Analog Synthesizers

Appendix C

Purchasing guide for analog instruments

Purchasing classic analog instruments can be a difficult business, and there are several important factors to be taken into account. Failure to attend to these can result in the purchaser ending up with an expensive instrument that does not meet his or her requirements, may not be working well enough to re-sell, and is difficult, costly or impossible to service.

The first important decision is whether the instrument is being purchased for serious musical use or simply as a collector’s item, or maybe for some combination of the two – say, to look great on stage, even though it’s not really doing very much. If the instrument is filling a serious musical need on stage or in the studio, and particularly ...