Casio Casiotone 101

Well, given it is over 20 years old, it is not very complicated. It was the first board I ever bought (for $35 in 1998). I got it because I was not "sure" if I was going to stick to playing or not.
Sounds are absolutely ridiculous, except maybe in 1982 it didn't sound so ridiculous (although it probably still did.) The piano sounds like, well, not a piano. The organs though actually sound a little more realistic, but the other patches make you wonder (i.e. "cosmic tone", "funny fuzz", and the ever-popular, must have, "frog." I'm not kidding, there actually is a frog patch.)It doesn't sound like a frog though.

I think the poly is around 8, and you can pick from sustain and vibrato. No MIDI, no nothing else, just around 20 patches. I only bought because the keys are very light and I don't like weighted action. It was just something to practice on when I first started out.
Today, you might want it if you're a collector (sorry I'm not selling it---nostalgic value for the "frog")

Well, see above...
the only semi-realistic patch is one of the organ ones. Oh yeah, and the frog sound.
There is no velocity switching or sensitivity. The two effects are not very usuable; the sustain just muddies the notes, and the vibrato doesn't sound too convincing.
One small speaker in the corner. But at least no wall-wart.

It's pretty heavy and tough with wood ends. It never broke on me and i played on it maybe 500 hours. If you gig with this, you are either on drugs, or pretty poor.

Casio is usually seen as making kiddie stuff, but with their new foray into the "serious" market with the PX-series boards, they might get some more respect from pro musicians. I hope they can make some interesting stuff to compete with the others.

If it were lost/stolen, I would only miss it a little cuz it was the first board I ever got.
It could be useful for attracting frogs during mating season or something (although the frog sound is more like some goofy Atari-2600 noise you might hear when playing Gunslinger.) Or if you want a cheeseball church organ sound, this one has it.
The other reviewer said he hooked it up to some equipment to get some wierd sounds...you could try that I guess.
Nevertheless I like it because of it's nostalgic value. It's like finding some drivers license you put away like 20 years ago and seeing your face back when you were young and happy.

There are only eight controls on the front panel - a rocker switch which is either in 'Play' or 'Select' mode, four Tone select switches, two effects controls (Sustain and Vibrato), a rotary volume control and, oh yes, the Power On switch.

This is a very limited instrument. It has just 25 patches, of which you can assign any four to the Tone controls using the Select Switch (which are reset to the default after switching off). While in select mode, the top 25 notes of the keyboard act as patch selectors. To play the sound, simply flick the switch back into Play mode.
The only effects on the Casiotone are sustain and vibrato. The vibrato control can be switched in during a solo and used as a primitive modulation control.
There is no velocity or aftertouch or anything fancy like that on this keyboard, but what it does have is 49 full-size keys which have a nice positive feel to them, and the whole thing is built into a very sturdy black metal cabinet with wooden end cheeks and wood underneath the front of the keys - something I like to see in keyboard construction. It is also eight note polyphonic which is plenty considering you can only play one sound at a time.
The Casiotone 101 also has no accompaniments

Erm, most sounds are pretty cheesy, but consider the organ sounds - these really are good for such an oldey! I also like the Piano sound, which sounds nothing like a real piano but with some external EQ you can play some decent sounding basslines with it.
Without external effects, the sound is very static, but a simple reverb algorithm, even a spring reverb on a standard keyboard amplifier can really breathe some life into its sound.
Favourite sounds on the Casiotone include the Piano, and a synth sound called 'Cosmic Tone'. This latter one really benefits from external effects such as flanging or chorus.
You can also get some interesting results by overdriving the sound and playing it distorted.

This board is built like a tank! It will last forever!
I would use this keyboard at a gig, provided I had my external effects and other keyboards with it because then you can surprise people with just how good you can get such an oldey to sound.

I've never had to call Casio. The Casiotone is the only Casio product I own which a friend gave me free of charge in May 2000.

I guess I could get by without it. The appearance of the Casiotone is mainly how I got attached to it. It looked better than it sounded so I wanted to prove that I could get it to sound like a proper synth. I did this through the use of external effects and feel a sense of achievement from it. It would be nice if it could have had MIDI on it because it would make a great controller keyboard, but since it hasn't, the key to unlocking the Casiotone is to appreciate what it can do rather than what it can't.