There has been a very old, vacuum-tube portable audio mixer for sale on eBay for quite some time now. None of the usual buyers want to touch it: it's been modified. The price reflects that, too; it's offered for about two-thirds to half the price that model usually commands.
Here's the thing: as it happens, I know that model pretty well. The first radio station I worked for had one. It's built like a tank -- and with one exception, the mods to the eBay one consist of added parts that need to be removed or non-original replacement parts that I have the correct parts for.
I could buy it, get it back to almost-original condition, keep or sell the handful of expensive microphone transformers someone crammed into it and probably double my money if I sold the thing.
The problem is, I want one. I've been looking at them online for years, watching the prices get higher and higher. And if I buy it, it's one more project that will languish while I put in forty hours a week working and spending the rest of my non-sleeping time cooking, cleaning, reading or writing. Realistically, the thing to do if I just gotta have one is buy one of the nice examples at a blood-curdling price and enjoy it.
But the thought of turning this poor, abused clunker back into a keeper is so very tempting.
Update
8 months ago
1 comment:
One of my clients has a Raytheon RR30 sitting on the bench. It appears original except for the typical swap-out of the giant Cannon jacks for XLR's, but the cords are rotten, and I'm not plugging it in, as-is. I'm flabbergasted at the asking price for restored units on eBay.
I worked with Altec 1567A mixers and 1569 power amps in high school, and there's a 1567A on eBay, but uff da! It's pricey. For now, I'll stick with the M67 I've had for years. It doesn't get used often anymore, but it's still a Swiss Army knife for audio emergencies
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