It’s a new year and Brainfield studios shows little sign of letting off the GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome). I filled up my rack and had 1U of space left and figured I’d add an effect unit, because why not? And then, why stop at one?
I’d been mulling it around and never really saw anything that caught my eye until one day in mid-February at a pawn shop, I saw a Lexicon Alex for some ridiculously low price like $30. So I snapped it up and my journey began. No surprise, the pots were absolute garbage, blasting noise on the slightest adjustments, but a soaking of Deoxit D5 cleaned them all up. I’m willing to bet 80% of people don’t even know about this cleaner and think when the pots get scratchy, they just have to pitch the thing. God knows, I was that ignorant not so long ago.
Unit 1 acquired. But that fills up my rack, so now what? Well, as a future post will explain, you build a second rack. But for now, it’s time to build up the inventory for this new rack. Checking the usual places of Ebay, Craigslist, and FB Marketplace, I landed a couple of buys from FB marketplace in March. One was a beat up, rusted guitar effect unit, the Rockton Chameleon, and the other seller had a Digitech DSP 128+ and Alesis Microverb.
The Chameleon, like the others, needed the pots cleaned, and for this device, I did a refinish of the case, which turned out quite well. Otherwise the unit is great and sounds awesome. The other two devices from the other seller, well… The Digitech doesn’t work. It has no wet signal, only dry. I’ve submitted that to my usual repair shop for repair, because I can’t bear to take a loss on it. I’d rather pay more for a working unit. The Microverb works fine, but one of the buttons was superglued back into place and when I pushed it for the first time it just snapped off. Quite annoying, but it doesn’t affect the usability of the device – just looks crappy. So one fair seller and one less fair. It left a sour taste in my mouth about buying for a little while.
But hope springs eternal. Today, still in March, I went to purchase a Lexicon unit and walked away with a jackpot. So this guy works at a thrift shop and the staff there don’t know anything about electronics and don’t really want to deal with them, so they just… give everything to him. And recently, someone came by and donated two shopping carts full of studio gear. He took it all and now he’s refurbing it and selling it. So, it’s a situation that kind of really pisses me off, but here I am anyway and can I get something out of it. Well, the Lexicon is great, but in this pile of other gear, I see another Alesis unit and a rack shelf with another unit and a Rockman Distortion Generator mounted in it. OMG.
I try to stay cool about it and casually say I’d be interested in these other devices if you want to bundle them. He asks how much they would be and I calmly say, "oh, $80-$100 each, probably". He says he hasn’t tested them yet, so maybe $60 each? Absolutely. I came ready to buy one unit for $80 and I’m leaving with 4 units for $200? And ok, that Rockman is selling online for $500 right now. Not that I’m a flipper, but I really enjoy getting a good deal.
They’ve all been tested out and all work. All will need major cleaning and liberal applications of Deoxit, like every other device I’ve ever purchased, but this is a great jumpstart to my upcoming effects rack. In fact, when you add in the power strip and the patchbay, there’s only 3U left available. That went fast.
To summarize the devices and their values so far:
- Lexicon Alex ($100)
- Lexicon LXP-15 ($300)
- Lexicon LXP-1 ($200)
- Rocktron Chameleon ($150)
- SRD Rockman Distortion Generator ($500)
- Alesis Microverb 4 ($150)
- Alesis Quadraverb 2 ($250)
- Digitech DSP 128+ (pro repair unrealistic. Waiting on parts for self-repair attempt) ($100)
In March, 2024, I found a listing on EBay for a Korg Poly 800 II. The listing said some keys didn’t work. That sounded like something I could repair so I made the purchase. It had no problems and only needed a new battery. *shrug*
In April, I had been trying out the Kawai K1m that I had and was surprised that it sounded better than I first thought. I had the idea that I could buy a K1r (the rackmount version) and sell the K1m (the tabletop version) to recoup that purchase and I could save space, too. I made an offer on an as-is listing that said three times, "will not power on". Got it and the listing was accurate. It just needed a new fuse. *shrug*
Shortly after that a listing for an Alesis Nanosynth came up. Once again, has problems. The seller was only asking $75 for it, so I put it in my favorites. He sent an offer for $60, which I accepted. IDK if I can fix this one, so it may not end up in the final list. And finally, I got a second Kurweil PC3 and I’m attempting to merge the two broken devices into one working device. It’s a journey.
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