Jen SX1000 Synthetone
An Italian monosynth that sold for £190, weighed almost nothing, and put real synthesis within reach of anyone who could scrape together a paper round's wages.
Overview
The SX1000 is a slab of veneered and black-painted wood, 17 by 56 by 36 centimetres, with a plastic trim under the keyboard and a black metal main panel with white legends. It runs on mains power. The rear panel has a line out socket beside the mains cable outlet and fuse holder, plus holes for a wire music stand. That is the entire back panel. No CV or trigger inputs, no outputs for interfacing with anything else.
The layout is color-coded, so owners pick it up in an afternoon. Red knobs govern the VCO, green handles noise, yellow takes the modulation controls, blue runs the ADSR, and black sets output volume. The synthesis sections - VCO, Noise, LFO, VCF and VCA - sit grouped logically across the main panel.
The SX1000 is more than a one-knob-per-function toy because of its pair of envelope generators and pulse width modulation working alongside that single oscillator. Six patch cards ship with the synth. They are cut-out holes that fit over the panel controls, and between them they deliver a dozen instrument sounds, from brass and organ through to piano.
The price is the thing that keeps coming up. At £190 including VAT, the SX1000 landed alongside the EDP synths and the handful of other monophonic variable synths competing in that bracket. Jen's own publicity billed it as "the greatest synth bargain you've ever laid hands on," which is marketing copy, not a verdict. The review's more measured framing, that it deserved consideration among the budget monosynths, is the one to trust.
By the time the used market got hold of it, the SX1000 had settled into the role of ideal beginner's monosynth. Classified listings from the period show them changing hands at £50 to £75, sometimes bundled with a drum machine or a TR606 in a package deal. One seller in a UK musician's classified section described it simply as "ideal beginner's monosynth, good condition, £60."
The wooden case and plastic trim show their age, and the wire music stand is frequently missing. With no CV/gate, it can't be integrated into a modular rig without modification. What it does have is a complete, logically laid-out synthesis path - VCO, noise, LFO, filter, amplifier, two envelopes - in a package that takes up very little desk space. The color coding means you can learn subtractive synthesis on it without a manual, and the patch cards mean you can make usable sounds before you understand why they work.
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