Mellotronists

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "dscr22" <dscr22@...>
To: <Mellotronists@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2005 2:50 AM
Subject: [Mellotronists] Re: Clear tron, Clear thoughts...




> OFF TOPIC FURTHER ON POINT #1: I'm 36 and started buying all my
> vintage keys in 1989-90 when people were giving them away.  Now it's
> natural to bitch about having to pay $3000 for a clean Jupiter8 (just
> for a random example) - BUT... think about the saps that actually
> bought those units new.  Not the McCartney's and Stevie Wonder's,
> but guys playing the Tiki Room at the Newark Airport Ramada.  They
> paid up to the equivalent of Corvette to Ferrari money, LITERALLY,
> for a single keyboard, that we pay our "toy" budgets for today.
> Do we have a right to bitch?
> EXAMPLE: I bought a mint CS-80 locally here in Chi off eBay last
> Fall.  Went to check it out to verify, where the guy first offered
> to cancel the auction for $2125 but couldn't get ahold of his friend
> whose eBay account he used.  Of course, they didn't wind up
> cancelling, and it cost me $3575 in the end.  But he paid $6900
> for it in 1980, and is living in a trailer park 25 years later
> (could that be partially as a result?) - do I have a right to
> complain?

Yeah, how *did* anyone afford these things back then? Apparently, in 1980 a
new MiniMoog would set you back 1200UKP. I sold one for a friend of a friend
(gutted not to be able to keep it!) a couple of years ago for... 1200UKP,
which seems like a lot of money now. Translate \ufffd1200 from 1980, and it's now
nearer four grand. Puts the price of a Voyager into perspective, dunnit? A
Jupiter-8 when they came out? Four grand (UK) - translates to 12 grand.
Ouch. And I'm being greedy re.the Moog, 'cos I've already got one.  :-)

Speaking of which, are there any Mini owners out there who have as much
tuning grief as me? I've taken to hooking it up through a guitar tuning
stomp box with an option to cut the signal off while tuning (thankfully),
but it still managed to drift an entire semitone during one song (!) at a
recent gig. The recording isn't pretty... Incidentally, finally used #1145
at three of our recent Julian Cope support slots, and it behaved
beautifully. Despite scepticism from the rest of the band (particularly on
the 'four people to lift the flightcase' front), I'm told it sounds
fantastic on the desk recordings. One up to me, I think.  :-)

Andy T.
M400 #1145 - glowing with pride
MiniMoog #6609 - in the doghouse