Yunost-21 on the *bay

Saw this one on Music Thing. Russion Yunost-21 keytar synth up on the *bay. Title link takes you to the auction shots saved for posterity. And yep, it definitely looks and sounds like a Juno-106 clone based on the name. Check out this post I put up a bit ago on Russion synths for two great sites with samples.

RIP Larry and Anne Hendry

I didn't know Larry personally. You will hear when the big names like Bob Moog leave us, but rarely will you hear about those that love synthesis and make it their hobby. Although I never had the fortune to meet Larry, many on AH have and they all have kind words to say about the man. This is a synth blog. It's about the instruments, the music and more importantly, the people. My condolences go out to those hurt by this sad news. RIP Larry, you made a lot of lives better out there.

Larry and his MOTM


More shots of Larry at the yearly AHMW

Should I open the site to other posters?

I've been thinking about opening up this blog to other posters. That would mean you and others could create an account, login and start posting your own content. You would be limitted to just posting and editing your own posts. The rule is that it has to be about synths. If anyone abuses the site, they would be banned from posting again. Let me know if you think this is a good idea or not via the comments link below. Currently I am the only one posting. If I do open this up then I lose this site being my personal blog, but if I do open it up, Matrixsynth would have the potential of becoming something bigger. Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks,
matrix

EML 400 Modular on the *bay - Are dealer markups worth it?

You don't see these come up to often. Minimi123, aka synthland123, has this EML 400 and a ton of other gear up for sale again on the *bay. Some complain that dealer prices on vintage gear are marked up. Are they worth it? I say a big fat YES. Well, of course it depends on the markup, but I personally think it's worth it knowing that you will get a quality piece of gear.

My story: I once picked up a Prophet 5 in "the best condition ever!" from the *bay. Turned out it looked nice but had some serious problems with it. I wasted a couple of months sending it to a tech recommended by the seller (who said he'd pay for it). The seller dragged me along just enough to get past the feedback limit of three months (I was unknowing and naive having never dealt with a bad experience on the *bay and him being local to me). Well, he disappeared and I got my synth back from the tech unrepaired. I ended up sending it to Wine Country Sequential. After a few hundred dollars of repairs there was still work to be done and it was in such bad shape that they did not know how much more work was needed. We needed to try things one step at a time, each one paid up front. I ended up deciding to recouperate some of my losses by trading it in for one of thier Perfect Prophets before I sunk too much into the bad one, and I have never been happier. So, unless I can fully test a used piece of gear before I buy, I won't bother. But... I do trust dealers and if I can't test it out, I'll gladly pay the mark up to be sure I get what I pay for. In my experience it is more than worth it. Why do I trust vintage dealers? Because they have too much on the line to screw you over.

Synth Color Schemes & Custom MacBeth M5

Interesting post on Vintage Synth Explorer regarding synth color schemes. Some pictures of the usuals and then this...

Tim Love Lee's custom MacBeth M5. Wow.