This was a Roland Chorus Echo SRE-555 in a desperate need of service, It was bought second hand from Japan and was damaged in transit. It is actually just a Roland RE-501, but enclosed in a more compact 19” rack-mount case. For some unknown reason the SRE-555 usually costs more than a standard RE-501 in second hand prices, possibly because of its rarity or the fact it will fit into a studio better with its robust case.

It took quite a lot of working out just to find the right way to open the unit, especially as there is no known service manual so it was all guess work. The construction is really complex and multi-layered. Below is when the inside was finally reached…

I was amazed - it is so clean inside! Those endless layers of metal definitely did their job!

Unfortunately all inputs and outputs were damaged, as well as PSU… when fixed I managed to put the unit back together and run some tests. I also took a quick video of the module in action, the quality is not so great (sorry)