Great gear you got a *bad* deal on

[themagicmanmdt]

Let's be honest. Everyone's gotten something at a bad investment, music wise, SOMETIME.

It didn't work when you really got to use it. Bad heads, faulty channels or something. Or, you just got jipped.

Let's share 'em so others don't repeat our mistakes.

Mine, obviously, is the Sound Workshop mixer I've posted about once or twice. I did a logical justification:

-Schematics of the super EQs are very close to the API 550b. They sounded great. 8 channels. Wow. That's about $700 ea in value, adjusted.

-Came with meterbridge.

-All original, beyer transformers, no mods, clean, mint condition.

-Came with goodies, and from a pro studio home, treated well.

-It was exactly the size and functionality of a board that I needed. 12x8x2. Perfect. Amazing.

Priced around. Thought about it. I placed it in the realm of, say, a Studer sidecar, but not quite (obviously) that of a Neve. It was still a much better deal than an API 12-16ch, which makes sense.

Logic apparently done me wrong. Not only that, but Googling for it didn't give me any used prices.




That's my story.

What's yours?

[creature.of.habit]

what about the mixer though? what was wrong with it?

i don't really have many specific stories, other than a really bad habit of buying custom no name stuff that's really good, but a bitch to sell..

[standup]

My worst deal might be a late 50's Gretsch hollowbody. It was cheap out of the gate, but had a pickup that didn't sound right to me (replaced with a "Retrotron" off ebay), it needed a Bigsby (ebay), it needed new machines, and it eventually needed a neck reset. It's the most expensive guitar I own. (Cumulative repairs over the years on an upright bass make that the most expensive instrument by far).

Recording gear I tend to buy used, but an Akai DR8 that cost $600 or something was eventually worth maybe $200 by the time I sold it. Not a great deal. Any computer or firewire audio device is a money loser for sure.

[linus]

Ok. I'm willing to embarrass myself...

I bought an Optigan and had it shipped halfway across the country and guess what? It didn't work when it arrived. I hadn't even asked the seller to insure it. Just wasn't thinking. My bad. I KNOW those things are delicate and don't like to be shipped. Now it just sits in my studio space waiting for someone to turn up who can fix the damn thing. I even have the parts to do it. Just no time or ability to do the repair myself.

I also bought a Binson Echorec that was advertised as working and it worked when it arrived (and sounded fantastic) but within a couple months had stopped working. It has just been repaired and is being shipped back from the UK as we speak. The repair was VERY expensive and basicly I learned that it had a bad repair recently (probably just before I bought it) that had used some incorrect parts, installed poorly, that ended up doing damage to the thing. So MY repair ended up being much more costly. The seller is now long gone and I have no way of knowing who did the prior repair or when. So chalk it up to experience... We'll see if my story takes a turn for the good or the bad when the thing arrives later this month. If it works great I'll be ecstatic. If it shakes like a marraca I'll slit my wrists...

Buying "vintage" gear is particularly problematic as the stuff is often anywhere from 25 to 50 years old, often poorly maintained, and it's rare to find proper parts or someone that knows how to do the repair.

[Harry]

I've been on a quest for a really nice spring reverb forever now

I bought a Biamp stereo spring advertised as "perfect working order"
and only one side works.

I just bought a Sound Workshop Stereo spring reverb advertised as "great condition" and guess what??? only one side is working.

They both sound great so it's not all bad, but if I ever get around to buying a Demeter spring I might want to unload these. I figure I'll only get about 1/2 of what I got into them since they're only 1/2 working.

[Jeff White]

I just purchased a Hafler P-3000 poweramp off of ebay that was advertised as "in perfect working order". It arrived with what looked like a squirrel nest inside of it and both channels have big distortion issues. Paid $250 shipped, will most likely have to spend another $100 to $300 to have it fixed, which is not really worth it to me.

Jeff

[MichaelAlan]

Bought an Avalon pre and comp once for $2000. It was just not worth that much. Damn GuitarCenter.


Learned my lesson though.



Mike

[Soundmonkey]

Back when I didn't know better(1999) I paid $500 for a Korg DW-8000 synth. It's cool, but not worth $500. It was however my introduction to the wonderful world of analog synthesis, so it wasn't all bad. I still have it.

[I'm Painting Again]

When I was young I purchased an Akai sampler with a whopping 2 seconds of sample time for $500..

[nestle]

When I was young I purchased an Akai sampler with a whopping 2 seconds of sample time for $500..

ditto here to, back in 95 or 6 bought an akai sampler and it never got any use what so ever, worse purchase ever. to many menu's

What ws wrong with the soundworkshop desk? why was it a boondoggle?
I worked in a place years ago that had one and it sounded pretty good actually

[trodden]

ahahah more sampler stories..

I bought the first boss Dr Sample for like $400, sold a nice trumpet for it.. stupid. I wish i still had the nice trumpet.

5 years ago, bought an emu e-iv from a dude on ebay for $500. Included a 5 space rack. the dude basically just put the sampler in the rack, the rack in a box that was too big, and shipped it.. no packing material.. and of course it showed up broken. I lucked out and it was only the hard drive that was shot, and was back in business after i swapped that out. but $500 for a hardware sampler, i'm sure i can get the same thing for like $250 now.

paid $300 for my spx 90, 6 years ago.. i see those things for like $150 now.

[shedshrine]

Got a long one, here goes...

I got it in my noggin that I wanted another Tascam 388. I had four reels kicking around that I'd filled from my first go round with one I bought new in 1988 that I wanted to transfer, and I also had a jones to get back into tape.

I was fiending pretty bad, nothing was coming up local on craigslist, but there were usually at least a couple on ebay. Finally, an auction came up for one advertised as basically never having been used, with a colorful story behind it ..and no pictures. A couple emails back and forth before auction end and I use the buy it now. It's mine for $600.00

I end up with his phone number and we talk several times. Guy sounds cool, elderly guy who's contracted ms, used to be a studio musician in Philly in the seventies and eighties. He said he'd bought the last unopened box unit the music store had had, and though he ended up not being able to use it, kept it as inspiration to fight the ms. Said he had kept it in the livingroom to look at. I bought the story, and didn't insist on pics.

Longer story short, after a harrowing week and a half getting the shipping together on his end, I get it. I had it shipped 3 day air to minimize conveyor belt drops, and paid to have it professionally packed. I get it home and man handle it into the livingroom where I grab a kitchen knife to cut through all the packing tape.

As soon as I get a decent size cut going along one side, I pull up to look inside. Phew! Huge blast of cigarette stench that only gets stronger with each cut of bubble wrap. There is a coating on the face of the thing, and especially on the rear connections, which I guess never got wiped down.

Making things worse was that the seller lived in a severely humid area, the florida keys no less, so there is the beginnings of corrosion in several places. I'm crushed, frustrated and mad all at the same time.

I call the guy, who says," why yes I do smoke, why?" and "Well, down here everything starts to rust eventually". Of course smokers don't tend to notice the heavy smell that builds in their homes, and the effects of humidity there are so matter of fact, that the "meager" corrosion of the deck is comparatively mint in his eyes.

But, the reel to reel section has been protected all these years by the plexiglass cover and though smells a bit, fine. The heads are indeed pristine. Not having a variac, I just plug it in to see what happens. Everything lights up, 10 beautiful vu meters. I run a signal, and am surprised at the sound quality. Things aren't so bad afterall.

Encouraged, I scrub the entire thing, and the connections especially take some serious finger-numbing scrubbing. Initially with alcohol swabs for the cigarette tar, and then brasso on the chrome. Amazingly, it almost entirely comes off. Great.

I have already ordered and received a few rolls of 457, a new capstan belt as the original was complete goo, a new pinchroller and a handimag. The original pinchroller, 17 years new, is good as new after just a bit of scrubbing with a wet qtip, and turns smoothly giving accurate readout with a little machine oil. Fine.

I load up tape, and it lurches and stops. I fuss with positioning the tension arms and can get it turning a bit if I hold them, but on it's own it's just not happening. Fine, I was planning on having a tech check it out anyway.

I take it to the tech across the bay on a day off, as early as I can, planning to just hang around there in Berkeley til he calls. There's no call for quite awhile so I stop back by. He had been troubleshooting all afternoon and finally determined that the servo tension controllers are corroded, and won't allow precise adjustments. Shit!

The servo controllers are all located under a grill opening on the top deck above the vu meters. (the earliests 388s produced didn't have this grill) He needs to get some parts, so we set up a pickup date a week later.

I get there as he's opening the shop as he's agreed to let me watch him work. He has all the cool tools, and whips out a hakko desoldering gun to swap out the tiny parts. Finally everything is calibrated and up to spec and ready to rock.

All told my $600 ebay Tascam 388 ended up costing me around $1300. New, they sold for $3100 - 3300. In any case, while it didn't turn out to be the sweetest deal, the thing runs like a tank now. It's pots are scratchy here and there, and the record light for channel three doesn't light up when depressed, but these are extremely minor issues.

The end.

[Sean Sullivan]

Hmm...I've never really had a "bad" deal because I'm pretty thrifty, but bought an Epiphone Cortez for $750 with a hardshell case, that's around what it's worth but for it's condition not so much. Plus, it's an Epiphone, so when people come to the studio they aren't like "wow, I can't wait to play that!" even though it's a 45 year old guitar and pre-Gibson when they were great guitars.

Probably my worst purchase in terms of value is a Epiphone Emperor from what I told was the same period that I got for $500 and it's sounds pretty amazing, but it has some modifications to the bridge that help it's playability but that hurt it's value. And, according to the information I can find, it was made in Korea in 1991. But it's a great player, and it looks cool as hell...I feel like Noel Gallagher. Here's some pictures of the guitars:

[themagicmanmdt]

to respond to the SW questions:

one guy got one for $300 here on the boards.

another just sold for ~$800, and a similar (albeit different model) SW went for just about $1k.

(i paid around $2k.)

it's strange. the board to me is worth it.

but apparently, i was about a grand and a half overbid on the showcase showdown.

(i still think the board should go for what i paid for it, though)

anyways. i won't post bout that board no more. i think 3 out of my last 10 posts were me whining about it. i mean, the thought of it kept me up at night.

but, i'm ok now.

tomb is my therapy.

i mean it.

this forum gets out the late night jitters, and sidetracks me with wonderful recording theories and tempts me with awesome deals on the forums.

sweet, sweet dreams indeed.

(+1 on the tascam story - see, those kind of posts are why i'm *awake* here at 3am when I've got to work at 10!)

[apropos of nothing]

I paid $1000 and some change for a Kurzweil K-2000 (sampling keyboard) in 1999, which was far too much then, and now they're going for $500. Ohwell.

OTOH, its been all around the United States with me, on airplanes and in cars. I like that I can replace it fairly inexpensively, and they're ubiquitous, so if it breaks suddenly, there's a good chance I might be able to borrow one from someone, and load up my samples. I've speculated about getting a second one for backup.

My ASR-10 (rack sampler) was $3500 all told in 1993. I'm still using it, so that works out to $233 a year, and getting cheaper. I've had the PSU and a couple of daughterboards replaced in it, so it might be more expensive than that, but not too much, compared to the initial investment.

Most of the rest of my gear I feel like I've gotten pretty decent prices on.