog sound. It also features white noise, pink noise, portamento, octave transposition and a Random Note Generator. Although there is no user memory, unique sounds can still be quickly recreated or discovered thanks to its simple interface.

It’s a dinosaur! But it’s also a classic piece of Roland history. It has been used by Vangelis, Human League, Blondie, The Band, and Jethro Tull. A little later in 1973 the SH-2000 was released with more Preset sounds (up to 30) but far less flexibility, controls and features. This may have been because the SH-1000 was a little confusing to its target demographic at the time. But today’s synthesists will love the unique sound and nostalgia of Japan’s first compact synthesizer!

No

May 9, 2013 @ 5:14 pm

Chris Bond - There is a Roland SH-1000 on Ebay now. The auction ends in 2 days, the price is at $430.22 & there are 2 bidders.

Chris Bond

April 25, 2013 @ 10:07 am

Hi,
I am seriously looking to get hold of a SH1000. Do you have or know anyone who has one for sale?
If so, what is the price?
Thank you.

Chris

Julius

April 18, 2013 @ 5:39 pm

I have one in good condition, beautiful instrument but no case

Pulse Emitter

April 17, 2013 @ 3:06 am

my friend had one of these in his house growing up, it had belonged to his older brother. we had a lot of fun with it! really juicy analog tones. the preset sounds on the colorful flippers are pretty humorous. i remember we assigned sample and hold to pitch and put the tuba sound on, ran it through a distortion and it sounded so bad ass! like a bass guitar metal riff.

we originally thought the synth was broken but then figured out that you had to turn it on and let it warm up for a few minutes before it would make any sound at all!

Mike McKay

April 11, 2013 @ 8:18 am

hi I have a sh1000 in full working order ,it has is original case with music stand, I used to hook it up to a Roland DEP 5 processor for even greater sounds .Still have that as well
its minus its hold button so if anyone has a spare ?
Sadly does not get used now ,but a friend checked it out last week as I don't have amps and speakers now . But I remember how better they sound at volume up rather than very low volume.
Cant decide to keep or let go ,its a piece of synth

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