Rusty rack mount effects

Erik S

Erik S

Well-known member
My uncle Bob passed away late last year. He left behind some debt and a big collection of audio and recording gear. I’ve been helping sort through it all to get it ready to be sold. Lots of cleaning, a little repair work, and helping out with pricing.

There have been a few choice pieces that I couldn’t let go, and I’ve just paid whatever I figured the going market price would be.

Todays project is a load of rack gear that’s been sitting in a barn gathering mouse manure.

If any of you have experience with any of these units, I’d be interested to hear your thoughts - anything I should buy? Any input on value? The LA3A is probably out of my price range, but I’m interested in the rack compressor and the effects units.

As- found:

3DD9F634-7ECE-4F04-86CC-0AC66E3FD518.jpeg
DCBD59B1-A34B-4FEB-A9BF-460E971DD3FD.jpeg
4964BBC5-CF92-4DBA-8E93-22919A87566B.jpeg
DA5D1469-42D2-403E-900D-07DF224CF480.jpeg
F430D0FB-27BD-44A8-8B7E-16A31E987E24.jpeg
 
I would think the compressor, MX200, and Quadraverb would be worth messing with. I think in decent condition you could get them for around $100 or less each. In that condition I would think maybe $50-75 each if they power up.

When I was putting together my rack I considered buying an mx200 as it has a relatively user friendly interface for that era and are supposed to sound pretty good.
 
Amazing cleanup job. Some Naval jelly can be used to turn the rust on those screws into black iron, which will never corrode. Phosphoric acid, same stuff they put in Cola.
 
RetiredUnit1 said:
Amazing cleanup job. Some Naval jelly can be used to turn the rust on those screws into black iron, which will never corrode. Phosphoric acid, same stuff they put in Cola.
Click to expand...
Thanks! They do look better, but they’re still pretty gross. I just gave em a quick wipe down so far. I still need to pull each one back out and give it a real clean. Ditching the super rusty mounting screws made a big difference. Nothing rusts through steel like mouse piss. Fortunately the faceplates are aluminum so they’re mostly intact. Stupid mice also ate a fair amount of rubber off the knobs on the DBX compressor.

Naval jelly is cool. My dad always kept some of that around. These days I do most of my rust removal with evaporust. A little slower maybe, but it works great, and isn’t toxic.
 
Erik S said:
Thanks! They do look better, but they’re still pretty gross. I just gave em a quick wipe down so far. I still need to pull each one back out and give it a real clean. Ditching the super rusty mounting screws made a big difference. Nothing rusts through steel like mouse piss. Fortunately the faceplates are aluminum so they’re mostly intact. Stupid mice also ate a fair amount of rubber off the knobs on the DBX compressor.

Naval jelly is cool. My dad always kept some of that around. These days I do most of my rust removal with evaporust. A little slower maybe, but it works great, and isn’t toxic.
Click to expand...
After a decade of trying to get my eight 5e3's back from the widow of my former business partner I finally got them back. Mouse and rat poop and pee rusty everything everywhere. I could cry..... One of them is missing the transformers. wtf? He did the cabs and speakers and selling.... Guess someone just wanted the iron, sigh....
 
That la3a will only go up in value and they're great compressors if you can swing a family discount.
Holy cow, just looked and they're going for 3k+! Insanity. NM.
Quadraverb is worth $50 and seem to be increasing in value(check the battery for leakage!)
The drive rack is useful if you do any live sound as is the graphic. But the sliders on the graphic may be shot at this point. Midiverb III is the only midiverb rev I don't own so unsure on it. Seems to be the least desirable of the 4 units.
 
RetiredUnit1 said:
After a decade of trying to get my eight 5e3's back from the widow of my former business partner I finally got them back. Mouse and rat poop and pee rusty everything everywhere. I could cry..... One of them is missing the transformers. wtf? He did the cabs and speakers and selling.... Guess someone just wanted the iron, sigh....
Click to expand...
Bummer! Do you know what you’ll do with them?
 
jwin615 said:
That la3a will only go up in value and they're great compressors if you can swing a family discount.
Holy cow, just looked and they're going for 3k+! Insanity. NM.
Quadraverb is worth $50 and seem to be increasing in value(check the battery for leakage!)
The drive rack is useful if you do any live sound as is the graphic. But the sliders on the graphic may be shot at this point. Midiverb III is the only midiverb rev I don't own so unsure on it. Seems to be the least desirable of the 4 units.
Click to expand...
Yup - LA3A will definitely go up for sale. It’ll be fun to test it and see what it sounds like though.

If everything works, I’m considering buying everything but the midiverb and the two drive rack units. Pulling those three would make just enough room in that rack for my tape deck.

I read up on those driverack units. They do seem super useful, but not something I plan on getting into, and after the LA3A they seem to have the highest resale value.

I don’t know how useful the graphic EQ would be, but it looks cool, fills out the rack, and isn’t crazy money. There are still two other graphic eqs in the barn too. A DBX 231, and a really cool Moog 10 band. The value on the Moog is unfortunately too high for me to justify as a rack decoration.
 
I'd try to keep it all, but that's me being nostalgic and a hoarder.

DBX, Lexicon and Quadraverb were all de rigeur back in the day, and I'd rather have all that now than a bunch of plug-ins.

If in good working order and you find people like me, I would think you'll be able to easily sell any of them (unlike BAF me).




RetiredUnit1 said:
Amazing cleanup job. Some Naval jelly can be used to turn the rust on those screws into black iron, which will never corrode. Phosphoric acid, same stuff they put in Cola.
Click to expand...

My grandfather was an orthodontic/dental surgeon, and put one of my mom's baby-teeth in a glass of Coke and it was completely gone in 3 days — so the story goes.

I've taken a completely befouled penny and left it in a glass of Coke for about the same time and the penny came out shiny and like-new.
 
Feral Feline said:
I'd try to keep it all, but that's me being nostalgic and a hoarder.

DBX, Lexicon and Quadraverb were all de rigeur back in the day, and I'd rather have all that now than a bunch of plug-ins.

If in good working order and you find people like me, I would think you'll be able to easily sell any of them (unlike BAF me).






My grandfather was an orthodontic/dental surgeon, and put one of my mom's baby-teeth in a glass of Coke and it was completely gone in 3 days — so the story goes.

I've taken a completely befouled penny and left it in a glass of Coke for about the same time and the penny came out shiny and like-new.
Click to expand...
I made the mistake of squeezing key-limes by hand to make a key-lime pie. Half way through the skin on my hands began to swell and burn like fire. Huge mistake. Hurt like hell for a week.

The pie was delicious!!! If you've never made one, you just mix the ingredients and the acid from the limes COOKS the filling!!!!
 
My sympathies regarding your uncle's death.
I use a Lexicon MX200 in my amp's effects loop, and it works great for reverb and chorus. I love it.
 
Harry Klippton said:
That lexicon mx200 is cool. @peccary and I have been talking about those. I've got my eye out for an mx400. I like dbx for good and cheap if you're not a snob. Sorry about your uncle
Click to expand...
Yeah, so sorry about your uncle, but I agree with @Harry Klippton, the Lexicon is cool -- not my favorite reverb from that era -- I definitely like the Midiverb better, but the Lexicon is definitely a quality piece of equipment. Also, that graphics EQ looks cool.
 
darwin999 said:
My sympathies regarding your uncle's death.
I use a Lexicon MX200 in my amp's effects loop, and it works great for reverb and chorus. I love it.
Click to expand...
I've been looking for a nice rack mount unit to do this. I reviewed the specs, then checked out reviews. Found a nice fairly new looking unit on eBay. Grand total with tax and shipping came out to :
1713920856954.png
 
Hooked up the DBX compressor, the lexicon and the quadraverb tonight. I need to get the manuals, but I managed to make some sweet 80s sounds.

Having only ever messed with pedal effects, the quadraverb was a little shocking - so many sounds with so little fine control. Like, you can select different chorus, flanger, and delay presets, but then unless I’m missing something, there doesn’t seem to be any way to adjust the normal stuff like speed and depth and time that I’m used to.

The lexicon was a little more familiar with three knobs per effect. Definitely the quicker and more intuitive interface.

D85D89B0-24A1-4DD5-9A04-83E318F59E4D.jpeg
 
Pretty sure parameters on the Quadraverb are adjustable, once you jump through the sub-menu hoops.

The user manual and the service manual appear to be available here:
www.manualslib.com

Alesis QUADRAVERB Manuals

Alesis QUADRAVERB Pdf User Manuals. View online or download Alesis QUADRAVERB Reference Manual, Service Manual
www.manualslib.com www.manualslib.com
 
Feral Feline said:
Pretty sure parameters on the Quadraverb are adjustable, once you jump through the sub-menu hoops.

The user manual and the service manual appear to be available here:
www.manualslib.com

Alesis QUADRAVERB Manuals

Alesis QUADRAVERB Pdf User Manuals. View online or download Alesis QUADRAVERB Reference Manual, Service Manual
www.manualslib.com www.manualslib.com
Click to expand...
I’ll give it another shot tomorrow. It did seem like there had to be another level.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top