While researching FM synthesizers, I stumbled on some videos showing off the Yamaha PSS-series keyboards. Disguised as an inexpensive kid's keyboard, some of these are actually simple 2-operator FM synthesizers, as opposed to the usual PCM sample players that I grew up with. This seemed like a really good way to get my feet wet, as they were much cheaper and smaller than the professional models. Before too long, I sourced myself one from shopgoodwill.com and immediately fell in love with its simple charm and retro aesthetic. The keyboard plays perfectly and sounds even better if used with external speakers. It has sliders to edit the parameters of each patch, leading to a surprising amount of variation for a low-budget offering. It reminds me of 90s video game sounds with some unique, poor approximations of acoustic instruments. When you take the sounds by their own merits, they are bright, playful, and expressive. It has a built in vibrato effect, and it's also a blast running it through some external chorus and reverb effects. There are even a small selection of FM drum sounds. This unit seemed well loved, and dirty, but in good condition. In addition to the requisite dust and grime, It had pieces of tape strewn about as well as some sticky residue. As per my usual MO, I didn't play with it for too long before cleaning it up, inside and out. Isopropyl alcohol made short work of the tape residue without any negative effects, and I also used it to clean the rest of the keys. I dismantled the keyboard, and washed the outer shell and buttons with dish soap. I wanted to clean the PCBs thoroughly, but the design utilized integral slider switch contacts with conductive grease. Thankfully, Deoxit makes a replacement lubricant that comes in a convenient syringe dispenser, so I could clean all the old grease off without worry. After letting all the parts dry, I greased the contacts and threw everything back together. I'm glad I was able to get it looking as nice as it sounds. I would definitely like to try some of the more upscale models, some of which had little segmented displays to edit the various parameters of the synth.