Tag: Display

DIY, Gear

More TD-12 and TD-20 replacement screens

Brazil’s Freedom Studios, which has been supplying replacement screens for Roland TD-12 and TD-20 modules for the past 18 months, has released some second-generation screens. One of the new options, according to founder Netto Scaff, is a version that retains the black-on-green style of the original Roland display. This version, he admits, is fairly challenging to install since it uses the original backlight board from the user’s existing display. The board needs to be desoldered from the display and used with a new screen which can be easily obtained from AliExpress. Scaff suggests that this replacement should be done by a trained technician, but Freedom Studios does provide step-by-step video instructions. Responding to customer feedback since the start of screen […]

DIY

Roland TD-12 and TD-20 get lifeline

For at least the past four or five years, Roland TD-12 and TD-20 owners have become increasingly frustrated as their LCD screens began to die. The display tended to dim and fade and eventually die completely. Replacement screens were no longer available and many had to resort to desoldering and resoldering troublesome displays in a last-ditch attempt to prolong the life of their modules. Since then, many drummers have been desperate for replacement displays, without which their modules are useless. Well, the wait is over, with not one, but two sources of replacement screens emerging almost simultaneously. The first was from Freedom Products, a one-man Brazilian company headed by professional drummer Netto Scaff. Like so many others, Scaff was faced […]