What was the cheapest Synth you ever bought?

[pinky_blue]

Just got an AKAI S3000XL - gratis.

Not technically a synth I know, but I'm not complaining.

[omvibes]

Proving that bargains can still be found, I've just seen an Arp Pro Soloist for sale here in Europe....for 50 euros.... well, that's what it says in the advert. I've sent an email, but I'm sure its already long gone...

Missed out on a Nord Electro Rack 2 in Austria a few days back at 290 euros, and I've seen a Clavinet C (in reasonable condition) for about 300 euros recently - don't know much about Clavinets, is that a good price?

The bargains are to be found it seems, but they go fast...

[dustinh]

The cheapest synth I ever bought is probably my favorite one so far! I recently got an ensoniq SQ-80 for $150

[CraigM]

Rhodes Chroma for $100.

Had been sitting in it's case for 20 years. Was sold as non working. I was able to get it fired up and it worked for a day but now it won't power on.

MiniKorg K2 for $50 from same seller above.

Had also been sitting for 20 years and was caked in dust. Cleaned it up and it looks and sounds great.

Roland JP-8000 for $200 a few years back.

[nvining]

CraigM: Damn, you got those?! Curse you - you must have beaten me by 5 minutes.

That said, it sounds to me like something blew up after deciding that the strain of working was too much for it. PM me if you decide you don't want to take on a Rhodes Chroma overhaul project; I've been looking for a good project board to work on.

That also said, this is just one example of how the synth gods are hating me this week. Things I've missed so far this month: $300 Polymoog, $300 ARP Quadra (!!!), $300 Korg MS-10, these... *sigh*

[gtivr6fan]

One of our distributers and I talk music from time to time, he just gave me a Prophet 600 for free. Its seen a lot of use and is not in working order, but for free? I think Ill rehab this one.

[gridsleep]

@plikestechno: You are a lucky essohbee. Don't take it for granted or the wish fairies will come for you and even Fox Mulder won't be able to explain to the police how your body got flayed and twisted up like that at the same time.

The cheapest synthesizer I ever bought was just recently, a circuit bent Conair Soothing Sound Machine customized by Dave Barnes, better known as Dr. Frankenspeak, or slapstix1 on eBay. It's a silver teardrop a little bigger than my hand with a big black volume knob in the top center, eleven small buttons around half that button's perimeter, and, added by Barnes, an RCA audio out, a rheostat with a rubber ball for a knob (red, yellow and blue swirly, the kind of little "superballs" made from waste foam rubber that you buy from gum ball machines), and two metal rivet heads covering part of the word "Conair" printed on the inside curve of the teardrop. It makes ten sounds from stream to waterfall with rain and thunderstorm and bird songs, heartbeat, white noise, etc, and the rheostat controls the frequency, so the sounds can go from normal to "stop....dave...this...is...kil...ling.........meeee....." slowness. Sub frequency oscillation can be jiggled by wetting the finger and touching it to the two rivet heads. Touching the RCA jack at the same time makes even weirder interference. Yes, I class this as a synthesizer, and I only paid $65 for it. It's an electronic device that plays sampled sounds (already that's getting into sampler territory, even though this has fixed samples) and now that the samples can be altered on playback, that's synthesis.

Now, if you want to talk about the best deal we ever got on a synthesizer, that would have to be either my Kawai MP8 II, which I bought as a demo (spotless) from Sweetwater for half off (and I do count electric pianos as synthesizers, just specialty ones, but my Kawai has a full bank named Synthesizer with real synthesizer type sounds that can be modified just like any "real" synthesizer), and my Ensoniq ZR-76, which I got for about 1/4 it's original price, and the only flaw is the lowest two keys' return springs either fell off or snapped in shipping and I got replacements for 95¢ each and will fix a.s.a.p.

[Doci]

Got a Viscount BX-10 Midi organ for 25 quid. Well worth it for oversized novelty midi controller action (pedals too).

For actual synth, just got an M1R for 105. Bless you, vague eBay descriptions.

[sponstage]

Hi guys, just found this community and I already love it!

I got an Emu Proteus 1 for $50 few months ago on ebay and I just got a used Korg T3ex in very good condition for $200 at Guitar Center! I love this keyboard!

[skizzle]

Siel dk-70 for $80

[Nannerfan]

Akai AX-80 for $80

[Logan 5]

Not a classic synth by any means,but a few years ago I bought a Yamaha VSS 30 at an Edinburgh 'car-boot sale' for £2.Mint in box!
Just saw one go on Ebay for over £70,they are great little samplers!

Also this week scored a Casio HT 700 for £6.49 on Ebay!

[vladimotor]

Yamaha TG33 - $70

[georgemarauder]

Lots of really good deals in this thread.

Cheapest synth I ever purchased was one of about four or five Microkorgs that I have owned. I paid $125 for it from some underage kid, and it had marker writing all on the back of it. I cleaned it up pretty easily and sold it for $300.

Best deal I ever got was probably paying $1000ish (can't remember exactly) for a Jupiter 6, and then flipping it for 2 grand. Made my biggest profit ever in only a few days. It was sweet. I wish I could find more deals like that one

[mharris80]

ESQ-1 with 2 cartridges and a hard case for $140.