eBay of the year: Yamaha GX-1

Pray silence, please, for possibly the most ludicrous music gadget ever to appear on eBay: Item #7354713788 is a Yamaha GX-1 Synthesizer with over a week to go, but no bid yet at US$200,000. The GX-1 was the predecessor to the CS-80. It's a mighty three-manual synth, with 135 circuit boards and tiny analog sound cartridges, which are programmed by turning minature pots with a jeweller's screwdriver. Around 50 were made, and few ever left Japan. Stevie Wonder bought two at £40,000 each. John Paul Jones from Led Zeppelin had one, as did Keith Emerson, Hans Zimmer, Benny from Abba and the Church of Scientology (but we already knew that L Ron Hubbard was an organ nut). The GX-1 also inspired one of the most wonderful articles that Sound on Sound has ever published: This story by Gordon Reid telling how he bought one through a local paper small ad in Australia and had it shipped back to Cambridge, where he had to demolish his garden fence just to get it into his house. Curiously, this GX-1 is also in Australia.

Posted by Tom Whitwell.

Comments:

I'm willing to pitch in for 1/200th of the cost of this thing as long as the other 199 of you don't mind me having sex with it.

# posted by

Dave : 3:57 am

Anyone satisfy my curiosity? In the SOS article it says that its like mahoosive, but in the picture it doesn't look-a-so biiig. Anyone letta me know why?

# posted by

Anonymous : 1:26 pm

I did the math from the ebay listing...acording to that the thing weighs a total of 1474 lbs. or just a hair under 3/4 of a ton. Check out the photos of the speakers they're huge...What's weird to me is that the ebay listing retells the story of the SOS article with a couple details wrong...Is this the same organ, or just someone stealing Gordon Reid's story?

# posted by

Anonymous : 6:06 pm

It's strange no one seems to want organs like the model Yamaha EX-1/EX-2 Electones as well.
The sound generation is very very similar to the GX-1, though the EX-2 lacks the cool monosynth.

The EX-1 Electone looks virtually identical, feature wise.

Check out some of the late 1970's electones on www.electone.com and you will see what I mean.

Can anyone tell me what substantial differences there are between these and the GX series?

Or should I just keep my mouth shut and wait for one to appear on Ebay. :)

# posted by

Anonymous : 7:00 pm

ELP's version of "Fanfare for the Common Man" was 90% GX-1.

# posted by

Wombat : 8:53 pm

Ebay item 7353775214 is a EX-42 if you are in love with the look of it without the hefty pricetag. It is currently holding at $102.50. about 1/2000th the price. As-is condition, of course.

# posted by

Anonymous : 9:42 pm

They need to re-host thir pics. Bandwidth exceeded.

# posted by

Anonymous : 9:46 pm

Stevie Wonder may have paid that for it, but I doubt he seen the auction !!

# posted by

Anonymous : 9:01 am

Yamaha E-70 & EX-2 service manual for sale on ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=320051383496

# posted by

Anonymous : 7:25 pm

That's what did the bassline in "Does Your Mother Know". Dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum, da-da-lum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum

# posted by

Anonymous : 3:07 am

Guys, I have an EX-2 Electone I may be getting out. I dont know what I will be asking but the thing is in very good condition. I have the history on it from when it came to the states. I am the second owner. I have taken full pics of it, the GIGANTIC rolling speaker, the house box (two dials for house or organ volume), the full pedals and the seat of course. I figure that in the future I could fly it to Mars.... anyhow, it weighs about 1000 pounds with the speaker. It all works and it is really sweet. Let me know if anyone is interested. Only 30 imported to the US. Not many more than that built. Mike 602-330-2220, m.shumaker@GOsimple.biz

# posted by

Mike Shumaker : 4:20 am