Almost unbelievable stories , What good fortune have you had ?

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the landlord of my last studio (80+ years old, worked for television in germany like wdr in the 70s) told me while we were moving in
he had still some stuff in storage that he didn't need anymore....we walked into his storage and besides some huge tape machines i saw two urei 1176ln Rev f and g...AND HE GAVE THEM TO ME FOR FREE!
 
Last fall I went to the waste collection station to dump trash and recycling. Laying on top of the trash crusher dumpster were two bundles of golf clubs taped together at the shafts (16 or 17 total). I put them in my car. Got home and looked them up. All high-end and moderately to lightly used. $800-1500 total value based on sold prices on eBay.
 
At my first 'real' job as a teenager, I made friends with and older gentleman and started talking about guitars. The next day he offered me what he called an 'old junk guitar' for $50. it turned out to be a 1962 Fender Jaguar, all original for $50 (no case). It needed a good setup but I still play that guitar to this day.

Another good one was back in the day, Amazon had a short lived auction section to compete with eBay. I placed a $50 bid on a 1974 Fender Rhodes 73 suitcase and won it. Even in the late 90s they were selling for much more. I still have it but too bad I can't play it very well.
 
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Years ago I bought a non-working guitar amp (a Kustom I think) at a yard sale for $20. I couldn't fix it, but it had 2 EVM 12L's that I removed and have used on and off in other amps (but too heavy for me now). When I moved I sold the defunct amp without the speakers for $20 in a yard sale.
 
I picked up a pair of Studer C37's from the local newspaper free adds page some years back ,
I think I paid around 200 euros for the lot ,
was a most enjoyable 100 hours work to get one going .

I found an old Peavey bandit (80's era)in the recycling heap the other week ,
I bet it would have been an easy fix , sadly I didnt have the room to give it a home ,

I'm equiping myself with loads of cordless tools lately , often the battery has been discharged to the point the system charger registers a fault and wont work .
A hobby style lipo balance charger is all thats needed to raise the cell voltages to the point the battery functions again .
Handheld Dyson vaccum cleaners seem to be getting dumped by the boat load now ,
usually they just need a charge and a cleaning of the filters and they work again .
theres a video on Youtube about resetting the battery memory with a pic programer ,
of course as they are lithium ion batteries caution is advised ,

The cost of this throwaway society is war and leads to refugees and asylum seekers arriving on our shores ,
were digging our own graves ......
 
Tubetec said:
The cost of this throwaway society is war and leads to refugees and asylum seekers arriving on our shores ,
were digging our own graves ......
Click to expand...
That does not logically follow, in my judgement.
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Disposable products do not save money for the customers long term so diminishes wealth accumulation.

JR
 
I saved a C451 from the bin at a university media lab. It needed about a minute before it worked when powered on. I guess it's users weren't that patient...

I haven't done anything about it. I estimated it would fail completely one day, but it only got better. It still doesn't work with some USB powered interfaces. It works with a Sound Devices USB Pre, fi, but not with a Scarlet.

I also saved an RME FF400 from the bin at a studio. It didn't connect to the computer. I had almost given up when I decided to test with a very old driver on a G4 I keep around to set up old AirPort routers. It connected immediately. I was already in the process of refurbishing the G4 powerbook to use it with the RME, when I mistakenly plugged into a recent MacBook. To my surprise, it worked there too.

The FF400 failed again a few years later. I recapped it and it's still working today.

I guess in both cases the caps must have reformed. Both the C451 and the FF400 had been powerless on the "to go" pile for over a year. And both had been tested without putting any effort into it.
 
With the band I was playing with in the 90s, we shared practice space in a warehouse with another band. One of the guys had a Neumann U87 next to an ashtray as a decoration. He said it didn't work and that I can have it if I wanted it. I wasn't aware of what it was until years later when I started getting into recording gear. It kinda worked but sounded bad and was intermittant. I opened it up and the capsule was covered with crud and nicotine. I did a little research and sent it to Klaus Hayne to see if it could be salvaged and to my surprise, he got it cleaned up and sounding great. He also mentioned that it appeared to be modded by Stephen Paul. I still have this mic as well but never looked to see what the mod actually was.
 
I was also on the other side of 'good fortune' many times as well. Like when I sold a blackface Fender Twin Reverb for $200! OUCH! hahaha
 
I discard stuff from time to time that still works (like a few baseboard heaters last month). I generally avoid selling used stuff because then you can end up responsible for the stuff continuing to work. 🤔 Trash pickup day from my yard is popular with some of my neighbors.
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Maybe a decade ago I gave away an old but still working snapper lawn mower. The guy I gave it to was driving around with his young son and asked me about it while I was out working in my yard. I helped him load it up into the back of his pickup truck by telling him to back it up to the bank by my rain ditch. The mower had an ethanol compromised carburetor that dripped fuel (the repair for that was a gas cut off valve). I showed him how to start it and sent him on his way.
===
A few years ago I gave away a still working 22" lawnmower to an old friend I knew from years ago working at Peavey. I don't expect either of those transactions to bounce back for a service call.

JR
 
Ok lets say we have a country in deepest darkest Africa with loads of resources the electronic industry wants ,
how do you get it out ?
You fuel civil unrest , then arm the rebels , once the new leadership takes over ,it turns the place to shit , everyone wants out , the puppet government is in the favour of who ever sent them the armaments .
Whats so difficult to understand about that ?
Is Afganistan any different ?
https://www.mining.com/how-afghanistans-1-trillion-mining-wealth-sold-the-war/
 
I was replying to Johns previous comment that he doesnt see a connection between the huge quantities of electronic waste our modern society creates and the need for wars .
 
Tubetec said:
I was replying to Johns previous comment that he doesnt see a connection between the huge quantities of electronic waste our modern society creates and the need for wars .
Click to expand...
I apologize to the forum if I am the proximate cause for this. 🤔
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@Tubetec I am pretty sure people fought wars before there was an electronics industry.

JR
 
Wars are fought over resources , whatevers in demand at a particular moment .
Just because there was wars fought before there was an electronics industry doesnt mean the west hasnt sown the seeds of rebellion and installed puppet governments to get their hands on the raw materials needed for electronics production , or maybe thats progress in your book .
 

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