Andy's Garage Part Two

Some of you might remember my friend Andy and his house full of stuff.
Well, I got a call from him saying he wanted to sell me a tube caddy.
So I go over there with the 15 bucks for the caddy and another 85 bones just in case.

OK, so he brings out the caddy:



Right. So Andy, take all the tubes out of it so I can load it up.

"Why? The tubes come with it"

What!!!! :shock: Your joking, right?

"No. I am sick of all this junk. It's depressing."

:shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :? :? :? :? :razz: :razz: :razz: :razz: :grin: :grin: :grin: :grin:





(OK, are you with me so far?)

"Hey Andy, you have any cool iron?"

"Well I have this Peerless K-241-D. They go for about four hundread bucks on ebay. How much money did you bring?"

Oh, I'm down to my last 85 bucks.

"That's cool."

What!

"Well, one of the winding's might be open."

No problem!



Neeedless to say I am having a great day.
Then thing's really got crazy.

"Tell you what, since the transformer might be broke, I give you some freebies."

No problem! The trunk's empty!

So he stuggles back inside the house (the door only would open part way because the house is so packed. He has a collecting problem and I am glad to help him out.)

Five minutes later he struggles back out with this.
It's am Ampex AX-300 1/4 inch stereo reel to reel in mint condition!




I mean.....

So while I am loading up the Ampex, he goes back in the house.
Then all of a sudden the electric garage door opens up and I can barely see him beyond the massive wall of stuff.

He couldn't get out of the garage the front way, so he starts handing me stuff over the top.

First was more iron. Four Western Electrics. (top row) The big guy goes for 1000 bucks a pair on evilbay. But nobody bought his for a hundread, they thought since the price was so low, there must be something wrong with it. So he just gave it to me!

Along with a vintage Stancor (middle left) and a brand new Freed in mint condition that I need for the PEQ.equalizer. And a Paeco pwr tranny. All for free:




OK, so, I mean...what the f..?!

Then more stuff comes over the top. Four more cardboard boxes like this packed with more tubes.

http://vacuumbrain.com/The_Lab/TA/Andys_Garage/tubes_3.jpg

Then ten old chassis packed with vintage components. Cornell Dublier's that go for bucks on evil bay. Spragues,,, tube sockets...

http://vacuumbrain.com/The_Lab/TA/Andys_Garage/stuff_5.jpg

http://vacuumbrain.com/The_Lab/TA/Andys_Garage/stuff_2.jpg

http://vacuumbrain.com/The_Lab/TA/Andys_Garage/stuff_3.jpg

Finally, the car was so packed I had to tell him to stop handing me stuff!

I did manage to squeeze in another Ampex reel to reel.
This one is kind of old. Can't wait to open up the chassis:

http://vacuumbrain.com/The_Lab/TA/Andys_Garage/ampex_1.jpg

http://vacuumbrain.com/The_Lab/TA/Andys_Garage/ampex_2.jpg

My roof is gonna cave in. Thank God the guy downstairs moved out!

:razz:

You know, the funny thing is, even after I downloaded all that stuff, his place looked exactly the same as when I got there. Didn't even put a dent in his stash. So I am glad to help him dig out an escape tunnel in case of an emergency!

cj

you bastard.

:shock:

You had better go give that stuff back!!!

That's seriously not even a dent in his stash? Ok, then, 'cause if it was a dent, I'd put Andy on suicide watch - distributing one's worldly possessions is sometimes a way of settling one's affairs. :sad: Hope he's well and just generous/spring-cleaning/whatever.

Bear

That's un-friggin-believeable. :shock:

Simply un-believeable!

Were you or him sober when all this was going down? :razz:

I can say no more...

...except nice scores, Chris! :thumb:

I'm jealous, big time. Better not try to sell that stuff on evil bay. Bad karma, you know. :grin:

To think there's so much more there... WoW! :shock:

:guinness:

you just made it to my black book.

:shock:

Damn.. Somehow it's both scary and really, really nice to know that this kind of people actually exists...!

Congrats on your score, Chris :thumb:

:grin:

Jakob E.

He has a collecting problem

Click to expand...

That's the definition of the word friend.

I like collectoholics.

/A

:shock: :guinness: :thumb:

Sounds like my garage.

CJ, You're now on my list.

oh yes, I have a list.

...and you don't want to be on it!!!

Keef

That was really rude of your friend to unload all that old junk on you. Sheesh. That crap must be, like what, 50 years old? Did he ask you to take out his kitchen trash too? :wink:

But seriously, About 15 yrs ago I went into a music store that I had never been in before. This was when you could still score some cool stuff in New Jersey at the right Mom and Pop stores (Like an Ampeg V4-B for $150, a Hiwatt that used to be owned by David Gilmour for $400, etc.) I asked if they had any old amplifiers for sale. The guy looked at me like I was crazy. He said "old amplifiers, what do you want an old amplifier for? You wouldn't want to buy and old toaster would you?"

CJ, I think you should mail me all of that garbage so I can properly dispose of it, along with any old toasters you might own.

:sad: :sad: :sad: :sad: :sad: :sad:

I want some stuff to play with I've been searching a lot lately.

almost 10 years ago, my father gave me a V4 that he had when it was reasonably new, that needed tubes and a power cord.

There's one of THOSE stores near me, they recone speakers and service equipment, I hung out there that entire summer (I was 16) They had old broken tube crap everywhere. EVERYWHERE.

I brought them that V4 and asked them to fix it all up for me. Sometime between when I dropped it off and when they called and said it was ready, I lost my job and ran out of money, and wasn't able to pick it up. They sold it off I'm sure.

God how I regret that

I went back in that place about a week ago, to see if they had anything fun for me to play with... all I want is something broken that I can mess with. If anyone has any, it's them. Of course now the story is "oh, well everyone is always coming in here asking for that stuff", so of course there isn't anything for me.

:sad:

I agree, life is f@#%ing beautiful!! if you pay attention.

CJ, that tube Ampex looks like an "A" series. They're nice decks.

Congrats on the cool free stuff.

That kind of reminds me of the day my friend and really good musician songwritter studio owner decided to get rid of everything musical in his life including his 1176 versD that I picked up cheap. Overnight he declared John Lennon and rock'n'roll the devils music, quit drinking, smoking, drugs etc. joined a Christian cult he found on shortwave radio and moved to Alabama to lead his new life. Every possession this guy had was for sale at huge discounts. People reach boiling points in thier life where it's either time to start over or they just flip.

Congrats, CJ! :thumb:

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. :green:

A friend of mine is an eccentric collector type. He told me once " You know, a man spends his entire life collecting his personal treasure. Then he dies and everything he accumulated gets hauled to the dump or auctioned off. Then someone else adds bits and pieces of it to their own personal treasure pile, and the cycle continues ad infinitum." This guy has so much stuff he moves his stuff around on pallets with a forklift. He's quite a sight motoring around his yard wearing a viking helmet (with horns).

Congratulations CJ.
I will send you a list with all the things you can send me. How long the list can be? :green: :green: :green:

chrissugar

Thanks for the cool replys!

I got home last night and noticed the old Ampex vu meter meter scale.

Normal-High.

I need one of those meters on the dash board of my car. :razz:

Andy's wife divorced him because of his collecting problem. He is also a diabetic. Lost his job a while back, but he owns a rental property, so he is doing allright. He is just a nice guy who has too much stuff. He told me he needs about 7 more people like me to help him out. So if there is anyone living in the Bay Area out here, drop me a PM.

There are a bunch of Altec voice of he theatre's in his place, big horns etc. Some huge JBL monitors, turntables, tubes transfoirmers, etc.

Iron: Newcomb, Altec, UTC. Triad, Kenyon, etc.

A lot of the stuff he dosen't even know he has! It's that packed.
Langevin regulated tube pwr supplies, real nice.

RCA transistor channel amps, I don't know what else because it is to hard to get to all the boxes.
cj