Just found this channel the other day. I seriously appreciate the tips and advice in buying new/vintage synths with a budget in mind. With prices skyrocketing the way they unfortunately do, it's refreshing to see somebody making content that actually demonstrates how to save money. Musicians supporting musicians - good to see. Keep up the great work and congrats on that amazing deal.
Really really means a lot to read that. That's exactly my goal, share as much information as I can, I want as many people as possible to find and appreciate these instruments. Cheers!
The SH-101 is a really nice sounding synth, kind of like a cost reduced last hurrah of Roland's 1970s tech. I used to have a Roland System 100 (full system) but still have huge respect for the SH-101!
my friend just grabbed a bass station II on craigslist for $150... deals are there.... patience and basically everything you've laid out in this video are what you need. thanks for the vid
Absolutely gorgeous and great advice. I've had a few bum deals so I feel ya. Reminds me of my 1st SH-101 I bought for $199 new on clearance in Dallas in 1985.
First video of yours from Florian's recommendation, and this was actually supremely helpful to me. It's just one of those things where, yeah, I've done most of these things, but probably never all of them at once since I'm not much for using eBay. But here I am, shopping for ancient Korgs now, and this is suddenly very relevant to my interests, and so concise that I'll easily rewatch this when pulling the trigger. Very well done.
I picked up a DX-7 a few years ago for under $200 because the battery was bad and corrupting the RAM. $3 battery part and some solder later and it was up in perfect condition! I love finding these deals and repairing old synths and drum machines. Bringing them back to full life and giving them a new home and purpose!
Hey Jorb - running through the vids on your channel 😁 Yes, this is interesting, of course. I think most of us buy on Reverb and/or Ebay now and again. I recently bought a unit from Russia 😱 We negotiated a price then he said he could offer a better deal outside ebay. I don't think it was a scam but you can never tell so I said I'd rather stay within Ebay which we did and the unit arrived perfectly in due course. I was relying on Ebay's buyer protection but it wasn't needed. I think that's the way insurance works 😀
I definitely use the reverse image search for so many online interactions. It's helped me verify possibly fraudulent listings but it's also saved me from being victim of a very weird job listing scam. I've definitely done the thing where I record myself opening packages but because I've ever sold anything, I've never thought about the reverse application of that so that was definitely a bell ringer for me. Jealous of your new synth, bro! Sweet video.
Both eBay and PayPal hold address details of buyers so that shouldn’t have really been a surprise! But good info, and that SH-101 looks brand new!! Love a good synth story.
I'm so thankful for your channel Jorb! You do such a great job 🙂 This is something I really wish I had seen before this past year, saw a nord stage 3 on craigslist last year for too good of a deal and it turned out to be a scam. Thank goodness for Venmos new purchase protection!!
A few weeks ago a Roland TR-707 with original box, manuals & PSU was advertised on eBay for £330. I had a look & the seller said it was unmarked but needed attention as it wouldn’t run on batteries ? As I already had a TR-707 ( with HKA expansion kit installed ) I thought I’d take the risk & buy it, I have a Roland service engineer I knew who could take a look at it. It arrived & to my total disbelief it was absolutely mint not a single mark on it like brand new. So I put in some new batteries, used my PSU from my existing 707 & after a quick factory reset it worked perfectly, the screen was crystal clear & sliders worked with no crackles & sounds really clear. I had checked over by my Roland engineer mate & he admitted he hadn’t seen one that clean, he fitted a HKA expansion kit to it while he serviced it, just occasionally you do get a real bargain. I don’t honestly think the seller realised what he had or how to use it. There is a video of it on my channel.
So funny!!!! Your the guy I lost the bid too. oh well, I have one already. (and a clone)I am glad it went to a good home, And you'll get good use out of it. I wasn't for sure if I would get burned so I dont peruse it hard enough. Congrats.......!!!!!! : )
Ahh no kidding? Happy to come across another gear hustler lol. Appreciated, cheers, I'm happy to have it around. Didnt think i would fall for it quite so much as I did, but man does it do it's thing really well.
So much for the algorithm. I found you through Nick Batt and have subbed. Hope you're enjoying the 101. I bought mine when few wanted one. It cost me £78 in '86, a rediculous price, but I'm not complaining. I've not got the mod grip though. Playing catch up with your videos and enjoying it.
This video is pure gold, Jorb! Thanks for sharing your experiences on this kind of risky and scary topic! I also buy most of my gear used of eBay or similar sites. I was very close of getting scammed two times this summer. Both incidents were on German eBay. Both times I started asking the sellers specific synth questions that they didn't answered the way I expected or hoped (made me suspicious). Also the article prices where a little too good/low to be true. Both times I got notifications from eBay some days later that there was something wrong with the accounts of the sellers. Boy, that was lucky!
This is a great video with some great tips I was not using until now. I like your authentic approach. I like the unboxing and first sounds. I guess if your future videos then cut to sounds you’ve made after xxx amount of time playing with it that would also be interesting. If you find clever tweaks or hacks/work around a those are always invaluable. I personally had a different SH-101 buyer story that ended with me collecting the unit and eventually paying almost the same amount again to get it serviced. In short, avoid gear from smokey studios and understand the maximum cost of a repair or service and factor that in. I didn’t get the key grip or case with mine. If I had I think it probably would have been a fairer deal. Looking forward to more videos like this. Thank you for the content.
Appreciate all that, cheers. I wanted to talk about this, but not in a LOOK WHAT I GOT bragging way, just that it came with a lot of things worth discussing. Glad to know that may have worked!
The deals are out there. It helps to be relentless. Where you’re located and how quickly you’re prepared to act on a deal you find are big factors in successfully scoring deals. Knowing enough about synths and studio gear to spot a great deal is a manageable thing to learn, especially compared to something like guitars.
Great point, I could never hope to tell 2 teles apart from 10 feet away. I've got the idea written down to do "The Synthesist's Guide to Craigslist" and talk about how important knowing your market is, and how killer proximity can be.
Good one. I learned a few things. I've sold much more than I think I've bought. I was told to photograph everything. Make sure the buyer has more information than they want, in order to avoid any surprises when the buyer receives. My buying experiences have generally been good. Some of the packing has been eh, but nothing was ever damaged. I'm probably done buying vintage gear at this point because the good deals are drying up, and who knows how many times the item you're buying has been sold and shipped? I'd love to own that Rhoades behind you, but those are built tough and repairable.
I've flipped a few rhodes, actually, and kept this one since, according to the market, it's the least desirable. But, I've enjoyed it so much, and the sounds are certainly there. Lots of maintenance though!
I had a very similar experience when buying a 1965 Fender Mustang guitar about 10 years ago. No pics and listed as players grade (a combo that usually means beat to sh!t) so no-one else had bid on it. I had a similar interaction with the seller. Asked for more info and he said it was pristine but someone had removed the paint a long time before and it was smooth and played in. I ended up scoring it for $320 shipped to me in the UK. And it was indeed pristine. I had to weigh up the chances of buying without photos (as the no photo thing would scare most people off) and scoring a deal with forking over money for something that didn’t actually exist. In the end I went with me gut and somewhat against my better judgement. My rule with that sort of thing is never to attempt it if you can’t deal with it going bad. Financially and mentally lol
I typically stay away from eBay now, but when I purchased my 101 a few years ago, I used the 'buy it now' option, and paid a few hundred more than you did. Mine also has the grip, and both that grip, and the underside of the unit have Ron Wilson's name and SSN engraved upon them. The seller was from Chicago, and claimed that this was one owned by Ron Wilson of Fingers Inc. Right after I got it, I looked it up, and it was him. Still can't verify the provenance with 100% certainty, but I'll never sell it. The images for mine were very good quality, and displayed many different angles of the unit.
It's so funny you mention that, my unit has an ssn carved into it too. I'm still not sure what to do about it, maybe just fill in the numbers. Almost want to leave the name there, feels like history
Dude I just got a Dave Smith Evolver for 480.00 and the thing was ment. I felt it was too good to be true and I'm so stoked I followed through with it because I have wanted an Evolver for 15yrs
Really appreciate this video. After watching your stuff I’ve been keeping a close eye on local listings trying to find a deal. The other day i narrowly missed out on a Korg DW6000, DW8000, yamaha DX7 and Roland Alpha Juno 2 all for $500. Definitely felt to good to be true, but someone else was able to buy it before i could to find out. Now I’m waiting for the buyer to post the gear themselves 😂
@@JorbLovesGear the listing said they got them in a storage unit auction. Clearly the seller didn’t know how much they were worth. They were missing power cables but he insisted they were functional.
@@crazyhorse52395 what a gold mine. They must've wanted a lawn mower or something in the storage locker, can't imagine ending up with those and not doing the research on their own prices. Lol
@@JorbLovesGear honestly. I guess folks just assume since they are old that they have no value. At this point I’m just waiting to see if they hit the local market again, they may be at good prices since the buyer will already be making a ton off of them. Pretty much any of them is worth $500 on their own.
@@JorbLovesGear yeah. since i know it's a hot item, i had to drop everything for the meet-up outside the city. along with the yamaha cs-01, these two are my fave vintage synths in my rather small synth collection.
Yeah you NEVER want to go out of ebay chat when dealing with a sketchy situation. Luckily yours was good, but eBay won't have evidence if things do go awry. Also I got a Roland Alpha Juno 2 for $350 on craigslist a couple weeks ago which is a decent deal :)) That's a great synth to "redirect your GAS" away from a Juno 106, since it sounds incredibly similar. Just need a better way to change the parameters
@@JorbLovesGear I'm trying to build my own midi controller for it that'll replicate the 106 controls but allow switching for more parameters. Right now I've just been controlling it through a program on my PC, but it's not too fun that way. Really good synth otherwise!
Crazy the deal that you did...a good condittion Sh-101 is up of 900(euros or dollars)...but get with all the staff is crazy .i bougth mine for 850 euros in a normal condittion...im really happy with it..
Good stuff! Only issue i had with the vid is the audio levels. At the start the arp in the backround buries your voice and your voice in general is veeeeery low compared to the youtube ads (almost threw my headphones into a wall because of a suprise ad). Cheers and keep the vids coming!
Cheers, thank you! And good feedback, I'm trying to find the best way to both keep my recording simple, and get good clean audio. Might have to give in and let the audio be complicated!
Some people don’t really care to get top dollar for there gear. I’m one of them. I always sell at a lower but reasonable price. With that said I have purchased gear with great used savings. I once got a King Korg for $500 in great shape with foot switch and case. I messaged and asked if they would accept $200 less. They had it up for $700. Sometimes they just wanna get rid of it so they could get something new sooner.
About fifteen years ago used to be that jerk that sniped synth auctions last second for less than $200. I'd clean the synth up if needed, maybe record a track or two, and then within a year when I needed to pay rent (fund my drinking habit) I'd sell one and somehow end up with more than 5x what I paid for it. The things I let come and go because I didn't think I needed them...! AX-80, poly 61, poly 800, DW/EX-8000, cz-1000/3000, Juno-6, MS-2000B, DX-7, TX-802 to name a few, but not even getting to all the other kinds of gear... Ooph! 😳 I really hate my past self.
@@JorbLovesGear Yeah the AX-80 is probably my biggest regret selling. While you have proven the AX-60 is capable of being haunted, the 80 is more of an angry beast! 😂 Oh, and I did finally re-aquire a DW-8000 last year, for a steal! Basically came with a free Roland JV-80, though they both need some cleaning up.
i saw a post by phil hartnol on a gearslutz forum saying how much he loved the sh01 and ever since then i keep an eye out. obviously it might not have been the actual phil hartnol but it was in response to a question about what synths were used on one of their albums so it may have been.
The best thing about such a simple synth, move every fader down to the bottom, just pull up sustain, cutoff, and one of the waveforms and you're back at a simple patch, ready to explore. Enjoy it!
I spend a LOT of time looking, which doesn't hurt. But setting up alerts if you're after something specific, and searching for easily general stuff just "synth" and sort by newest on Reverb, or auction only & ending soonest on eBay. Lots of luck!
Not the SH 101 but recently I found a Behringer MS-1 BK for $200 mint condition with warranty from the official Behringer distributor here in Argentina. I asked the seller a lot of things and asked for more photos. The synth is going to arrive this Friday and I'm planning to take it to a music store to check the condition and all the functions (Im still a beginner) and also call the distributor to ask if the warranty is active. I can do this because Mercadolibre (South America's Ebay) have a 30 day return policy, if something is wrong or if I didn't like it, I can return the product and have my money back, if everything is ok I can release the money to the seller. I really liked that offer because ,for some reason, the Behringer MS-1 it's beginning to become expensive. Regards Update: the synth arrived earlier and it's In very mint condition and the warranty is legit. The box also is in mint condition!
Thays still a great deal, hell yeah. Yeah, of all the behringer clones the ms1 is one of the few that does really interest me. Maybe because it's the complete package, keyboard seq and all? Or maybe because the 101 is so simple. & straight forward
@@JorbLovesGear finally arrived Thursday and the synth is in mint condition super functional! Also the warranty is legit and I have 4 months of it. Amazing sounding synth and great for beginners like me! 😃
I'll have to start doing this! Plan on a pretty serious changing of the guard soon, a few more videos to make use of some stuff, but once thats through, ill be moving a lot of things. And then hopefully some more used stuff to demo.
Ha! I just got a SH-101 from Japan through Reverb for THREE TIMES what you paid with no case, strap, or mod grip. Physically it’s absolutely perfect...but it’s completely unplayable. Absolutely no consistency in tuning, LFO doesn’t work, can’t go lower than like G3. So I have to go through the hassle of getting it fixed and dealing with the seller. For THREE TIMES what you paid.
I found one in front of an abandoned house near the garbage. I dont know anything about synths but now I’m looking forward to restore it. I manage to turn it on using C batteries but the power adapter didn’t work. I opened the board and clean it up a little bit, there are some sliders that didn’t work but everything else seems right. Any advice on where to look for parts or things that I should know before so I dont end damaging some important component?
Hi, can anyone having the Roland MGS-1 grip test the resitance of the pitch bend potentiometer on the grip for me? I mean at minimum and maximum range, thanks? Measured on the larger tip 3,5mm pins. I made a replica of the grip and I need to know if it matches the original one.
@@JorbLovesGear Hello there, does the pitch bend knob return to 0 position like springing back? I have installed such a spring there in my replica. When 0 ohms is there the pitch bend parameter is not activated, right?
I bought mine for 50$ in 1998 sold it in 250 in 2000 and thought I did all right.until now seeing the prices they demand.i hated it.i had a Juno 60 at the time that destroyed it sound wise.
stock images on any listing is seriously annoying and if its the only pics then that for me is a red flag eg you can put an item online for sale put your to old/dumb/lazy to be able to take and attach some in focus mobile/cell pics, ya right ...reverse image search is always a good idea
🤔 Seller must be *extra* confused now... _No one_ cared about the nicest 101 on eBay, yet suddenly 1,000 people are seemingly captivated with their pile of Disney DVD's 🙃
They're certainly overpriced, taking a step back and thinking about it relative to modern features, no midi, sequencer tempo is stuck tied to the lfo, super simple synthesis, it's insane that they're so expensive. I don't think vintage means *no* premium, but being classic shouldn't be all it takes to hit $2000 in today's market.
@@JorbLovesGear absolutely. The weird thing is I’ve owned most of the mainly sought after vintage synths (101,Juno, 303, prodigy, Jupiter, prophet, etc etc) even the modern vintage stuff like the Nord leads, virus, supernova etc in the early 2000s all of these synths were actually totally affordable but most of my synths have been sold off when the value far surpasses the quality of the synth, in the mid to late 2000s vintage synth prices skyrocketed overnight it’s like the rest of the world realized that synthesizers exist and then the rich collectors got involved and now most of the instruments won’t end up in the hands of musicians. Which is a terrible shame for everyone who wants to make music with these. anyone willing to pay $1500+ for an sh101 because they think it has some kind of voodoo magic can keep it because as nice as they do sound they’re not that special that kind of money would be much better spent on something like eurorack modular if you really want the best sound and most features IMO
@@JorbLovesGear You definitely scored a nice deal there, and I agree, $500 should be the price this synth is going for, including the full bells and whistles your's came with. With all the new analog synths out there, $500 and under, there shouldn't even be a market for some of these inflated prices unless you're solely a collector or a museum, LOL! I know synths don't all sound alike but the new Minibrute 2 or even a Korg Monologue can do so much and are excellent choices to get into synthesis. It used to be buying a used piece of gear was a way to save money. Those days are long gone! I'm super curious what will happen to the prices of Prophet 5's, now that they're being remade. When the Moog One came out, old Memorymoogs went up in price. It seems people prefered the sound of the original MM to the new MO. The new Prophet Rev 4 on the other hand, sounds fantastic. I've seen several comparisons (Alex Ball just did a great blind TH-cam test) and the new Rev 4 is every bit a Prophet 5 as any Rev 2 or Rev 3. With modern gear like a Rev 4 selling brand new at half the price of some used Rev 3 machines, will those prices start to fall? Who knows if they will, but they absolutely should.
The tip with the reverse search of photos is gold, thanks!
Glad to hear that! I don't remember when I got to find that, I think trading guitar pedals on reddit maybe!
Just found this channel the other day. I seriously appreciate the tips and advice in buying new/vintage synths with a budget in mind. With prices skyrocketing the way they unfortunately do, it's refreshing to see somebody making content that actually demonstrates how to save money. Musicians supporting musicians - good to see. Keep up the great work and congrats on that amazing deal.
Really really means a lot to read that.
That's exactly my goal, share as much information as I can, I want as many people as possible to find and appreciate these instruments. Cheers!
Reverse image search has saved me several times.
Happy to hear others are responding to that!
It really is a good trick
The SH-101 is a really nice sounding synth, kind of like a cost reduced last hurrah of Roland's 1970s tech. I used to have a Roland System 100 (full system) but still have huge respect for the SH-101!
my friend just grabbed a bass station II on craigslist for $150... deals are there.... patience and basically everything you've laid out in this video are what you need. thanks for the vid
GREAT deal. Im jealous!
Absolutely gorgeous and great advice. I've had a few bum deals so I feel ya. Reminds me of my 1st SH-101 I bought for $199 new on clearance in Dallas in 1985.
Cheers, really appreciate that.
If only we know how insane the markets would become, lol
@@JorbLovesGear Adjusted for inflation your SH-101 from eBay was less expensive than theirs from 1985.
@@XanderEwald maybe luckier than I thought 😅😂
First video of yours from Florian's recommendation, and this was actually supremely helpful to me. It's just one of those things where, yeah, I've done most of these things, but probably never all of them at once since I'm not much for using eBay. But here I am, shopping for ancient Korgs now, and this is suddenly very relevant to my interests, and so concise that I'll easily rewatch this when pulling the trigger. Very well done.
Welcome, and thank you!
Both the poly 61's I've had came from eBay, and I see stuff like poly 800 all the time. Good luck!
I picked up a DX-7 a few years ago for under $200 because the battery was bad and corrupting the RAM. $3 battery part and some solder later and it was up in perfect condition! I love finding these deals and repairing old synths and drum machines. Bringing them back to full life and giving them a new home and purpose!
That is a super classic fix, just the battery. I've had more than a few strong deal because of that
Hey Jorb - running through the vids on your channel 😁 Yes, this is interesting, of course. I think most of us buy on Reverb and/or Ebay now and again. I recently bought a unit from Russia 😱 We negotiated a price then he said he could offer a better deal outside ebay. I don't think it was a scam but you can never tell so I said I'd rather stay within Ebay which we did and the unit arrived perfectly in due course. I was relying on Ebay's buyer protection but it wasn't needed. I think that's the way insurance works 😀
Grats on 1k man! Always love the transparency on pricing. Keep it up man can’t wait for the next vid!
Cheers, appreciate that. Always more to come!
I definitely use the reverse image search for so many online interactions. It's helped me verify possibly fraudulent listings but it's also saved me from being victim of a very weird job listing scam.
I've definitely done the thing where I record myself opening packages but because I've ever sold anything, I've never thought about the reverse application of that so that was definitely a bell ringer for me.
Jealous of your new synth, bro! Sweet video.
Both eBay and PayPal hold address details of buyers so that shouldn’t have really been a surprise! But good info, and that SH-101 looks brand new!! Love a good synth story.
I'm so thankful for your channel Jorb! You do such a great job 🙂
This is something I really wish I had seen before this past year, saw a nord stage 3 on craigslist last year for too good of a deal and it turned out to be a scam. Thank goodness for Venmos new purchase protection!!
A few weeks ago a Roland TR-707 with original box, manuals & PSU was advertised on eBay for £330. I had a look & the seller said it was unmarked but needed attention as it wouldn’t run on batteries ? As I already had a TR-707 ( with HKA expansion kit installed ) I thought I’d take the risk & buy it, I have a Roland service engineer I knew who could take a look at it. It arrived & to my total disbelief it was absolutely mint not a single mark on it like brand new. So I put in some new batteries, used my PSU from my existing 707 & after a quick factory reset it worked perfectly, the screen was crystal clear & sliders worked with no crackles & sounds really clear. I had checked over by my Roland engineer mate & he admitted he hadn’t seen one that clean, he fitted a HKA expansion kit to it while he serviced it, just occasionally you do get a real bargain. I don’t honestly think the seller realised what he had or how to use it. There is a video of it on my channel.
I'll have to check it out, what a deal
So funny!!!! Your the guy I lost the bid too. oh well, I have one already. (and a clone)I am glad it went to a good home, And you'll get good use out of it. I wasn't for sure if I would get burned so I dont peruse it hard enough. Congrats.......!!!!!! : )
Ahh no kidding? Happy to come across another gear hustler lol. Appreciated, cheers, I'm happy to have it around.
Didnt think i would fall for it quite so much as I did, but man does it do it's thing really well.
So much for the algorithm. I found you through Nick Batt and have subbed. Hope you're enjoying the 101. I bought mine when few wanted one. It cost me £78 in '86, a rediculous price, but I'm not complaining. I've not got the mod grip though. Playing catch up with your videos and enjoying it.
Ahh cheers to Nick. I sure am enjoying my 101!
Appreciate you going through the backlog, nice to know people are willing to.
Man Jorb I've been binge watching ur channel this Holliday season.
Ah cheers Mark, hope you're enjoying it!
This video is pure gold, Jorb! Thanks for sharing your experiences on this kind of risky and scary topic!
I also buy most of my gear used of eBay or similar sites. I was very close of getting scammed two times this summer. Both incidents were on German eBay. Both times I started asking the sellers specific synth questions that they didn't answered the way I expected or hoped (made me suspicious). Also the article prices where a little too good/low to be true. Both times I got notifications from eBay some days later that there was something wrong with the accounts of the sellers. Boy, that was lucky!
This is a great video with some great tips I was not using until now. I like your authentic approach. I like the unboxing and first sounds. I guess if your future videos then cut to sounds you’ve made after xxx amount of time playing with it that would also be interesting. If you find clever tweaks or hacks/work around a those are always invaluable.
I personally had a different SH-101 buyer story that ended with me collecting the unit and eventually paying almost the same amount again to get it serviced. In short, avoid gear from smokey studios and understand the maximum cost of a repair or service and factor that in. I didn’t get the key grip or case with mine. If I had I think it probably would have been a fairer deal.
Looking forward to more videos like this. Thank you for the content.
Appreciate all that, cheers.
I wanted to talk about this, but not in a LOOK WHAT I GOT bragging way, just that it came with a lot of things worth discussing. Glad to know that may have worked!
The deals are out there. It helps to be relentless. Where you’re located and how quickly you’re prepared to act on a deal you find are big factors in successfully scoring deals. Knowing enough about synths and studio gear to spot a great deal is a manageable thing to learn, especially compared to something like guitars.
Great point, I could never hope to tell 2 teles apart from 10 feet away.
I've got the idea written down to do "The Synthesist's Guide to Craigslist" and talk about how important knowing your market is, and how killer proximity can be.
The only downside to it all is that I thought I was getting a synth-playing hobby and instead I got a synth-repairing hobby.
Some nice tips on second hand buying and an amazing find on the 101
🙏🙏Thank you! I am quite lucky
Good one. I learned a few things. I've sold much more than I think I've bought. I was told to photograph everything. Make sure the buyer has more information than they want, in order to avoid any surprises when the buyer receives. My buying experiences have generally been good. Some of the packing has been eh, but nothing was ever damaged. I'm probably done buying vintage gear at this point because the good deals are drying up, and who knows how many times the item you're buying has been sold and shipped? I'd love to own that Rhoades behind you, but those are built tough and repairable.
I've flipped a few rhodes, actually, and kept this one since, according to the market, it's the least desirable. But, I've enjoyed it so much, and the sounds are certainly there.
Lots of maintenance though!
Good content. You deserve the AudioPilz plug. Hope the algorithm finds you well. I'll certainly be following your output.
Cheers, I really appreciate that.
Thanks for watching!
I had a very similar experience when buying a 1965 Fender Mustang guitar about 10 years ago. No pics and listed as players grade (a combo that usually means beat to sh!t) so no-one else had bid on it. I had a similar interaction with the seller. Asked for more info and he said it was pristine but someone had removed the paint a long time before and it was smooth and played in. I ended up scoring it for $320 shipped to me in the UK. And it was indeed pristine.
I had to weigh up the chances of buying without photos (as the no photo thing would scare most people off) and scoring a deal with forking over money for something that didn’t actually exist.
In the end I went with me gut and somewhat against my better judgement. My rule with that sort of thing is never to attempt it if you can’t deal with it going bad. Financially and mentally lol
Great story, love to hear that happens to others. Great price, GREAT price.
Sweet deal you got there man congrats, also congrats on getting over 1,000 subscribers!
Thank you! I'm very pleased with both, to be honest.
Cool video mate, loving your output! Keep up the great work.
Cheers thank you! Always working on more.
I typically stay away from eBay now, but when I purchased my 101 a few years ago, I used the 'buy it now' option, and paid a few hundred more than you did. Mine also has the grip, and both that grip, and the underside of the unit have Ron Wilson's name and SSN engraved upon them. The seller was from Chicago, and claimed that this was one owned by Ron Wilson of Fingers Inc. Right after I got it, I looked it up, and it was him. Still can't verify the provenance with 100% certainty, but I'll never sell it. The images for mine were very good quality, and displayed many different angles of the unit.
It's so funny you mention that, my unit has an ssn carved into it too.
I'm still not sure what to do about it, maybe just fill in the numbers. Almost want to leave the name there, feels like history
@@JorbLovesGear I'd leave them there. For the sake of synthstory.
Dude I just got a Dave Smith Evolver for 480.00 and the thing was ment. I felt it was too good to be true and I'm so stoked I followed through with it because I have wanted an Evolver for 15yrs
Brilliant. Congrats - I JUST picked minty SH-101 also. Paid MUCH more of course hahah. Good on you!
Cheers, thank you!
Got my almost brand new DM 12 for 460 bucks! I have had it for about 4 years now and not a single issue.
Really appreciate this video. After watching your stuff I’ve been keeping a close eye on local listings trying to find a deal. The other day i narrowly missed out on a Korg DW6000, DW8000, yamaha DX7 and Roland Alpha Juno 2 all for $500. Definitely felt to good to be true, but someone else was able to buy it before i could to find out. Now I’m waiting for the buyer to post the gear themselves 😂
WOW thats a major deal. Someone just cleaning out their basement?
@@JorbLovesGear the listing said they got them in a storage unit auction. Clearly the seller didn’t know how much they were worth. They were missing power cables but he insisted they were functional.
@@crazyhorse52395 what a gold mine. They must've wanted a lawn mower or something in the storage locker, can't imagine ending up with those and not doing the research on their own prices. Lol
@@JorbLovesGear honestly. I guess folks just assume since they are old that they have no value. At this point I’m just waiting to see if they hit the local market again, they may be at good prices since the buyer will already be making a ton off of them. Pretty much any of them is worth $500 on their own.
I love your videos mate!! Keep up the amazing content!!!
Thank you! I really plan to.
congrats! got exactly the same but w/o the manual for $240 at a local buy&sell site several years ago :)
Dang, now thats a deal. Still have it?
@@JorbLovesGear yeah. since i know it's a hot item, i had to drop everything for the meet-up outside the city. along with the yamaha cs-01, these two are my fave vintage synths in my rather small synth collection.
Yeah you NEVER want to go out of ebay chat when dealing with a sketchy situation. Luckily yours was good, but eBay won't have evidence if things do go awry.
Also I got a Roland Alpha Juno 2 for $350 on craigslist a couple weeks ago which is a decent deal :)) That's a great synth to "redirect your GAS" away from a Juno 106, since it sounds incredibly similar. Just need a better way to change the parameters
Yes, very true. And I've been curious with the alpha Junos, the programming would annoy me, but the sounds are there!
@@JorbLovesGear I'm trying to build my own midi controller for it that'll replicate the 106 controls but allow switching for more parameters. Right now I've just been controlling it through a program on my PC, but it's not too fun that way. Really good synth otherwise!
Alpha Junos sound great, IMO!
Crazy the deal that you did...a good condittion Sh-101 is up of 900(euros or dollars)...but get with all the staff is crazy .i bougth mine for 850 euros in a normal condittion...im really happy with it..
Good stuff! Only issue i had with the vid is the audio levels. At the start the arp in the backround buries your voice and your voice in general is veeeeery low compared to the youtube ads (almost threw my headphones into a wall because of a suprise ad).
Cheers and keep the vids coming!
Cheers, thank you!
And good feedback, I'm trying to find the best way to both keep my recording simple, and get good clean audio.
Might have to give in and let the audio be complicated!
Some people don’t really care to get top dollar for there gear. I’m one of them. I always sell at a lower but reasonable price. With that said I have purchased gear with great used savings. I once got a King Korg for $500 in great shape with foot switch and case. I messaged and asked if they would accept $200 less. They had it up for $700. Sometimes they just wanna get rid of it so they could get something new sooner.
Yeah, I normally make an offer on anything, no matter what. Just to ask, you know, why not?
@@JorbLovesGear right, doesn’t hurt to ask lol
Good catch man!
I remember back in 09 when you could regularly find sh101's for $500 or less.
valuable. thanks a lot for your work here. :)
Thanks so much!
I was spit balling ideas and when I thought of this I knew it was the winner
About fifteen years ago used to be that jerk that sniped synth auctions last second for less than $200. I'd clean the synth up if needed, maybe record a track or two, and then within a year when I needed to pay rent (fund my drinking habit) I'd sell one and somehow end up with more than 5x what I paid for it. The things I let come and go because I didn't think I needed them...! AX-80, poly 61, poly 800, DW/EX-8000, cz-1000/3000, Juno-6, MS-2000B, DX-7, TX-802 to name a few, but not even getting to all the other kinds of gear... Ooph! 😳 I really hate my past self.
Ooo wish I could get a good rest wl in an ax80.
Just wish had kept em? Lol
@@JorbLovesGear Yeah the AX-80 is probably my biggest regret selling. While you have proven the AX-60 is capable of being haunted, the 80 is more of an angry beast! 😂 Oh, and I did finally re-aquire a DW-8000 last year, for a steal! Basically came with a free Roland JV-80, though they both need some cleaning up.
This post has very useful information. Please make a video on the safest way that you sell on Ebay. That would be enlightening. Thank you.
i saw a post by phil hartnol on a gearslutz forum saying how much he loved the sh01 and ever since then i keep an eye out. obviously it might not have been the actual phil hartnol but it was in response to a question about what synths were used on one of their albums so it may have been.
i picked up a berhringer ms 1 a few weeks ago tis a lovely little thing, it makes noises but ive no idea what im doing and its fun
The best thing about such a simple synth, move every fader down to the bottom, just pull up sustain, cutoff, and one of the waveforms and you're back at a simple patch, ready to explore.
Enjoy it!
Great video Jorb! Any tips for hunting down deals. Whats your approach?
I spend a LOT of time looking, which doesn't hurt.
But setting up alerts if you're after something specific, and searching for easily general stuff just "synth" and sort by newest on Reverb, or auction only & ending soonest on eBay.
Lots of luck!
@@JorbLovesGear great suggestions. Can't wait to see what videos you've got instore for us next!
Not the SH 101 but recently I found a Behringer MS-1 BK for $200 mint condition with warranty from the official Behringer distributor here in Argentina. I asked the seller a lot of things and asked for more photos. The synth is going to arrive this Friday and I'm planning to take it to a music store to check the condition and all the functions (Im still a beginner) and also call the distributor to ask if the warranty is active. I can do this because Mercadolibre (South America's Ebay) have a 30 day return policy, if something is wrong or if I didn't like it, I can return the product and have my money back, if everything is ok I can release the money to the seller. I really liked that offer because ,for some reason, the Behringer MS-1 it's beginning to become expensive.
Regards
Update: the synth arrived earlier and it's In very mint condition and the warranty is legit. The box also is in mint condition!
Thays still a great deal, hell yeah.
Yeah, of all the behringer clones the ms1 is one of the few that does really interest me.
Maybe because it's the complete package, keyboard seq and all?
Or maybe because the 101 is so simple. & straight forward
@@JorbLovesGear finally arrived Thursday and the synth is in mint condition super functional! Also the warranty is legit and I have 4 months of it. Amazing sounding synth and great for beginners like me! 😃
Nice Video, thanks! 🙌
PS: I like that Video format. More used Synth Deals unboxing and first patches would be great!
I'll have to start doing this! Plan on a pretty serious changing of the guard soon, a few more videos to make use of some stuff, but once thats through, ill be moving a lot of things.
And then hopefully some more used stuff to demo.
Ha! I just got a SH-101 from Japan through Reverb for THREE TIMES what you paid with no case, strap, or mod grip. Physically it’s absolutely perfect...but it’s completely unplayable. Absolutely no consistency in tuning, LFO doesn’t work, can’t go lower than like G3.
So I have to go through the hassle of getting it fixed and dealing with the seller.
For THREE TIMES what you paid.
Still a great keyboard to have, so simple, sounds so good.
Great video
Thanks! I wanted a good way to bring it up without just, bragging about it
Sounds great
Cheers! Hope to have more clips of it being played up soon.
I found one in front of an abandoned house near the garbage. I dont know anything about synths but now I’m looking forward to restore it. I manage to turn it on using C batteries but the power adapter didn’t work. I opened the board and clean it up a little bit, there are some sliders that didn’t work but everything else seems right. Any advice on where to look for parts or things that I should know before so I dont end damaging some important component?
Syntaur is a good place for real specific parts. Sh101 should be pretty well documented online
I would buy it off of you
Love the videos, you should mix them a bit louder :)
This one, I must've missed one of my regular steps, lots of comments on this one. Cheers!
I constantly see too-good-to-be-true deals here in Northern Europe for gear but luckily I have a wife to convince me not to constantly buy things
i got a CS01 for a buck at a yard sale a couple years ago. had the silver case and everything.
NOW THAT'S a killer deal. That's a line I don't have experience with, but would love to try out.
it's like a baby SH101.
spent much of this video confused thinking "why is this dude stoked to have gotten an MS-101 for $200 over retail?" 🤣
🤣😂The synth market these days
I want to hear you play it!
It'll get a patch notes video soon!
Such a good vid! I almost got scammed for a 60
🙏🙏🙏
Tips for recommendations that are too good to be algorithm.
Blessed be the algorithm, bringer of content.
Hi, can anyone having the Roland MGS-1 grip test the resitance of the pitch bend potentiometer on the grip for me? I mean at minimum and maximum range, thanks? Measured on the larger tip 3,5mm pins. I made a replica of the grip and I need to know if it matches the original one.
With the positive lead on the tip of the 3.5mm and negative on the sleeve, it went from 0 at neutral to 23ohms fully pulled down.
Good luck!
@@JorbLovesGear Thank you, this is a relly good message. I have the same reading at my pot.
@@JorbLovesGear Hello there, does the pitch bend knob return to 0 position like springing back? I have installed such a spring there in my replica.
When 0 ohms is there the pitch bend parameter is not activated, right?
@@Teledyski_XDVISIONS up, exactly
I bought mine for 50$ in 1998 sold it in 250 in 2000 and thought I did all right.until now seeing the prices they demand.i hated it.i had a Juno 60 at the time that destroyed it sound wise.
It was a different time! You definitely did alright.
stock images on any listing is seriously annoying and if its the only pics then that for me is a red flag eg you can put an item online for sale put your to old/dumb/lazy to be able to take and attach some in focus mobile/cell pics, ya right ...reverse image search is always a good idea
🤔 Seller must be *extra* confused now... _No one_ cared about the nicest 101 on eBay, yet suddenly 1,000 people are seemingly captivated with their pile of Disney DVD's 🙃
😂🤣😂Best of luck to em
It’s too bad because $500 should be the going price for a synth like the Sh101
They're certainly overpriced, taking a step back and thinking about it relative to modern features, no midi, sequencer tempo is stuck tied to the lfo, super simple synthesis, it's insane that they're so expensive.
I don't think vintage means *no* premium, but being classic shouldn't be all it takes to hit $2000 in today's market.
@@JorbLovesGear absolutely. The weird thing is I’ve owned most of the mainly sought after vintage synths (101,Juno, 303, prodigy, Jupiter, prophet, etc etc) even the modern vintage stuff like the Nord leads, virus, supernova etc in the early 2000s all of these synths were actually totally affordable but most of my synths have been sold off when the value far surpasses the quality of the synth, in the mid to late 2000s vintage synth prices skyrocketed overnight it’s like the rest of the world realized that synthesizers exist and then the rich collectors got involved and now most of the instruments won’t end up in the hands of musicians. Which is a terrible shame for everyone who wants to make music with these. anyone willing to pay $1500+ for an sh101 because they think it has some kind of voodoo magic can keep it because as nice as they do sound they’re not that special that kind of money would be much better spent on something like eurorack modular if you really want the best sound and most features IMO
@@JorbLovesGear You definitely scored a nice deal there, and I agree, $500 should be the price this synth is going for, including the full bells and whistles your's came with. With all the new analog synths out there, $500 and under, there shouldn't even be a market for some of these inflated prices unless you're solely a collector or a museum, LOL! I know synths don't all sound alike but the new Minibrute 2 or even a Korg Monologue can do so much and are excellent choices to get into synthesis. It used to be buying a used piece of gear was a way to save money. Those days are long gone!
I'm super curious what will happen to the prices of Prophet 5's, now that they're being remade. When the Moog One came out, old Memorymoogs went up in price. It seems people prefered the sound of the original MM to the new MO. The new Prophet Rev 4 on the other hand, sounds fantastic. I've seen several comparisons (Alex Ball just did a great blind TH-cam test) and the new Rev 4 is every bit a Prophet 5 as any Rev 2 or Rev 3. With modern gear like a Rev 4 selling brand new at half the price of some used Rev 3 machines, will those prices start to fall? Who knows if they will, but they absolutely should.
your vocal is real quiet in this
You got lucky. This isn't normal.
What a big deal. These sell here in Germany for 1000 € min.
so boring. so very boring.