via this auction
"It's hard to know where to start with this. First off, Emulator I machines are incredibly rare - I think something like 600 were made in total.
This instrument - well - is the tenth one ever made! The first machine went to Stevie Wonder, the next went to Captain, of "Captain and Tenille". From there, five Emulators were then sold to The Residents. This is believed to be one of these instruments.I emailed Dave Rossum, and he says;
'I remember the Emulator 1's serial numbers were in hexadecimal, so this is serial number 10. I also remember that we used the Wildcard ROM when users had more than one E1, so they could use their disks to boot any machine.
I'm guessing this was one of the four we sold to The Residents. On the web they say their first one was serial #5. I have a vague recollection that the Residents didn't have their machines modified, but I have no certainty that's true.
Alternatively, it might have been a "demo" unit we used at E-mu and some employee bought at one of our old stuff auctions... The serial number 000A does sound vaguely familiar as some special unit.
Best,
--Dave R'
So there you have it. This machine has been gone over by a professional tech, and is working as it should. Here are the details;
The original floppy drive has been cleaned and calibrated.
The "Pratt-Read" keyboard has been rebushed, and contacts adjusted and cleaned.
Minor repairs to the power supply.
Synth has been tested and calibrated.
This machine does come with over 100+ 5¼" disks, many of which are original Emulator sample media. See photos. Note that it also comes with an original "Wildcard ROM" which will allow it to record and play any E-mu Emulator media. And unusually, it does not have the "ugly mod", which makes it very unusual indeed.
It is immensely heavy, and I'd rather local pickup / deliver anywhere in the Bay Area."
