Last weekend we set up to practice and my synth blew a fuse. It was assumed this would be an easy thing to fix, so we bought some more fuses and replaced it. That then blew too. One by one, several of the fuses we had bought had blown and it seemed that something was not right. We took it to a specialist synth man (me? electronix? NO WAY!) and he told us we'd blown the transformer. Again, this would be an easy thing to fix, had the synth not been made 30ish years ago. He couldnt get the part in time for our tour which started in less than a week.
Frantically, I searched for a replacement to no avail. Eventually, I decided I'd have to borrow something to use for this tour and hope I could get it repaired elsewhere whilst we were away. My excellent friend Sam Scott (of Youthmovies and Jonquil fame) agreed to lend me the Youthmovies Moog Rogue. This would have been fine although certain things weren't quite the same and it would take some getting used to. As it was total last resort and I had no other option, I went to Oxford on Good Friday and collected it. Took it home to practice and it just wasn't having any of it. Started to panic. Tried using a second MicroKorg and it sounded balls. Tried using a Yamaha Portasound keyboard. Terrible idea. All the while, my wonderful CS5 just stared at me in all its broken glory.
I started trying to hunt something down on the internet. Nothing on eBay. A few old listings on stuff like Gumtree. I had really started to worry earlier today when I thought I'd have one last check on Google. To my complete suprise, one turned up. It was in Bournemouth, a bit of a mission but do-able. I immediately contacted the seller and waited patiently. Within 2 hours or so he had replied and a pick up by our tour manager/soundman extrodinaire Finian had been arranged. Thank fuck.
So yeah, whilst it hadn't really been documented (other than updates off my Facebook) for a while I was really really worried that our tour, or at least my part in it, would have been ruined but thank god for the internet and its ability to let my shopping grasp reach across the country.
Thanks to Ian (seller, total dude by the sounds) and Finian for collecting it.
See you on the road.
Jamesx
2 comments:
Lucky, lucky boys and girl...!
What exactly would you have done on the tour without the synth? Just played without it or changed each of the songs around a bit?
As much as I love the synth it would have been a great experience to see what you guys would have done to combat losing it.
Can't wait to see you tonight, Satan's Hollow won't be able to hold your sound
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