Used Roland books, music & hobbies in Islamabad & Rawalpindi
Is a used Roland books, music & hobbie worth buying?
Roland reaches Pakistan almost entirely as personal imports, and that decides the rest: no local warranty paper, and any Roland-made part ordered from abroad. What surfaces second-hand is working equipment moving between players — TD electronic kits, JUNO-DS stage synths, FP digital pianos and E-series arrangers — usually sold because someone upgraded rather than because something broke.
Imported
Parts usually have to be imported or sourced from the grey market, so a repair takes longer and costs more — which matters more on an older unit than the build quality does.
Roland is imported and has no broad authorised service presence in Islamabad or Rawalpindi, so mesh heads, trigger cones, cymbal rubbers and hammer-action parts are ordered from abroad. Independent instrument technicians in both cities cover the generic side — jacks, potentiometers, key contacts — with parts that are not Roland-specific.
Checking a used Roland books, music & hobbie
These are specific to Roland. The general books, music & hobbies checks apply too and are on the books, music & hobbies page.
Test every pad and rim
On TD kits each pad and cymbal triggers on its own input, so play head, rim and edge separately rather than tapping around the kit. A snare that double-triggers or a rim that stays silent usually points to a worn mesh head or a flattened trigger cone, both ordered in.
Choke each cymbal edge
Roland CY cymbals are meant to choke when you squeeze the edge while the bow is ringing. If the choke does nothing but the bow still sounds, one zone of that pad has failed and the cymbal is replaced whole rather than repaired.
Follow the trigger loom
Most entry and mid-range TD kits run all the pads back to the module through a single multi-pin loom instead of separate leads. Check every branch of it, because one damaged cable inside the loom means replacing the harness as a unit.
Check the DP pedal switch
Roland's DP-series damper pedals carry a continuous/switch mode selector on the body. If half-pedalling does nothing on an FP piano, set that selector correctly before treating the pedal or the socket as faulty.
Open the battery compartment
The JUNO-DS runs on AA cells as well as mains, so a synth that has been carried to gigs may have had cells sitting in it. Look inside the compartment for leakage on the contacts before you look anywhere else on the board.
What Roland books, music & hobbies are worth
- Mesh-head TD kits and rubber-pad kits are different instruments to a drummer and price separately at the same age, because converting a rubber kit means buying imported pads rather than fitting a local part.
- On a drum kit the module carries the price: the sounds and trigger settings live in it and pads can be added later, so a strong module with a thin pad set is worth more than the reverse.
- Every missing clamp, cable or rack section drags a kit down further than wear does, since the rack and loom are model-matched and cannot be made up from parts sold here.
Model lines you will see second-hand
- JUNO-DS synthesizers
- FP-series digital pianos
- E-series arrangers
- TD electronic drum kits
- GO:KEYS and GO:PIANO
General books, music & hobbies checks
These apply whatever the badge on the front says — the books, music & hobbies page covers them in full.
Check the edition page
On a textbook or exam preparation set, the edition is most of the value. Read the copyright page for the edition number and printing year, and check whether an online access code or disc that came with the book has already been redeemed, because a used code cannot be passed on.
Open the book flat
Hold it open at the middle and look along the spine. Glued paperbacks crack and start shedding pages in blocks. Fan the pages for loose sections, highlighter running through the whole text, silverfish holes, and the wavy edges that mean the book has been wet at some point.
Smell a stored box
Books kept in a damp store room or under a leaking roof smell musty, and the smell does not leave. Look at the closed page edges for the brown speckling of foxing and for grey-green mould. If one book in a box has it, treat the whole box as a single problem.
Hold discs to the light
Tilt a CD or DVD against a lamp and look for pin-holes or a bronze tinge creeping in from the edge, which means the reflective layer is lifting and the disc is finished. Concentric scratches read worse than radial ones. On cassettes, check the tape is wound evenly and not crinkled.
Count every game piece
Work through a board game or model kit against its piece list and rules sheet before agreeing anything. One missing pawn, die or rules leaflet turns a boxed game into a parts box when the title is out of production. Check the box corners, which is where storage damage shows first.
Run the motors and servos
On remote-control models, drones and motorised telescope mounts, fit a known-good battery and work every control: the motor should spin up without grinding or stalling, servos should answer at once and return to centre, and a mount should track smoothly rather than stepping. Refuse any pack that is swollen or leaking, and check the charger and connectors are present and matching.
Roland books, music & hobbies — questions
Is a used Roland electronic drum kit worth buying in Pakistan?
Can a used Roland keyboard be serviced in Islamabad?
Other books, music & hobbies brands
Selling one instead? We buy used Roland books, music & hobbies for cash.