eBay item #260050128118 is a SynthAxe - the ludicrous £10,000 midi guitar that every 80s twiddler had to play - which I wrote about here. I've never seen one for sale before, and certainly not an especially vile red one... Yours for $4,800, pool table not included.
11/10/2006
eBay of the Day: SynthAxe Midi Guitar
eBay item #260050128118 is a SynthAxe - the ludicrous £10,000 midi guitar that every 80s twiddler had to play - which I wrote about here. I've never seen one for sale before, and certainly not an especially vile red one... Yours for $4,800, pool table not included.
Are they really that rare? I've heard of quite a few in circulation.
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine's actually got one that he's had for years (I think he's waiting for the right offer!) - They're incredibly expressive apparently.
~Pev
ugg.. I kinda... like it
ReplyDeleteI recall seeing Al Dimeola playing this POS triggering a Synclav in the 80's. One of the least inspiring guitar concerts I have ever seen.
ReplyDeleteSadly, Alan Holdsworth was a serious SynthAxe shredder in his day; any instrument capable of making the mighty Holds lose all vestiges of credibility is without a doubt a tool of Beelzebub.
ReplyDeleteI actually remember when Holdsworth's SynthAxe was stolen from the Catalina Bar & Grill more than 10 years ago. I believe the guys in Stone Temple Pilots (!) pitched in to buy him a new one.
ReplyDeleteThere was a point, back when Michael Jackson was cool, when I wanted one of these things so badly I could taste it..
ReplyDelete..it tasted of long chain molecules, exotic polymers, and hubris.
this actually kinda brings together a few recent threads:
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Man
roy "future man" wooten uses a synthaxe as a percussion controller, and does some far-out shit w/it.
back in my college days i saw the flecktones and i vividly remember his drum-solo being pretty damn incredible - on par with david "fingers" haynes but maybe even moreso "shredding"...
you must not have been around the other times this Red Synthaxe was listed on the Bay...
ReplyDeletenotice it is missing the piece
ReplyDeleteat the top of the headstock that
says Synthaxe like in the first picture.
ebay listing says "When originally produced, the SynthAxe carried a price tag of 10,000 pounds (approximately $13,000 US dollars)"
ReplyDelete...does he mean now or then? If now, then someone offer him a tenner for it. His maths are bad enough and the £ good enough to pull it off.
Didn't the late great Douglas Adams (of "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" fame) own the only left-handed model?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I remember seeing these in a guitar magazine back in the day and thinking that it was an April Fool's joke or something. It did look really silly, especially the two set of strings that were at a different angle to one another. I couldn't believe it when I found out it was real.
Gary Moore is to be seen playing one (briefly) in the "Out In The Fields" video.
have you heard about wireless midi now? its pretty crazy...off topic, but have you heard about that band Called arms embrace who combines electronica with hard rock? I am not sure what I think about it, but it seems to be blowing up.
ReplyDeletejust pick up one of the casio guitars from the mid 80s (mg510, mg500, pg380, the latter has built in synth sounds). They are "real" guitars with plug n play midi.
ReplyDeleteFirst time during the 80's I saw the SynthAxe Midi Guitar, it was as if Stevie wonder had broken his guitar and tried to fix it himself.
ReplyDeleteGrow up, you guys. None of the other controllers offer this much bang for the buck. The current crop of products from Roland, Line 6, et al. don't work worth beans.
ReplyDeleteI mailed Douglas Adams about this once, back in the day. Apparently Synthaxe didn't ever make a left-handed model, he just put it in the book (Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency) cos he wanted one.
ReplyDeletePlus the guy from the Flecktones only uses the Synthaxe as something to stick his drum triggers on - he doesn't use the actual electronics at all.
I'd still like to try one.