Vintage Simmons Drums (UK) Users Group

What gives with today's generation and the use of language.
I was trawling through the usual gear selling sites today (ebay, craigslist etc) when it struck me just how bad things are getting when it comes to the use of words to describe things. My 2 biggest gripes currently are 1)- Diva and 2)-Rare

As to diva it appears that a large percentage of today's "young women" like to announce themselves to the world as "Divas". I asked my teen daughters what they thought it meant and they told me that it meant they were "cool, the best, great, hot..etc, etc" When I got out the dictionary and pointed out it originally referred to the best female opera singers, they kind of shriveled.

The term Rare...well..where does one start. It would appear that it is now simply a method to get your item on ebay looked at more frequently.
I am sick and tired of people who tag their item listing that what they have is "RARE". What a load of bollocks. 95% of things I have seen tagged as rare should really be tagged as simply "OLD". I used laugh at some of the listings..eg DX7 synth...rare. Crap, there were around 150,000 of the things made so how the hell are they rare?? Ok, a Roland Jupiter8, in good working condition, I can accept as getting rare (only around 2500 ever built) and thus worth the asking price but there some people in this world who just whack on the word "Rare", bump up the price and wait to reel in some sucker.

Is it just me?

HI you are not alone



Rare Commodore 64 computer



About as rare as the other 47 listed at the same time

 



Rare Sequential Circuits P5 once owned by!!!!



Is it a rare synthesizer or does its ownership make it rear,
actually neither as the group concerned brought 8 of them and still own them
all

 



Rare Jen 508 “only prototypes known to be in existence” I
have seen 3 with serial numbers 1800 apart. Just how many prototypes did they
make?

 



Vintage Yamaha DX7 (says it all)

 



Rare / Antique EDP wasp



Interesting this one because they were the biggest selling
synthesizer of their time, (the vintage DX7 eventually outsold them) but that
was only 30 years ago?

 



I could go on but I just move on and do not give such adverts
a second glance

 

Brian








 



  






      

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

brian walker skrev 2010-10-24 12:29:
> HI you are not alone
> Rare Commodore 64 computer
> About as rare as the other 47 listed at the same time

true...

> Rare Sequential Circuits P5 once owned by!!!!
>
> Is it a rare synthesizer or does its ownership make it rear,
> actually neither as the group concerned brought 8 of them and still own them
> all

true...

> Rare Jen 508 “only prototypes known to be in existence” I
> have seen 3 with serial numbers 1800 apart. Just how many prototypes did
> they make?

Probably just one and it is a serial model and not rare at all.

> Vintage Yamaha DX7 (says it all)

Digital classicv maybe... but not vintage just yet.

> Rare / Antique EDP wasp
>
> Interesting this one because they were the biggest selling
> synthesizer of their time, (the vintage DX7 eventually outsold them) but
> that was only 30 years ago?

Internet misunderstanding. There were circa 3000 wasps manufactured and 
below 1500 Gnats so yes, quite rare, though not as rare as some say.

SH-101 wins the analogue league of the western world but is beaten by 
the Polivoks as far as I've understood. No analogue can match the 
success of the M1.

> I could go on but I just move on and do not give such adverts
> a second glance

You buy what you fancy and ignore the rest. I won another Realton 
Variophon the other day. It had been on the shelf of a music store since 
the early 80's. Is that rare? Me, as caught by those as by Simmons and 
EDP, consider it a find and I won the auction. But rare? I'll save that 
word 'til I sell them. *heh*

-- 
electronically yours, jesper

- -- --- ---- ----- ---- --- -- -
www.electronic-obsession.se

Add to that "owned since new" and "smoke free environment"..First one is great when a 20yr old is selling a bit of gear that out dates him. The second, ok if it's a bit of kit 5 or so yrs old, but if it's of any vintage (ie 20yrs +) I can't recall any studio I had been in that wasn't constantly filled with smoke of one sort or another. I've been repairing gear for years and could tell some funny stories about what I've found in somethings.

Oh and the "Rare" Curtis chips...yes they are hard to come by, but you can get them. As I repaired gear I still have a fair number of most of them. And if you are really desperate the manufacturer still will make them for you (I think u need to order a min of 10,000) All the current Dave Smith gear (Prophet) is using a resurrection of the "RARE" CEM3396. Only difference is the original had a spare unused pin, they now included an additional VCA to allow stereo panning.

I agree totally on the over-use of 'rare'. Let me share the mystery of the 'rare' RMI Electra-Piano.

I see Jupiter 8s regularly on eBay and would in no way call them rare. RMI Electra-Pianos are very rare though - I've only seen 1 on eBay in the last year. I found out last night though that 10,000 Electra-Pianos were made. Where are they all? Maybe very few found their way to Europe?

Numbers manufactured clearly is no indication of rarenes!

Susie
http://www.myspace.com/susangardener