Introducing the Soundgas B Channel

If it ain’t broke… (or even if it is)

None of the gear we bought and used was serviced (we were able to do basic stuff such as cleaning sockets, pots and sliders) – at the time it was just considered out of date and too cheap to be worth it. These were the days when you could find perfectly good polysynths and guitar amps thrown in skips/dumpsters: I wheeled a Marshall 2100 Lead & Bass 50 combo I found in the pouring rain (thankfully it had casters) back to my flat where it dried out and remained for a couple of years until I found a tech to fix it – all original and sounded stunning. Even now, as I look around my studio at the gear I’ve used for years, a great deal of it has still not been thoroughly serviced. Some is quite cranky, but it generally does the job: as it’s my own set up, I can live with or work around faults. It’s not the same as a commercial or professional room where things need to be 100% reliable.

Soundgas began because I’d grown weary of the level of misrepresentation of vintage gear online – mostly on eBay, which was the main game in town (long before Reverb) and wanted to offer an alternative: interesting and old gear sold with the promise it would be as described. We didn’t have any in house techs and much was bought and fettled as best I could, with stalwart assistance from what became a solid network of independent techs, many of whom had been fixing gear for years – trained in the era of TV repair shops and valve amps.

Investing in the future (isn’t cheap)

Soundgas has grown and our tech training apprenticeship, overseen by our senior techs, means we now have a team of eight talented techs who refurbish the gear we sell to the highest standards. We still use a few carefully selected external techs – usually because they specialise in certain types of gear – but many of the original independents we used are either no longer trading or their quality of work does not match the high bar we’ve set for Soundgas.

We have built our reputation for honesty and quality by selling vintage gear that’s been refurbished to the highest standards possible and which comes with a warranty. This is not something that can be done both well and inexpensively (especially internationally) and the price of such gear reflects the time and expertise we put into it. The upside of this is our customers get the very best (‘vintage gear that works’), but the downside is other dealers (who might not be so meticulous) and many private sellers assume that if a Soundgas Space Echo costs £2,000 then their’s is worth the same. Maybe it is… maybe your jaw will hit the floor when you hear it and it will run with no issues for years. And hey, maybe if there’s an unforeseen problem with it after six months they’ll take it back and fix it for you…

However, what has been happening of late with vintage synth asking prices online is disconnected from all sense – or distinction between well-serviced excellent examples from experienced sellers and those in average (or below) condition with no more than the seller’s assertion that ‘it works fine.’⁠ It’s not Reverb’s fault that people are taking advantage of an overheated market to ask high five or even six figure sums for unserviced CS80s, but when their system then sends automatic emails advising that ‘this is a bargain’, because it’s been reduced by 50% to ‘only’ £54k, then the messaging and the market is being further distorted.

Taking a look at Roland Juno 60 listings on Reverb a couple of weeks back I saw private sellers asking £3500-4k (there was even a ‘bargain’ Juno 6 with Tubbutec kit listed in the 60 section – because it’s ‘better’ than a 60?) – many were private individuals selling synths in average condition ‘As-Is’ (Reverbspeak for no returns/warranty). Caveat fricking Emptor, people.