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Author Topic: The best deal you ever got buying a....  (Read 46012 times)

compasspnt

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The best deal you ever got buying a....
« on: February 28, 2005, 07:05:45 PM »

Another thing that would be fun to hear about is things people in the industry have bought which were absolutely amazing, once-in-a-lifetime "steals" of a bargain.

I haven't had many, but one is particularly satisfying to remember.

I was in Denmark, at the great studio PUK.  In fact, I was their very first client, and "opened" the studio.  It was located WAY out in the country, far from any city, in the middle of a huge farm.  When we started there, it was February, and very bleak; much of Denmark's trees had been cut down years ago, and when you'd look out of the window, you'd only see flat, snowy, dreary fields for miles.  I was there for about 3-4 months though, doing a production of a European rock band, so eventually the climate started to "Spring" up.  (Don't know if this studio is still open today...this was about '85.)

The studio proprietor, a nice guy nicknamed "Puk," had become a good friend, and we would often talk equipment.  One day, he had heard about a possible sale of some gear in a Danish city many miles away.  I wanted to go, too, but couldn't, as we were tracking that day (and every day!)  But Puk was going to go, and he promised that if he found any good stuff, I could pick out a piece for what he'd paid for it.

All day, during the session, I wondered what he'd find there.  Well, it turned out that it was actually the state-owned Danish Radio station selling all of their "old" equipment, so that they could "upgrade" with brand new gear.  What they were getting rid of was all those old Neumann valve microphones they'd had for so long.  These mics, mind you, had only sat in one position every day; they hadn't even ever been moved!  Puk, of course, bought it all.  Since it was a government thing, they didn't really know or care what things were worth; they just wanted to dump it.  So Puk came back late that night with a BIG box full of 47's, 48's, and 49's, including the V series power supplies.  He had paid the equivalent of $400 each for them!!!!

Of course, I reminded him of his promise.  He let me set all of the mics up, test them, and pick the one I liked best.  I got up VERY early the next morning and spent about 3 hours testing every mic.  I ended up picking an M-49 which seemed to have the best overall sound of the lot.  Puk took my $400, and I  still have and use that mic all the time today.  It has a couple of "Radio Danmarks" engravings on the u-shaped holder, and the mic itself.

Terry
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Hallams

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Re: The best deal you ever got buying a....
« Reply #1 on: February 28, 2005, 11:00:31 PM »

The best one for me is when i walked into a small guitar shop and saw a Rickenbacker bakelite lap steel , with the chrome plates, built in the 1930's for $400. And next was the Guild Jumbo built in 72 for $450. Just needed a bit of binding. And then there was the L series Strat for $375. Had a bit of a back bend in the neck that i soon fixed.
Most recently  i purchased all the modules from a desk built here in Australia by one of our best , for $20 each. Mic pres are discreet class A with hand wound transformers, and high, low and sweep mids.So its now my 12 ch X 4 x 2 sidecar and sounds great. I love a bargain......Possibly the best sounding guitar i have i purchased for $5.The neck was clean broken at the heel and a simple glue and clamp job fixed that. It is a Maton Premier F-hole built in 1955 and if I'm tracking two acoustics always sounds great as a complimentary sound to a dreadnought, and for open tuning nothing beats its unique sound.
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Chris Hallam.
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drumsound

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Re: The best deal you ever got buying a....
« Reply #2 on: February 28, 2005, 11:20:48 PM »

I paid $65 for a blackface pre-CBS Fender Bassman.  It still has the original tubes in it!
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ammitsboel

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Re: The best deal you ever got buying a....
« Reply #3 on: March 01, 2005, 05:06:55 AM »

What a story Terry!!

The studio still excist, don't know if it looks the same though.
http://www.pukstudio.com/

I was there visiting for a day in 88' i think it was...
I remember something about a large "first of its kind" digital mixer?

Best Regards
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rexrode

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Re: The best deal you ever got buying a....
« Reply #4 on: March 01, 2005, 11:17:47 AM »

I found a working Fender Rhodes Student Model (1969) at a second hand store for $50.  They had an idea it was worth a lot more, but didn't have the space to keep it around for long.

This is the model, I got a green one:

http://www.fenderrhodes.com/img/models/student/space-age-yel low-green.jpg

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echorec

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Re: The best deal you ever got buying a....
« Reply #5 on: March 01, 2005, 05:28:38 PM »

Last year I found 4 Telefunken/Schoeps M221 mics in an antique furniture store. No PSUs or cables but it turned out that they all worked just fine. Price? $50 for all...

http://web.telia.com/~u81503617/telemics.jpg
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ericswan

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Re: The best deal you ever got buying a....
« Reply #6 on: March 01, 2005, 11:12:18 PM »

I bought an Ampex 601-2 1/4" portable tube half track machine at a Goodwill for $10.

The transport is pretty funky, but the preamps are great and get used a lot on bass guitars.

http://recordist.com/ampex/gif/601_2.gif

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Linear

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Re: The best deal you ever got buying a....
« Reply #7 on: March 02, 2005, 12:27:37 AM »

About two years ago I picked up a Lexicon Model 200 and an Ursa Major Space Station from a radio stations's classifieds website for $20. The freight cost me $30! I thought they'd both be stuffed but they were 100% functional and were in great nick.


Chris

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Tim Halligan

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Re: The best deal you ever got buying a....
« Reply #8 on: March 02, 2005, 03:17:00 AM »

Hallams wrote on Tue, 01 March 2005 12:00


Most recently  i purchased all the modules from a desk built here in Australia by one of our best , for $20 each. Mic pres are discreet class A with hand wound transformers, and high, low and sweep mids.So its now my 12 ch X 4 x 2 sidecar and sounds great. I love a bargain......



Would that be an AWA desk by any chance? I can't believe that it would be a JANDS...

You know the story...Just Another Nasty Distorted Signal...that a lot of us cut our teeth on in the old days...

Cheers,
Tim
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stevieeastend

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Re: The best deal you ever got buying a....
« Reply #9 on: March 02, 2005, 04:10:20 AM »

I bought from a producer, who was about to retire, the 900 DBX lunch box with the 902 deesser, compressors and gates, a Lexicon PCM42, a AKG C460 and a Sony mic for

jfrigo

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Re: The best deal you ever got buying a....
« Reply #10 on: March 02, 2005, 11:34:03 AM »

I have two stories. The first was a great deal, but the gear wasn't anything out of the ordinary. The second is some really cool, funky gear.

A dozen or more years ago a studio was closing and they had some pretty good deals going. I wish I had more money at the time because all of this stuff has appreciated since then (Oh, the Neve modules I could have had...). Anyway, over the course of a couple weeks of this "going out of business sale", as I made a little money from gigging, I'd go meet the guy and get a couple things. I bought some Urei LA4s, a Urei 545 parametric, and a couple other odds and ends.

Toward the end, he had a few things left over that hadn't been bought yet. One of them was a busted Sony C48 mic. It may not have the wow factor of an old Neuman, but it's a great mic. Anyway, he didn't know what was wrong with it - it just didn't work. Sony had quoted a very large number to replace the capsule and fix the mic - within one or two hundred of the best possible used retail price, so the thing was almost worthless as-is. I offered the guy $50 and he took it. I went home, plugged it in, and it indeed didn't do anything...  until I turned on the phantom power. This mic also has a battery compartment for location work if you don't have phantom. The battery was dead and I'm guessing this guy was using it with the battery and no phantom and couldn't get it to work. It was in pristine condition with the box and everything, and I still have this mic and enjoy using it.

The next thing I got was from a Salvation Army auction. There were pupil models of wurli electric pianos (model 106P) back in the day that were just like the model 200 we all know, but short - like half of the keys. 8 of them would attach to a fold up steel rack on wheels, and they shared a common power supply and had an umbillical that went to a full size teachers model that had a musical big musical staff mounted overhead that would light up which notes were being played. The main unit also could choose which of the student pianos would come through the main speakers, and the others would be using headphones or could listen through a little onboard speaker (identical to the model 200 speakers, only one of them).

The teacher pianos were gone, but there were two racks of these mini Wurlis, 16 total,  in student beige and bright orange. They were so cool looking. Anyway, I think I paid $200 for all 16, but it might have been $200 for each rack of 8. Unfortunately, they cost quite a bit to retrofit for individual use as you need to build a power supply and amp for each one. These things are super rare and when modified are worth quite a bit. I ended up trading half of them to a vintage keys guy in order for him to modify four for me. I gave a couple unmodified ones away to friends, kept a couple modified ones and one unmodified one, and sold a couple modified ones and ended up with a couple cool Wurlis and some extra cash. The $200, time and effort were well worth it.
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stevieeastend

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Re: The best deal you ever got buying a....
« Reply #11 on: March 02, 2005, 11:47:44 AM »

Hey Jay,

this is exactly the Sony which I got in my story! As stated above I bought it together with an PCM42, the DBX lunch box and a AKG C460 for this incredible price... like it also a lot....
cheers
steveeastend

Hallams

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Re: The best deal you ever got buying a....
« Reply #12 on: March 02, 2005, 04:22:55 PM »


(Would that be an AWA desk by any chance? I can't believe that it would be a JANDS...)

Hi Tim, The desk was an Optro built by Graham Thirkle. It was built for Melbourne Uni in 1972.It was a studio desk with the best components of that era and a great circut design.Definitley not a Jands. Optro also built tape machines.They were very good, so good that Ampex came out and checked them out but there were some weak points too like the relays.
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Chris Hallam.
Melbourne, Australia.
 

Tim Halligan

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Re: The best deal you ever got buying a....
« Reply #13 on: March 02, 2005, 05:04:52 PM »

Hallams wrote on Thu, 03 March 2005 05:22

 The desk was an Optro built by Graham Thirkle. It was built for Melbourne Uni in 1972.It was a studio desk with the best components of that era and a great circut design.


Aha! Very Happy

Cluey guy...

Graham was also involved somehow with Editron (syncronisers) and now does room design/treatment stuff. He does really good work in this area.

He is however - without doubt - one of the grumpiest audio professionals I, or anyone else, has ever dealt with. Cantankerous old bugger...

Thank God Heather answers the phone...


Cheers,
Tim
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Hallams

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Re: The best deal you ever got buying a....
« Reply #14 on: March 02, 2005, 06:56:08 PM »

Yep, he is an interesting man, could be described as a genius.I do a fair bit of my work in a studio here in Melbourne built to his design. He was there late last year mesuring the response of the room so the finishing touches to tuning it can be done. It is a bit of a work in progress.The room also has the Harrison M3 that was formally at Ocean Way and for a short time at Disney Studios.
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Chris Hallam.
Melbourne, Australia.
 
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