EMS Synthi 100

via this VEMIA auction
"This wonderful Synthi 100, serial number 3007, was owned originally by Bruno Spoerri. He used it for many years. At some stage he decided he wanted some more variety within this massive system, and changed some of the modules' circuitry to more modern analogue designs. Because of the modular nature of the beast (all the important boards are contained within card-frames for simple removal and work) it would be easy to return these to their original design - all parts are still readily available. But our feeling is that it would be good to start with Bruno's mods intact, and only change back if they proved not to the new owner's taste. After Bruno Spoerri, it was owned by Felix Visser of Synton, who bought it as one of the centrepieces of a massive museum planned for the Netherlands. The museum never happened, and so he sold it 18 months ago. The new owner unfortunately has hit a crisis which involved having to move out of his current studio and home, and so the Synthi is up for sale again. It is in very good cosmetic condition. There is some marking where damage to one of the massive pin matrices has been repaired - see the photo - and a small amount of corrosion on the right of the serial number panel. Apart from that, and the odd scuffs and marks consistent with its 35 years' life, it is really lovely. The 'producer desk' in between the two matrices has been repaired and re-tolexed and looks great. All knobs are beautiful; all keys on the twin-manual keyboard are excellent. It needs some servicing: Output channel 1: full on, slider not effective. Some other mixer sliders feel a bit rough, but sound smooth enough; Output channel 5: not working; panel lights: not working; meter 4 light: not working; sequencer: not tested fully but the counter and reset work fine. Oscillator 5: not working; oscillator 12 (LFO): not working; frequency counter: probably not working properly - counts OK, but doesn't seem to respond to frequencies. Filter bank: not tested. Ring mod: not tested. EQ1: not working; EQ2: working in every respect except not triggering from keyboard or button; EQ3: triggering, working as envelope, but internal VCA not working. Input amp XLR socket missing its locking thing. VCF6: not working; VCF7 and 8: not working (inverted, strange behaviour). Top keyboard: 1 note iffy; bottom keyboard: pitch drifting. There are some aspects of the mods that need exploring more fully, so would also count as not tested. That still leaves perhaps 90% of this amazing machine working well. We have asked EMS experts Lucidsounds to estimate the cost of a full service, and their estimate is £2000. Please look at the photo carefully. It's difficult for space reasons to take a proper picture of the whole machine; please note that the back picture was taken when some of the heaviest modules had been removed for safe transport - hence the dangling connector, etc.. This comes with the stand for the keyboards, the back panels, a generous number of matrix pins (including some for the sequencer) - well into three figures, we think - and the original manuals, massive tomes like old bibles. This is the eighth out of less than 30 of these incredible machines, and one of very few (just 3 or 4?) to go to a private studio, so much less likely to be abused during its life by a succession of careless students or employees."