Please tell me the stupidest thing you ever did buying a second hand musical item to make me feel better while I wait for my folly to arrive…
My story:
after a LOT of working out how the hell to do exactly what I want to do live with minumum fuss I sort of realised maybe I just wanted a 90s workstation for “real” (Not real) instrument sounds…
I saw a Korg Triton on ebay for cheap, but from Japan. Stupidly I did very little research and just ordered it without thinking.
Pretty sure I will get stung for import charges. For some reason thought Japan had the same power setup as the UK. It does not. I will have to get a new PSU. It’s an AC-AC adaptor with a four pin DIN on the end. People are charging FORTY POUNDS for a replacement. Either that or hack a DIN plug onto a standard one.
Also: didn’t know to check if it has a SCSI board, without which you have to load samples from a floppy disc/Gotek 1.44mb at a time. Oops. SCSI boards are at least another 100, if you can find one…
So basically, I just bought a Triton rack that will take about two weeks longer to arrive and cost about a hundred pounds more than one I could have bought from the UK in much better condition.
One never fully knows why one is driven to make seemingly crazy decisions around music gear. Maybe hindsight will shed light on to why this situation is perfect for your journey.
Give the purchase some time to soak in. Read the manual a few times so you can start to get excited about the possibilities.
At least you didn’t just buy an empty skiff and are thinking of getting into eurorack…
Bought a seemingly cheap Roland MX-1 without PSU. Turns put the originals are really expensive and it requires an unusual voltage. Also, the MX-1 was faulty. Was the second time (out of three) I ordered something without original PSU that didn’t work right. Made me very weary of sellers claiming something surely will work, but oh the PSU is missing. Oh, wait, we were meant to cheer you up. Everything I’ve ever bought used from Japan turned up in a better than expected condition.
(yeah tbf, I have pretty much the same experience with stuff from Japan… hoping against hope it has a SCSI board and the seller has assumed it is standard rather than removing it to sell… but I sort of doubt it!)
I once ordered a classic MPC from USA, it was held in customs (without my knowledge) with a bill of over £150 worth of import duties. By the time I came to learn of it’s whereabouts it was already on a flight back to the states.
Everything I’ve ever bought used from Japan turned up in a better than expected condition.