ARGHHHHHH!!!!

[Nawor]

I just spoke to an old friend I haven't seen in years who returned from England recently. He used to work as a tape op in our national radio station ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). Throughout the late seventies and earlier eighties he aquired a U47 (tube) and 4 x RCA77DX's along with a Neve Melbourne broadcast console and some kind of Urei limiters (don't know which models) and various other bits and pieces purchased cheaply in a bulk lot of 'outdated' gear the station had auctioned off. He said he had thought about asking me if I would be interested in it when he returned briefly five years ago but I was O.S. myself and had missed him. When I asked him where the gear was now he said it was put in a wooden crate, in a barn, on his parents farm about 160km's (100 miles away). As I reached for my cars keys and began to work out how I was going to live on baked beans and pasta for the next six months, he told me his folks had sold the farm three years ago AND... get this... included all existing farm machinery, tools equipment and sundry items in the sale. :eek: They didn't know anything about the gear that was stored in the barn!!!! :cry: :cry: :cry:

[D_dup3]

"ARGHHHHHH!!!!" indeed! :eek: :cry:

[Philip OKeefe]

Just shoot me now please... :cry:

[Philip OKeefe]

:idea: Maybe you can take the drive out there anyway... see if it's still lying around. They'd have no idea what it was, and no use for it... and maybe you can still get 'em. Isn't it worth a try?

[Nawor]

[quote]Originally posted by Phil O'Keefe: [b] :idea: Maybe you can take the drive out there anyway... see if it's still lying around. They'd have no idea what it was, and no use for it... and maybe you can still get 'em. Isn't it worth a try?[/b][/quote]He made some enquiries a couple of years back... He said whoever he'd contacted knew nothing about it and said nothing 'to his knowledge' had been discovered. :cry: Interestingly I had bought some other gear off him about ten years ago including a Neumann U77, 4 x AGK451's, an AKG C60 (small diaphragm tube) and a single Neve 3115 pre/eq module (also from a Melbourne console). Also a mono limiter made here by a company called RME. It uses germanium transistors and some kind of optical gain controller. It's a bit noisy but it squashes stuff so 'in your face' like there's no tommorrow but still manages to sound kinda good. The Neumann was a bit of a bargain. The body had been painted gloss green and it didn't work. He wanted $300 (AUD) about $200 USD at the time. I had a look inside at the electronics and the capsule. Everything seemed to look okay so I bought it. Five minutes with a good light and a magnifying glass revealed a broken transformer wire in the DC-DC convertor. A dab of solder and SHAZZAM!! One working U77! :D ... and it still don't sound too bad! ;) He didn't mention the other stuff he had stored at his folks farm at the time. Maybe he was planning on keeping it. Besides I didn't know him that well back then. What amazes me he seems almost philosophical about losing it all. :confused: Anyway I picked up a few bargains from him so I suppose I shouldn't feel too bad.... although when I think about it!!! :eek: He said during the late seventies and early eighties a lot of audio gear was auctioned off. As the ABC was a taxpayer funded national broadcaster allocated budgets HAD to be spent. During this period it was 'OUT' with the transfomers and tubes and 'IN' with the transistors and IC's. He said quite a lot of gear was auctioned with little or no reserve! You never know what you've got 'til it's gone! Ain't that the truth!