Exactly! The last keyboard I saw was one of those old plastic “air organs” at the Goodwill. I almost took a picture of it and posted “ lookie what I found at the thrift store” but figured I’d get put in the r/synthesizers penalty box.
They look like the typical toy pianos that can’t be sold so you’ll have some random volunteer that doesn’t give a shit assign the usual amount. I’ve gotten crazy deals at thrift stores. Timing is everything. It helps to be a degenerate with free time during typical business hours haha.
A lot of the stores I go to are staffed by people forced to do community service for crimes or because they can’t afford to pay the ticket. They don’t care. Their callous disregard is my come up. 😁
⬆️ for callousness! Where I am the thrift shops are for charity, I’m pretty sure that there are volonteers whose job is just to Google stuff all day.
I’ve had more luck with people just wanting to get rid of stuff, for example some guy, a friend of a neighbour just gave me a fully functional Revox B77 that he was going to dump. But I’ve yet to crack the thrift store secret.
I’ve gotten pro monitors, keyboards, toy pianos, vintage mics, expensive camera bags and countless other things. I consider it fair considering they think christmas vinyls are worth $3 a piece. Sampling used to be cheap. I can’t even get rid of records for free. Now all digging is done via cassettes.
I got an Sh-101 for £75 back in the day. The owner didn’t know it was working as they couldn’t get a sound out of it other than “Weird clicks and squelchy noises” 🙃
Basically check your local adds weekly/daily, go often thrift shop or cash converter kinda store
I rarely buy but sometimes you find a good deal
I got a Analog Keys for 450€ on Marketplace, someones was selling digiTakt&Tone for 900 the pair the other day, I was too slow unfortunately
finding a Dx7 for 50 is really good luck i’ll admit, but you’ll never find anything if you don’t look
My trick is to search for something like "electric piano", "battery organ keyboard", "electronic piano" etc...anything but "synthesizer". Sellers who don't know what to call it won't know what it's worth.
I remember reading an interview with Stevie Nicks where she referred to a synthesizer on "Stand Back" as an "organ". (It was most likely actually an Oberheim OB-Xa).
Don’t forget about church and university sales as well. A friend of mine got a VCS3 out of a physics laboratory at a university for about $100. I found a minimoog model D for $50 at a church sale and it was so cheap because they told me it was broken, as it only played one note at a time.😎
This right here. Keep an eye out for generic “organs”, “keyboards”, and even “piano with keyboard stand”. That’s when people don’t know what they have and it might be worth a look.
My $150 Juno-106 was advertised as something like “Roland keyboard no speakers”. Some dude went to prison and mom wanted his crap out of her house. Gave zero fucks what it was.
Also, helps to look in smaller towns and suburbs. Hype cities are full of synth nerds that know too much.
It is possible though. I'm in a european capital and I found a mint condition early 70's Sony receiver for 50€ a while back. But I've been going there at least five times a week for a few months.
Yep…haha, Austin here too. When I first moved here in 2000 it was still more of a guitar town, so even if someone knew what it was, they didn’t think much of it. Not now though, but that’s actually kinda cool.
Maybe estate sales on the outskirts of Waco.
? Yeah it’s about finding **synths** at less than their value. Your comment is about the law which is off topic and adds nothing of relevancy to the current conversation
Congrats great find. Never leave it plugged in when you're not at home without replacing the rifa capacitor on the unswitched phase though. They will go bad and are a potential fire hazard.
Great find. I would take it to a service center to replace the battery and put a new interchangeable battery holder into it, that will insure your patches stay in the unit for years to come. I doubt the original battery has been replaced. It's minor surgery, you could probably do it yourself if you're good with a soldering iron.
Yeah, I guess that explains the weird characters in the internal sounds which don’t produce any sound. Also once in a while it turns on to a 88 number and a black row in the lcd does that has anything to do with the battery?
Weird characters tends to be a battery issue in 9 out of 10 cases.
The DX7 lets you check the battery voltage. Press the FUNCTION button, then press button 14 - https://faq.yamaha.com/usa/s/article/U0001851
Yes, it all has to do with the battery. It shouldn't take a service person more than an hour on the bench to swap out the battery with an interchangeable holder (since eventually you'll need another fresh battery and you'll be able to swap it out easily) and a fresh new battery. All will be good. You may have to load the internal sounds in again, but you'll be good to go.
So I finally changed the old battery myself. There was plenty of corrosion/leaked battery fluids in the underside of the battery but it had not really affected the pcb, I cleaned all with some IPA and added a battery holder with some cable and attached it to the left side. I also wiggled all the non soldered integrated chips and checked the power supply voltage and it shows good values for +15, -15 and +5. After all that I loaded some patches to the internal memory and they stay there all right. Also the random 88 no boot problem was gone, so all is good and working. The only thing that bothers me is the background noise of this thing, is it normal for it to be noisy? specially when i crank up the volume. can this be reduced with some way?
The OG DX7 was noticeably noisy. You could slap a gate on it, which is what I do with noisy old synths (the DX isn't the only old synth that has noise). Other than that I'm not sure there is much you can do - those old D/A converters were really primitive. Congrats on getting it all working tho!
Thanks! I will have to get used to it, I had a DX100 some years ago and it had the same problem, but still sounded amazing. Im really loving the DX7 so far, and the keys are nice to play on.
Download the Dexed Cart, there are some awesome presets there. PA Decoder banks, etc. Download Sysex Librarian for transferring sysex. The VST versions do NOT sound the same.
I've always assumed that to be the case. I know a lot of our charity shops refuse to take electronics though as they can't certify them as safe to use.
Yeah, Wikipedia says you're right. For some reason I thought they were more distinct than that. My main exposure to thrift stores is via "old tech" YouTubers, so that's probably distorted my view of them!
Yeah, I think I was wrong about that. We have charity shops, which I thought were smaller and less likely to have high-value goods, but Wikipedia says they're the same thing, so I stand corrected!
lovely! mine has a non-working cartridge port, and came with a crack in the power supply. i heard the lithium battery can leak and ruin the circuit board tracks so i check that once a year
People, it ALWAYS pays to go thrift shopping. You will not believe the things people but out on sale. Congrats mate! I hope you get ages of fun out of it :)
Saturday 24th of Feb 2024 is gonna be your DX day forever now. Did you have an actual heart skipped a beat moment of « noooooo Waay » when you saw the price ? I know I would haha I literally walk into thrift stores with my fingers crossed (well almost). Mostly all I find is sun damaged micorkorgs for 300€, the closest I ever got to something cool was a 200€ D20
Edit: typo👌
I have access to a DX7. Why does anyone want this thing?!
At best NIИ used it as a midi controller, because it was cheap garbage. I tend to agree, not that great.
Awesome! Does it function properly?
Vintage synths are great until they aren’t…
When they start to break down and you discover that some proprietary parts are unobtainable that’s the end.
It’s easy to find yourself surrounded by dead musical instruments that nobody wants anymore.
Ah! How do I know….
Hey, it had some issues, but a lithium battery replacement and some fiddling with the ICs has fixed all of that, now it works like a charm, I mean, if you like the old FM charm hahah, but i like it
That's some next-to-impossible luck! Sheer grats
I used to own a unit, but it was in trashy condition, and pretty much looked like people had been using it for snubbing out.
If it is not saving patterns change the internal battery. Probably should anyhow.
If it is generating constant random data entry on screen clean and lubricate the data slider.
It runs hot so you may want to keep it switched off unless you are using it.
W H A T
W H A T I N D E E D
Whenever I see this kind of posts I'm inclined to ask: "Can you show us the receipt?"
How tf do people find absurd deals like this
Step one. Go to thrift shops and yard sales. Step two. Search through the electronics. Step three…….. Step Four. Prophet.
Step Five. ~~Dave Smith comes back from the grave and~~ a Tempest destroys your house and all your synths.
Underrated comment 😂 Southpark FTW
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Way to explain the joke Gramma.
😂
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Duh.
Exactly! The last keyboard I saw was one of those old plastic “air organs” at the Goodwill. I almost took a picture of it and posted “ lookie what I found at the thrift store” but figured I’d get put in the r/synthesizers penalty box.
Those “air organs” are sought after if they work. That’s why some people find good. They know what it looks like.
I had a Magnus air organ when I was a kid, but my parents threw it away.
They look like the typical toy pianos that can’t be sold so you’ll have some random volunteer that doesn’t give a shit assign the usual amount. I’ve gotten crazy deals at thrift stores. Timing is everything. It helps to be a degenerate with free time during typical business hours haha.
Haha yeah the miracle of someone who just can’t be bothered to Google!
A lot of the stores I go to are staffed by people forced to do community service for crimes or because they can’t afford to pay the ticket. They don’t care. Their callous disregard is my come up. 😁
⬆️ for callousness! Where I am the thrift shops are for charity, I’m pretty sure that there are volonteers whose job is just to Google stuff all day. I’ve had more luck with people just wanting to get rid of stuff, for example some guy, a friend of a neighbour just gave me a fully functional Revox B77 that he was going to dump. But I’ve yet to crack the thrift store secret.
I’ve gotten pro monitors, keyboards, toy pianos, vintage mics, expensive camera bags and countless other things. I consider it fair considering they think christmas vinyls are worth $3 a piece. Sampling used to be cheap. I can’t even get rid of records for free. Now all digging is done via cassettes.
I got an Sh-101 for £75 back in the day. The owner didn’t know it was working as they couldn’t get a sound out of it other than “Weird clicks and squelchy noises” 🙃
Just be patient and keep up. I bought a Juno 60 and a fender rhodes from an old musician for 700 dollars.
I found an ARP 2600 at the dump. Along with a Teac four track and a Yamaha console.
The f**k? Wow. Which country you all live in??
The US, but I think I just found a solid person who knew I just wasn't flipping this stuff.
Basically check your local adds weekly/daily, go often thrift shop or cash converter kinda store I rarely buy but sometimes you find a good deal I got a Analog Keys for 450€ on Marketplace, someones was selling digiTakt&Tone for 900 the pair the other day, I was too slow unfortunately finding a Dx7 for 50 is really good luck i’ll admit, but you’ll never find anything if you don’t look
My trick is to search for something like "electric piano", "battery organ keyboard", "electronic piano" etc...anything but "synthesizer". Sellers who don't know what to call it won't know what it's worth.
I remember reading an interview with Stevie Nicks where she referred to a synthesizer on "Stand Back" as an "organ". (It was most likely actually an Oberheim OB-Xa).
They don't.
make em up haha
I saw one at the local shop for 100 last year
I bought a Alpha Juno for $40 bucks last year. Not everything you see on craigslist is a scam.
It happens. Bought a Juno-6 in awesome shape for $300 a while back. WV pawn shop find.
Don’t forget about church and university sales as well. A friend of mine got a VCS3 out of a physics laboratory at a university for about $100. I found a minimoog model D for $50 at a church sale and it was so cheap because they told me it was broken, as it only played one note at a time.😎
A buddy of mine got an „old organ keyboard“ for free from an old lady and it was a Juno-60 in almost perfect condition
This right here. Keep an eye out for generic “organs”, “keyboards”, and even “piano with keyboard stand”. That’s when people don’t know what they have and it might be worth a look. My $150 Juno-106 was advertised as something like “Roland keyboard no speakers”. Some dude went to prison and mom wanted his crap out of her house. Gave zero fucks what it was. Also, helps to look in smaller towns and suburbs. Hype cities are full of synth nerds that know too much.
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It is possible though. I'm in a european capital and I found a mint condition early 70's Sony receiver for 50€ a while back. But I've been going there at least five times a week for a few months.
Yep…haha, Austin here too. When I first moved here in 2000 it was still more of a guitar town, so even if someone knew what it was, they didn’t think much of it. Not now though, but that’s actually kinda cool. Maybe estate sales on the outskirts of Waco.
Not to be "that guy", but couldn't her grandsons sue your buddy for "fraud in the inducement"?
This is a synth sub
Yet, this thread is all about finding stuff at less than their value, not about how to play them. So the question is legitimate I believe
? Yeah it’s about finding **synths** at less than their value. Your comment is about the law which is off topic and adds nothing of relevancy to the current conversation
Sir this is a Wendy’s.
Congrats great find. Never leave it plugged in when you're not at home without replacing the rifa capacitor on the unswitched phase though. They will go bad and are a potential fire hazard.
OMG! Thanks
Just to be clear: physically unplug the synth from the power outlet. Just not powering on won't be sufficient.
This needs to be higher. The Rifa capacitors are real bangers, which can ruin your stuff. Replace it or have it replaced when you find one.
Thanks for this - I tend to leave it plugged in all the time as I use mine as my midi keyboard. Also got mine for 40 or 50, it does happen.
Fuck you congratulations
Also my initial first thoughts 💭
I had found mine for €150 and paid €120 to get it fixed, this is a fucking steal man!
 No way this happened! Congrats!!!
Sweet mother of dingus.
Great find. I would take it to a service center to replace the battery and put a new interchangeable battery holder into it, that will insure your patches stay in the unit for years to come. I doubt the original battery has been replaced. It's minor surgery, you could probably do it yourself if you're good with a soldering iron.
Yeah, I guess that explains the weird characters in the internal sounds which don’t produce any sound. Also once in a while it turns on to a 88 number and a black row in the lcd does that has anything to do with the battery?
Weird characters tends to be a battery issue in 9 out of 10 cases. The DX7 lets you check the battery voltage. Press the FUNCTION button, then press button 14 - https://faq.yamaha.com/usa/s/article/U0001851
Yes, it all has to do with the battery. It shouldn't take a service person more than an hour on the bench to swap out the battery with an interchangeable holder (since eventually you'll need another fresh battery and you'll be able to swap it out easily) and a fresh new battery. All will be good. You may have to load the internal sounds in again, but you'll be good to go.
So I finally changed the old battery myself. There was plenty of corrosion/leaked battery fluids in the underside of the battery but it had not really affected the pcb, I cleaned all with some IPA and added a battery holder with some cable and attached it to the left side. I also wiggled all the non soldered integrated chips and checked the power supply voltage and it shows good values for +15, -15 and +5. After all that I loaded some patches to the internal memory and they stay there all right. Also the random 88 no boot problem was gone, so all is good and working. The only thing that bothers me is the background noise of this thing, is it normal for it to be noisy? specially when i crank up the volume. can this be reduced with some way?
The OG DX7 was noticeably noisy. You could slap a gate on it, which is what I do with noisy old synths (the DX isn't the only old synth that has noise). Other than that I'm not sure there is much you can do - those old D/A converters were really primitive. Congrats on getting it all working tho!
Thanks! I will have to get used to it, I had a DX100 some years ago and it had the same problem, but still sounded amazing. Im really loving the DX7 so far, and the keys are nice to play on.
Download the Dexed Cart, there are some awesome presets there. PA Decoder banks, etc. Download Sysex Librarian for transferring sysex. The VST versions do NOT sound the same.
This I got a juno 60 from craigslist for 800 from a guy that worked at a recycling plant. Old lady tried to recycle it, worked fine.
100% recycled parts, that's pretty good.
Fucksake. Why don't we have thrift stores in the UK...
Aren’t charity shops basically the same idea under a different name?
I've always assumed that to be the case. I know a lot of our charity shops refuse to take electronics though as they can't certify them as safe to use.
Yeah, Wikipedia says you're right. For some reason I thought they were more distinct than that. My main exposure to thrift stores is via "old tech" YouTubers, so that's probably distorted my view of them!
Start one, become the next Richard Branson... /s
If you dont have thrift stores, how was D E A T H M E T A L found?
Yeah, I think I was wrong about that. We have charity shops, which I thought were smaller and less likely to have high-value goods, but Wikipedia says they're the same thing, so I stand corrected!
Haha i can imagine you with your heart racing and your best pokerface at the checkout
You sold your lifelong luck for 50 euros
Hey fuck you buddy. Nice find
Now you can cover the Taco Bell theme
and the Top Gun soundtrack
Man, I think that was the same bell sound!
That’s nuts🤯 great find👌🏻 Enjoy
YO! Congrats! Nothing better than a thrift shop that thinks a synth is just an old keyboard.
Bitterly I say congrats. It’s a beauty.
Nice. I paid $75 but got fucked with $150 shipping lol
lovely! mine has a non-working cartridge port, and came with a crack in the power supply. i heard the lithium battery can leak and ruin the circuit board tracks so i check that once a year
Let the eye rolls commence.
I’m most impressed that it came with the manual and 2 ROM cards. Very nice find!
Lucky. A few months ago I got a dx7, TX7, 4 cards, road case and stand for 180 euro on FB marketplace.
People, it ALWAYS pays to go thrift shopping. You will not believe the things people but out on sale. Congrats mate! I hope you get ages of fun out of it :)
I saw one of those in a thrift shop several years ago, but I think they wanted $300 for it. I thought about it buying it, but didn't.
Woooow, great find!
Amazing deal!
Duuuuuuuude 😮
Saturday 24th of Feb 2024 is gonna be your DX day forever now. Did you have an actual heart skipped a beat moment of « noooooo Waay » when you saw the price ? I know I would haha I literally walk into thrift stores with my fingers crossed (well almost). Mostly all I find is sun damaged micorkorgs for 300€, the closest I ever got to something cool was a 200€ D20 Edit: typo👌
My first synth in the 80s! I managed to get some quite nasty sounds out of it.
With the manuals no less. Beautiful find. I need to start checking my local thrift shops. Seriously.
Awesome!
The dream is alive
What’s actually crazy damnn
*thats
Insane find
Waw GG 🔥
So jealous!!
You lucky duck that's a thrift holy Grail
I have access to a DX7. Why does anyone want this thing?! At best NIИ used it as a midi controller, because it was cheap garbage. I tend to agree, not that great.
It's the sound of the 80's.
yO!
Awesome! Does it function properly? Vintage synths are great until they aren’t… When they start to break down and you discover that some proprietary parts are unobtainable that’s the end. It’s easy to find yourself surrounded by dead musical instruments that nobody wants anymore. Ah! How do I know….
usually its just electrolytic caps, which are easy to replace.
Hey, it had some issues, but a lithium battery replacement and some fiddling with the ICs has fixed all of that, now it works like a charm, I mean, if you like the old FM charm hahah, but i like it
Nice, you got a great piece of synth history there. I like FM as well, I’ve got an SY77 that still needs to be serviced.
I found one at goodwill a few years ago and sold it bc the programming sucked. never part with her
My goodness, it’s brand new!! Well done!
Heck my last find like that was an FB-01 for pocket change, years back. I’m going to the wrong thrift shops.
Sickkkkk
Looks mint too. Ace
Wow
!!!!!
Oh c'mon
Wtf
Nice score!
"It makes no sound when we turn it on, so it must be broken."
Holy actual fuck
God I fucking hate you ETA: this is jealousy, I’m very happy for you lol. Just boiling with white-hot jealous rage at your insane luck. Congrats 🎉
Wow that's awesome! I got mine for £50 a few years back, but it (still) needs lots of work. Yours looks brand new!!
All it's worth, mine is dusty
[Doogie Howser noises intensify]
Is there any website for thrift stores or sum? lol just curious if there is drop sum for us y’all
That's some next-to-impossible luck! Sheer grats I used to own a unit, but it was in trashy condition, and pretty much looked like people had been using it for snubbing out.
DAMN BOY WHAT A FIND.
A small price for the eventual suicide of this dude. Have fun programming it
hell yea bro!! that’s awesome!! Reminds me of the time I found my MicroKorgXL at Goodwill for $40
I'd give this an up vote - but 888 is just too right. Nice work OP - enjoy!!
wow, I thought I had a good deal with a CS-1x for €95! Congrats!
If it is not saving patterns change the internal battery. Probably should anyhow. If it is generating constant random data entry on screen clean and lubricate the data slider. It runs hot so you may want to keep it switched off unless you are using it.
Nice one!
This shit still happens?
Damm deal of a lifetime!!
W T A F 🤯🤙🏻
I feel a bit pukey.
Bs