So what exactly is "vintage" studio gear?

If you're like us you probably spend several minutes each day browsing used gear on eBay. You may even have saved searches and notifications turned on (though in our experience the iPad version is very buggy!).

In recent months two new trend's have emerged.

Firstly few items are offered as genuine low start price auctions with most sellers setting silly reserve prices and even sillier Buy Now prices. If you watch these items, few sell immediately and some never. eBay used to be the place for genuine auctions but as far as studio gear goes those days seem to be largely gone.

The other trend involves sellers describing almost any gear more than 10 years old as "vintage". Some of the items described thus are laughable and clearly just an attempt to hoodwink uninformed buyers. Many are early budget digital devices which whilst having a "unique" sound (eg poor!), were never universally  praised in their day!

For example, are any of these "vintage" to you? ..

Yamaha SPX90 effects
Yamaha DX7 synthesiser
Roland DEP5 effects
DBX 160XT compressor
Lexicon LXP5 effects
EMU ESI-32 sampler
Akai S1000 sampler
Korg DDD5 drum machine
Roland D50 synthesiser

Is the (1999) Akai S6000 "vintage"?

But it got us thinking. Just what exactly is "vintage"? If it means gear more than a fixed number of years old (eg 30), then "vintage" will mean different things to different people.

For the older folks here at PSHB vintage means having all or most of these attributes ..

still highly regarded for its sonic qualities
manufactured at least 30-40 years ago
produces a sound hard to achieve with modern equivalents
has value which is likely to increase with time
age and wear and tear has improved its sonic character

So we would regard these as vintage ..

Neumann U47 microphone
Moog MiniMoog
1950's Fender Stratocaster
Early Lexicon 224
Original Teletronix LA2A limiter

.. and all except the Moog and Lexicon were relatively affordable in their day.

Is the early 1980s Roland SH101 "vintage"?

And what about "rare"? Well vintage gear may be rare but it doesn't have to be, and just because a device is hard to come by doesn't mean it was ever any good or even desirable. It may be rare because owners value them and don't want to resell, or it may be because it was unsuccessful, not many were made or few working or repairable units are available anymore.

Is the 1987 Oberheim M6R "vintage"?

So, what do you regard as "vintage"? And more importantly, how much are you willing to pay for it?

Thanks for watching and reading
Fairfax