Great gear scored on the cheap

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thieves
suffering 'studio suck'
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Location: Cleveland, OH
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Post by thieves » Thu Jan 03, 2008 1:31 pm

Cojonesonasteek wrote:I found a 1955 tweed Bassman in a ditch along the golf course I worked at while in college. Speakers had been pulled and the obvious thief tossed it off the side of the road thinking he'd scored new car speakers. I took it home, carefully took it apart and cleaned it, and boxed up the parts so I could restore it when I got home from school. When I arrived home at Christmas in my parents' new town, I asked them where my amp was and they said, "What? That old piece of junk? We threw it out before we moved."

I did more recently find a '58 Duo-Sonic in a pawn shop for $300 and sold it for a grand.
i've been on the hunt for a vintage fender shortscale in this price range for about a decade and still no luck.
Image

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the finger genius
re-cappin' neve
Posts: 746
Joined: Wed Nov 15, 2006 1:32 pm

Post by the finger genius » Thu Jan 03, 2008 1:57 pm

I've found the following in the trash:

Clavinet D6. I spent about an hour and a half, along with 25 bucks on yarn and a glue gun to get this fully operational.

Sweet looking Kustom 2 x 15 cabinet. Plugged it in and worked like a charm.

gward
audio school
Posts: 8
Joined: Mon Sep 11, 2006 8:56 am

Post by gward » Thu Jan 03, 2008 4:54 pm

Wurli 200a $20 at thrift store
Fender Bantam Bass Amp $40 at same store
Pancordion 1950s accordion for $75
Titano accordion for $25(sold for $175)
Lexicon Vortex for $50
AKG BX-5 free
Ampeg b15 Portaflex free
Leslie speaker free
Minimoog (on permanent loan or "storage" as some of you have put it)
3 Sansamp PSA-1s for $150 apiece at Mars Music when they went out of business

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;ivlunsdystf
ghost haunting audio students
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Post by ;ivlunsdystf » Thu Jan 03, 2008 6:48 pm

Now that they're out of business, I can spill it: the Fridley (MN) Music Go Round was an ongoing treasure trove. They kept stocking various cool effects pedals like the Dr. Q for $20 and the Small Stone for $40 (with power source) - not the most earth-shattering deals, but there was always SOMETHING like that every time I stopped in there for the past 2 years. Alas, they are having their final closeout (or just had, maybe)

dynomike
carpal tunnel
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Joined: Wed Jun 18, 2003 8:26 am

Post by dynomike » Fri Jan 04, 2008 3:09 pm

ampex 440 $300 (hasn't proved to be a good deal yet though...)

fender pa-100 4xEL34 head FREE (+$300 to have 2 of the four channels modded to blackface deluxe / silverface twin) ... (but i did kind of steal it from my church? i think i gave them a compressor or something they could use in return)

rogers powertone COB snare FREE (but i did kind of steal it from my friend who was set on donating it to an elementary school)

A bunch of used beyerdynamic mics on ebay from germany, not listed on the american ebay, spelled 'beyerdynamik'. All of them about 1/4 the new value. Awesome.

Ok, so my great deals really aren't all that clean. These days, if I want something, I don't have much of a problem paying what it actually is worth. Except for being kinda broke...

-Mike
Making Efforts and Forging Ahead Courageously! Keeping Honest and Making Innovations Perpetually!

1m1
audio school graduate
Posts: 16
Joined: Sat Jun 02, 2007 2:58 pm

Post by 1m1 » Fri Jan 04, 2008 10:20 pm

How about a fully working Neve 8028 for $26,000 in 1995? It had 24 1073's in it, and 4 line input modules (I don't remember the module number), plus 12 1272 modules.

themagicmanmdt
george martin
Posts: 1347
Joined: Mon Nov 13, 2006 8:47 pm
Location: home on the range

Post by themagicmanmdt » Sat Jan 05, 2008 9:30 pm

e.maynard wrote:I just nabbed a Sound Workshop 1280B, with 8 channels of super EQ for $300.00
Yes I'm feeling good.
you saying that makes me feel like absolute shit.

i thought i got a couple of good deals before, but i clearly see i've got my head up my ass when it comes to bargains or good buys.
we are the village green
preservation society
god bless +6 tape
valves and serviceability

*chief tech and R&D shaman at shadow hills industries*

RefD
on a wing and a prayer
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Joined: Fri Aug 27, 2004 9:10 pm

Post by RefD » Sat Jan 05, 2008 9:40 pm

RCA 400 speaker cab with an 8 ohm Jensen 10".

sounds great with my VJ head, can convert to open-back and can be made to resonate in spooky ways.

Image

i just wish it still had the red RCA badge and the trim around the grille, but that's nitpicking.

thanks, inverse!
?What need is there to weep over parts of life? The whole of it calls for tears.? -- Seneca

hughmanatee
gettin' sounds
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Location: Portland, ME
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Post by hughmanatee » Sat Jan 05, 2008 11:13 pm

$50
28 Unit roadcase with
alesis SR16
Roland S330 sampler with 500 disks and a color crt monitor
Hill 16ch multimixwith Power supply
all came pre wired with midi cables xlr, trs everything i needed.
i got this stuff from a guy i was doing sound for every weekend, it belonged to stormy sacks he did a bunch of music for game shows in the 80s. the guy just wanted it out of his house.

Epihone Lespaul model with gibson classic 57s and hard shell case traded it for a soft shell acoustic guitar bag that said DADDYS JUNKY MUSIC, from a friend i was in a band with. the bag was for a 1/2 size acoustic i got when i was 7. the kid asked ifhe could have it as he was borrowing it for a while, i said "no" he said "i'll give you my les paul" YES

ALLEN & HEATH SR16 16 CHANNEL MIXER modified with perkins Eq and Pres $350. the music store just had no idea what they were giving me.

Power mac G4 400mhz 1.5gigs of ram, Digi001, Alesis AI-3, Aphex aural exciter 103 for $800, back in 2003-2004 good ebay deal

Hammond B1 organ Free, craigs list; had some bite marks in the power cord, but i put some electrical tape on it and it worked fine. now a friend of mine who has since dropped off the earth has it.

Maudio BX4 monitors with 800 watt KLH sub $100 buddy of mine was upgrading

surebrothers PE58 circa 70s free

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Jeremy Garber
suffering 'studio suck'
Posts: 497
Joined: Thu Dec 30, 2004 6:05 am
Location: Louisiana

Post by Jeremy Garber » Sat Jan 05, 2008 11:33 pm

A couple of weeks ago I scored some drum gear. For $25, I got four Gibraltar multi-clamps for my rack, a 20" AA Medium Ride (going to be trading in for more Saludas), and a POS snare drum (pulling the muffler and snare release off to replace broken parts on one of my other snares).

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Kilroy
buyin' gear
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Post by Kilroy » Sun Jan 06, 2008 1:28 pm

got a martin d-18 thats from the 70s today for free. This guitarist i know had it, but it had some major neck problems and a crack around the neck/headstock area. Pretty scary crack, but so far its playable and sounds nice. He didnt really want to get it repaired cause it would cost a bunch, so he bought a new guitar and decided to just give it to me. I tried to tell him he could probably sell for a bit, but he just wanted to get rid of it. So now i have it. I have no idea what to do with it. Ive been keeping the strings fairly slack. I dont have the money to get it repaired any time soon, i assume its gonna need a new neck. But still, its pretty neat and sounds awesome, tho its a bit wierd to play.

RefD
on a wing and a prayer
Posts: 5993
Joined: Fri Aug 27, 2004 9:10 pm

Post by RefD » Sun Jan 06, 2008 1:38 pm

Kilroy wrote:got a martin d-18 thats from the 70s today for free. This guitarist i know had it, but it had some major neck problems and a crack around the neck/headstock area. Pretty scary crack, but so far its playable and sounds nice. He didnt really want to get it repaired cause it would cost a bunch, so he bought a new guitar and decided to just give it to me. I tried to tell him he could probably sell for a bit, but he just wanted to get rid of it. So now i have it. I have no idea what to do with it. Ive been keeping the strings fairly slack. I dont have the money to get it repaired any time soon, i assume its gonna need a new neck. But still, its pretty neat and sounds awesome, tho its a bit wierd to play.
it's probly fixable.

either save up and get it fixed or send it to me! :wink:
?What need is there to weep over parts of life? The whole of it calls for tears.? -- Seneca

edwinhurwitz
studio intern
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Post by edwinhurwitz » Sun Jan 06, 2008 11:40 pm

McIntosh MC30 and C-8 free
Alembic Series I bass from 1978 $750
'67 Guild Starfire bass $275
'67 Guild Starfire bass with Fender RAD bass amp $400
Modulus Q6 ~$600
'67 Fender Bandmaster $25 (from a band in Somerville MA called the Skidelics. They had a bunch of skis with strings and pickups on them. They had to sell their gear to pay rent, but I bet no one bought the skis! Can't imagine what their gigs sounded like.)
Lexicon MPX1 $50
Ancient Harmony Tenor guitar in mint condition found in the trash
some great deals on camera gear (including a Nikon 135 f2 for about $50 bucks that was stolen and my insurance company insisted on getting me the 135 DC which has a fancy defocussing control and goes for well over $1k. They also upgraded the rest of my gear pretty significantly. I'm still pissed that that *ssh*le followed me into my soundcheck and ripped off my camera bag.)
Vox tonebender free
Other stuff, like stage monitors, found in the trash.
My brother just found a Nuova Simonelli Oscar in the trash in the streets of New York.

Edwin

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Kilroy
buyin' gear
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Post by Kilroy » Mon Jan 07, 2008 1:01 am

RefD wrote:
Kilroy wrote:got a martin d-18 thats from the 70s today for free. This guitarist i know had it, but it had some major neck problems and a crack around the neck/headstock area. Pretty scary crack, but so far its playable and sounds nice. He didnt really want to get it repaired cause it would cost a bunch, so he bought a new guitar and decided to just give it to me. I tried to tell him he could probably sell for a bit, but he just wanted to get rid of it. So now i have it. I have no idea what to do with it. Ive been keeping the strings fairly slack. I dont have the money to get it repaired any time soon, i assume its gonna need a new neck. But still, its pretty neat and sounds awesome, tho its a bit wierd to play.
it's probly fixable.

either save up and get it fixed or send it to me! :wink:
:D i used it for a track today, so at least its usable. Man, i doubt ill get it fixed for a while, sadly. But eventually ill have a job with money :)

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ballpein
pushin' record
Posts: 249
Joined: Fri Dec 01, 2006 1:20 am
Location: canada

Post by ballpein » Mon Jan 07, 2008 1:04 am

Kilroy wrote:got a martin d-18 thats from the 70s today for free. This guitarist i know had it, but it had some major neck problems and a crack around the neck/headstock area. Pretty scary crack, but so far its playable and sounds nice. He didnt really want to get it repaired cause it would cost a bunch, so he bought a new guitar and decided to just give it to me. I tried to tell him he could probably sell for a bit, but he just wanted to get rid of it. So now i have it. I have no idea what to do with it. Ive been keeping the strings fairly slack. I dont have the money to get it repaired any time soon, i assume its gonna need a new neck. But still, its pretty neat and sounds awesome, tho its a bit wierd to play.
You'd be surprised what can be fixed. Much better to fix it now then when it's really broken. Find a good luthier - someone who builds acoustic guitars, not someone who works in the back of a music shop. And it will probably be cheaper than you might think. That is a beautiful guitar, don't let it go to waste. I sent you a PM.

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