Re: obsolesence

[ArsOcarina@aol.com]

Howdy,

In a message dated 8/14/03 1:59:15 PM, ghunicycle@yahoo.com writes:

>At some point you're purchasing it for the utility it provides. So if your
>ProVerb has given you $75 worth of utility over the last 10 years, it 
>doesn't
>matter if it's not worth a dime tomorrow. I have a few effects like this.
>My closet is big enough to keep 'em around for that slim chance I'll use 
>'em
>again if nobody wants to give me a decent price for 'em. <grin>

I thought I'd "pipe in" on this thread as well. I've been using the same 
old,
and very unfashionable ART SGX 2000 for nearly 10 years now (gosh,
has it really been so long). About midway through that decade I was able 
to upgrade the software via an eprom swap or 2 that made it equal to 
the SGX 2000 "Express" with 400 preset slots and bunch of other added 
"whiz" and "bang" that I really don't use that much. Too bad I couldn't 
swap
out the faceplate (I've never liked that pink, gray and black 
"paint-splat" 
color scheme).

As a "one-box-replaces-all" multi-effects unit it was one of the biggest 
equipment purchase mistakes I've ever made -- and it cost me over 
$600 at the time (which seemed like a lot of dough then). Plus, I sold off
a bunch of really cool vintage stomp-boxes in order to buy it. Silly me.

However, over the years I have really come to love the warmth of the
stupid thing as a tube preamp (of all things). I use it for that and a 
couple of patches that I have worked up on it that have come to 
represent a goodly portion of my "core sound." I have never created 
and used more than 3 or 4 custom patches on the silly thing -- so all
of that "horsepower" is for naught. But, given that I have had it so long
now and gotten so much usefulness out of just those 3 or 4 patches,
that still makes it a bargain in the long run (about $60+ a year).

As I know that it'll eventually wear out (everything electronic does)
and one day that pink 'n' gray paint job will surely make me puke for 
the very last time, I still can't help but wonder what I'll replace it 
with. 
I've tried a number of things over the years and most of them are
pretty darn unsatisfactory. So far the CyberTwin or the VG-88 seems 
about the best things for dialing in a tone that sounds "familiar"
enough to my disintegrating earbones (plus adding a lot of other 
FX whoo ha in the bargain).

It just goes to show that you can't tell a book by it's cover and that
you never know what delights you may find in stuff that is as obsolete
and resolutely unfashionable as some of those old "has-been" FX laying
around your garage or closet. Heck! My whole guitar shtick has been 
built around the obsolete Gibson RD Artist, the out-of-production 
Sustainiac Model B, the totally un-cool SGX 2000 and the long defunct 
Lexicon Vortex, plus the same old EDPs I've had since they came out 
(with occasional upgrades) for more years straight than I care to admit. 
Do the math.

I wouldn't exactly call my music "the cutting edge of fashion" (hardly).
But, I am having a whole lotta fun . . . still.

Cheers,

tEd ® kiLLiAn

http://www.mp3s.com/tedkillian
http://www.pfmentum.com/flux.html
http://www.CDbaby.com/cd/tedkillian
http://www.guitar9.com/fluxaeterna.html