Rack gear is insanely expensive now

  • Thread starter Thread starter saxxamafone
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saxxamafone

saxxamafone

Well-known member
I remember 10yrs ago you could get a JMP1 or Triaxis for a decent price.

Now all this rack gear is crazy expensive.

FX too. Eventides, Lexicons etc.

Doesn't seem like it's coming down either.

Nuts
 
It is.unfortunately,just as everything else is way out of hand and out of reach for a lot of people.
But what's truly sad is the scenario I've seen in my neck of the woods.I recently had some of my guitar students play thru my 20 spc bradshaw rack,as it has basically most of the real preamps and processors that my students' modelers are attempting to emulate.They switch in a Cae 3+ se or a soldano x88r into a 2290 into a vht 2150 out to 3-4x12 cabs in true w/d/w and thier reaction is almost like the 2nd coming of the lord.
Then,they start to look for these pieces of gear to buy for themselves ( to put thier own rack build together)and see the rediculous prices of today...and its out of touch for them..sometimes I don't even know what to say to them then.
 
Kinda weird how the preamps I grew up playing have now taken on “vintage” status and tripled to quadrupled in price.

I remember the days of scoring ADA MP-1’s for $125 all-day at Starving Musician in Santa Clara, CA. Now people covet them.

@Little B I’d bet your students are in shock because most people buy a low-end modeler for their first amp, or they’re looking for a Swiss Army knife of tones.

It may be a controversial opinion, but there’s no substitute for a tube amp as far as feel and sound goes. Yes there are exceptions like playing live, the difference in tone becomes negligible. Rant over 🤣
 
Classic rack gear is indeed pretty expensive. It's why I moved away from hunting old gear that could break at any time (looking at you suddenly failing EEPROMs in the VHT GP3. Serial #GP3F40403. Don't buy that) and moved to the Synergy stuff. They have some upcoming modules that I think a bunch of people will really dig to the point where those who have the classic units might even offload some of their gear for the Synergy stuff, too.

For effects, an HX Stomp can probably get you most of the way there and double as your MIDI controller. Or a used AxeFx. Can still get an Intellifex for under $300 if you want the old reliable. Depends on what you're looking for.

Tube power amps are probably the hardest to find these days. Not a ton of new offerings, and they're harder to track down used at good prices. Big gap in this market that is a possible opportunity if someone is willing to pursue it, IMO
 
Clay K said:
I wonder how much a G-force is worth these days?
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$350-$550, but be careful as displays are starting to die, and they aren't easily replaceable. Same goes for all TC products of that era. 1128, for example.
 
Bossman415 said:
I remember the days of scoring ADA MP-1’s for $125 all-day at Starving Musician in Santa Clara, CA. Now people covet them.
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I bought one about 15-20 years ago for $100 and sold it a few months after and I still wouldn't pay more than $200 for one nowadays.
The prices for old rack gear are ludicrous. Some of those sellers should pay me to take the stuff off their hands if we consider that the old rack gear that is digital or digitally controlled does break eventually with spare parts like displays or EEPROMS not widely available because they're out of production for decades but even if some EEPROMS are still available the software and the Win 98SE machine that was used to read and write those EEPROMS has long disappeared in some basement or a recycling plant, there's no device left to read the backup tapes if there were ever any in the first place and the guy who wrote the code moved away a long time ago and is now a successful gardener.
I'm not stupid enough to pay these prices.
Going through the hassle of replacing a display or repairing a power supply and hunting down the parts after roughly 12 months of usage when I bought the unit for $30 was at least somewhat "okay" but not when I'm paying $300 or more.
 
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The only good sounding rack FX units that seem to be reasonable still are the Lex MPX1, and Rocktron stuff. The rest have gone into the stratosphere. I'd go for the MPX1 over the Intellifex...have had both. I almost scored a PCM 41 last month for 500$, but I was too late.
 
After playing completly dry for years I set my first dry-wet...I got a TC G-Major for effects...
Its litteraly falling apart...the encoder does not work and the effects buttons do not work all the time...I need to push twice the button to engage...

It does sound good but it will need replacing...G Force maybe...??? or a AXE I ???
I was hoping for the Eventide H90 but too much coin for just a stereo delay and a pitch detune...
 
blackie13 said:
After playing completly dry for years I set my first dry-wet...I got a TC G-Major for effects...
Its litteraly falling apart...the encoder does not work and the effects buttons do not work all the time...I need to push twice the button to engage...

It does sound good but it will need replacing...G Force maybe...??? or a AXE I ???
I was hoping for the Eventide H90 but too much coin for just a stereo delay and a pitch detune...
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MPX1 sounds better IMO than those 2; Eventide is a step (multiple) up though. But you either set/forget it or find the footswitch; they are kinda rare. MPX1 can be had for 250.
 
Racerxrated said:
MPX1 sounds better IMO than those 2; Eventide is a step (multiple) up though. But you either set/forget it or find the footswitch; they are kinda rare. MPX1 can be had for 250.
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I do not know man...those units are so old that they will be junks in a while...just like my G major...maybe I could go the pedal route...a source Audio Collider, an Eventide Micropitch delay, a parallelizer mixer and a 2u drower...

Racks seem to be a thing of the past...I wish someone would get a 1u effects unit...
 
blackie13 said:
After playing completly dry for years I set my first dry-wet...I got a TC G-Major for effects...
Its litteraly falling apart...the encoder does not work and the effects buttons do not work all the time...I need to push twice the button to engage...

It does sound good but it will need replacing...G Force maybe...??? or a AXE I ???
I was hoping for the Eventide H90 but too much coin for just a stereo delay and a pitch detune...
Click to expand...
HX Stomp will do pretty much everything a lot of the similarly priced old units will do (Intellifex, Intelliverb, Intellipitch, Replifex, MultiValve, G-Major, G-Major 2, G-Force, MPX1, and such). They sell for like $400-$500 on the used market. If you're okay with it being on the floor, I would go that route. Bonus points in that it doubles as a MIDI controller for other MIDI equipped gear. Even has amp modeling which none of the aforementioned units have, and it can be run in a 4 cable method for even more versatility.
 
As far as tube power amps I'm a big fan of the KSR PA50. Kyle has said a rackmount version is going to be coming and I won't be surprised if rackmounted preamps will be not too far behind. A tube powered Ceres would be an instant buy for me. I've heard good things about the fryette lxii power amp. I think with a modeler a tube power amp is essential to get it to sound warm.
 
ClintN667 said:
As far as tube power amps I'm a big fan of the KSR PA50. Kyle has said a rackmount version is going to be coming and I won't be surprised if rackmounted preamps will be not too far behind. A tube powered Ceres would be an instant buy for me. I've heard good things about the fryette lxii power amp. I think with a modeler a tube power amp is essential to get it to sound warm.
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@ClintN667 hope KSR follows through with a 100 watt rackmount version. Bonus points if it can be switched between mono & stereo and able to use any of the major octal poweramp tubes in a mix match. I’d love to run my Rectifier Recording Preamp through a KT66/KT88 power amp.
 
Have you tried to find a Soldano X99?? Have you seen the price for one?? Try any leading preamp. You have to remember that even the X99 when new was $3500. So of course it stands to reason that they would not come cheap. What gets me is that a reissue amp can cost more than the actual amp it is trying to duplicate! LOL
 
The MPX1 is a great unit, even better paired with a MPX G2 in 4cm (in front and in the loop), with the MPX1 set up W/D/W for stereo delay/reverb/ pitch detune. Really the only two boxes you need. The G2 has killer stomp box models for in front of the amp as an added benefit.
 
I still use rack gear regularly. I have a Eventide Eclipse (snagged for under $1k early last year) Korg DL8000R, MLC stereo mixer, TC 1140 HS EQ and a Mesa Boogie Strategy 400 power amp along with an HH V800 power amp. Of course all of this is in my W/D/W rack. I needed gear that was stereo and could do a lot of things at once (processing power)… rack gear is the logical choice.
 
Strange said:
Have you tried to find a Soldano X99?? Have you seen the price for one?? Try any leading preamp. You have to remember that even the X99 when new was $3500. So of course it stands to reason that they would not come cheap. What gets me is that a reissue amp can cost more than the actual amp it is trying to duplicate! LOL
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Id pay for any Soldano stuff. I did dearly for the Caswell/Soldano pre and Soldano power amp. I’d also like a VHT 2150. Ain’t cheap. Not really sure if the Fryette PS100 is close since I’ve not heard the 2150 in person.
 
Code001 said:
HX Stomp will do pretty much everything a lot of the similarly priced old units will do (Intellifex, Intelliverb, Intellipitch, Replifex, MultiValve, G-Major, G-Major 2, G-Force, MPX1, and such). They sell for like $400-$500 on the used market. If you're okay with it being on the floor, I would go that route. Bonus points in that it doubles as a MIDI controller for other MIDI equipped gear. Even has amp modeling which none of the aforementioned units have, and it can be run in a 4 cable method for even more versatility.
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The problem with a lot of newer gear like the HX Stomp is it has no analog dry-thru. Most of the older stuff that sounds the best had analog dry-thru, or was used with a mixer. I have been curious about some of the larger pedals, like Source Audio, who use an analog dry-thru.
 
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