Circuit Bent a PLAYSKOOL Kid Keys

It has been at least 10 years since I had one of these PLAYSKOOL Kid Keys to open up and play with. The first one that I circuit bent went over pretty well, so I have been looking for another affordable one to bend ever since.

From the video description:

The Playskool Kid Keys is an excellent target for circuit bending. It not only boasts an easy to access pitch controlling trim pot, it also has quite a few different was to modify the sound. After using my fingers to find interesting points and pitch, I like to connect one side of a probe connected to ground and test different points. This keyboard has a bunch of options using this method alone.

What was added:

• A handful of body contacts that interact with the pitch control and bend points in pretty interesting ways.
• CV input (control voltage, like from a synth or sequencer) with on/off toggle. Once you get CV into this keyboard, things really start to get crazy.
• 3 push buttons that activate different gain/distortion mods, the one in the middle also activates a beat.
• The switch above the push buttons toggle between even more gain settings.
• RCA output jack (1/4″ wouldn’t fit unless I removed the speaker and I didn’t want to do that)

Leave a Comment

POTAR Design Devices