Fender Rhodes
This unit is a good example of the tyranny of being a collector. Say you’re just skimming through the Buy and Sell, and you see some idiot selling a Fender Rhodes Mark 1 for $250. You tell yourself that no matter what condition it’s in (have another look at that picture), it’s still a steal. [...]
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Wurlitzer EP-200
(Continued from Fender Rhodes) Then, at the worst possible moment, you find a Wurlitzer. It costs almost as much as both the Rhodes put together. But you haven’t received the cheque for the first one yet, and you tell yourself that once you subtract what is now the “generic free money I made for having [...]
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Kurzweil K2000
Nine years after I first decided that I wanted this synth I found one languishing in a used keyboard department for $1200. I don’t think the staff knew it had the orchestral ROM board in it. I have since dropped 64MB of RAM and a 500MB drive into it, with the generous assistance of my [...]
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Child’s Accordion (Russian)
I was looking balefully at this accordion through a pawn shop window one day when my wife and I were out for a stroll. This was just before my birthday. I don’t know who made this, but the logo says “child” in Russian. To my ears, the Russian word for “accordion” sounds a lot like [...]
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Hohner Piano 32 Melodica
One morning I woke up and had to have a melodica. I think I’d been listening to Donald Fagen or something. Comes with flexible tube, a little music stand that sits on top (really!), and a music book with a big-note arrangement of “When the saints go marching in”.
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Alesis Quadrasynth Plus Piano
In 1996 my rig consisted of a TG77 controlled by an S-50. I was getting pretty sick of the sounds, and wanted one keyboard that I could throw under my arm and take to a gig. The original QuadraSynth was a bit of a critical failure, and I think that explains why this keyboard came [...]
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Casio MT-52
One of many examples of how good your life can be if you marry the perfect woman. Lynne is not a musician, but she keeps her eye out for interesting gear when she is antiquing. She brought this one home one Saturday afternoon; I think she paid about $20 for it. The drum sounds are [...]
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Roland MPU-101
In 1990, before analogue keyboards made their big comeback, sales of the first commercially-available MIDI to CV converter bottomed out, because everyone who needed one (and could afford one) had one. I was sure I needed one, but couldn’t afford one. My girlfriend at the time, who was also interested in electronic music, made a [...]
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Casio VL-Tone (VL-1)
Speaking of musical adding machines, the VL-Tone was my first digital keyboard. And it was also a calculator, so I had an excuse to take it to school with me. I can’t believe I still have this. It’s unique sound was immortalised by Trio’s “Da Da Da (I Don’t Love You You Don’t Love Me)”, [...]
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Roland MC-500
I suspect that my days of buying things for cheap from people who don’t know what they have are over, because I’ve already had more than one lifetime worth of luck. I was working at a piano and organ store that had this unit collecting dust on a shelf. No one but me knew what [...]
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