Little Tikes Pop Tunes Keyboard

alienmeatsack · Joined: Mar 04, 2010 Posts: 137 Location: Oklahoma

Posted Image, might have been reduced in size. Click Image to view fullscreen.

Anyone else bent/bending one of these?

I started one the other day and promptly killed it when one of my wires pull one of those nano-resistors off the board.

So far, I've only found the pitch bend. I know there's at least 2 glitchy/noisy bends in there somewhere, I can feel it. (And I've seen one of them in action in a video.)

I'll repost the pitch bend here for anyone interested. I'd love if anyone had other bends to share. Beyond output jack, led or volume stuff I mean.

alienmeatsack · Joined: Mar 04, 2010 Posts: 137 Location: Oklahoma

This is from my blog. Hope it helps someone to bend one of these little buggers.

Also, I've noticed that on the 4 units I played with (2 in store and the 2 I bought) that at least 1 of the "tunes buttons" didnt work. Not sure if its a problem I can fix, I didnt dig too deep for that part.

Posted Image, might have been reduced in size. Click Image to view fullscreen.

alienmeatsack · Joined: Mar 04, 2010 Posts: 137 Location: Oklahoma

Note... if you are a LED/lighting freak, these things are packed full of goodness. It comes stock with 9 LEDs of assorted colors under the semi-transparent dome on the top middle. They go nuts when it plays, making for a real nice light show.

This thing has plenty of room in the dome for all kinds of stuff including more LEDs, bigger and or brighter LEDs, or other light modules. Or you could externalize the LEDs, and use the dome for something else. I am considering doing all my LEDs in blue or white, and putting one in the middle of the dome for power.

alienmeatsack · Joined: Mar 04, 2010 Posts: 137 Location: Oklahoma

Well, I "finished" the bend last night on the replacement I got for the original keyboard pictured.

I have pics at home and forgot to upload them. But here's one:
Posted Image, might have been reduced in size. Click Image to view fullscreen.

I ended up going with the pitch bend I posted about earlier (and some hot glue to keep it from breaking off the resistors) and a voltage choke. The choke really works nicely. I'd like to fine tune it a bit however to get more control over the range. But, there's a spot where it's almost in lala land where it buzzed and gets all funky that sounds really nice.

The unit also puts out some hella deep rumbling bass when pitched down.

I had hoped to add a small amp or something to help give it some more umf, but I decided to close up and be done for the time being last night. There's quite a bit of room under the contents in the yellow portion to add some bits, just not much room left for switches and pots.

Oh, I also changed out the LEDs for blue ones. Wee.

telstarmagikistferrari · Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 2:12 pm Post subject:

Just wanted to let you know that Folks are reading your thread! I love to hear about bends of all kinds, especially stuff that can be run across in a thrift store. I'll keep an eye out for one of these. Keep posting!

Marck Ferrari

alienmeatsack · Joined: Mar 04, 2010 Posts: 137 Location: Oklahoma

Thanks! I have lots more I have done and am working on. I mostly look for used/older stuff but this one was just too cool to pass on.

I am thinking about opening it back up. It's got some kind of issue with the power switch. While I'm in, I can add in an amp Very Happy

SamVsSound · Joined: Feb 12, 2017 Posts: 4 Location: Canada

I just picked up one of these guys at the thrift store, The power connection from battery got pulled out at some point but I would have had to cut it anyway to add my kill switch.

I'm interested in seeing if I can't convert the wheel used for power into a pot knob and remount the power somewhere else on the case. Also in love with the LED dome lol. Can't wait to get started

I'll let you guys know how things go Smile

SamVsSound · Joined: Feb 12, 2017 Posts: 4 Location: Canada

I've started playing around inside this keyboard and I must say I'm blown away by the bass on that pitch bend, great drones and rumble at the bottom end.

I also like that triggering different songs changes the tone of the keyboard. I wish I could find a way to access these other tones without the song playing though as it reverts once the song ends.

As far as the final song key, it seems this is actually intended to be a stop key, though this is in no way clear lol. it cuts off whatever tone or song is playing and returns the keyboard to standby.

I should have a post up on my blog showing mine off some time this week, I will credit you and link this post as your information was a great help getting me started

PHOBoS · Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2017 12:35 pm Post subject:

I can't help you with this keyboard since I have no experience with it myself (I like the looks of it though),
but I noticed on your blog you also took apart a super concert so maybe this can be useful.

SamVsSound · Joined: Feb 12, 2017 Posts: 4 Location: Canada