Immediate gear selling regret

The Lounge
#1

Keen to know if anybody ever experienced this.

In summary:

Sold my beloved Roland mc-101 to fund a purchase of an mpc one.

Full disclosure: for my entire life spent making music (12 years) I was born and raised on MPCs. Started with a 2k, then got the 1k maxed out with jjos 2xl (the greatest sampler/sequencer of all time in my opinion) also had the 2500 maxed out for a while. So it’s fair to say i like mpcs, I make sample based hip hop and their workflow… well it worked for me.

Fast forward to now. I the last two years I’ve owned:

Digitakt - served me well albeit with too much work needed on my end for workarounds that’s I would normally get done quickly on an mpc. Sold

Roland sp404a - loved the sound, loved the effects, but connectivity, lack of pressure sensitive pads and workflow I fell out of love. But not a bad box - sold

1010 music black box - it’s a great little box, when the mpc gets here it will have to go. I have a few frustrations with workflow and OS. But the build quality was sublime and I was able to put tracks together quicky. Maybe a keeper but maybe sell to find the rest for the mpc one.

And then there’s the Roland mc-101…

This little box has been the biggest injection of life into my music production in the last 8 years. It’s form factor, build quality, immediacy of workflow, it’s sound. I Mean everything about this was amazing. I truly loved it. And with the imminent release of rolands new firmware and rumour of an editor down the line I’m left thinking…

I made a huge mistake.

Anybody else ever face this?

Thanks guys

10 Likes
I was gonna sell it...then I didn't....thankfully
Thinking of doing something stupid (swapping out Machinedrum for modular drums)
#2

Analog Heat MK1. Made everything bump and crisp. Sold it, and stuff sounded so flat. Picked up a MK2 when it released. Never letting it go.

OT MK2. It does so much, and a week after selling it I regret letting it go. I put a lot of time into it. Debating really hard as to pick one back up. It solves many problems as an all in one box.

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#3

Sold a Korg Oasys because of a looming bankruptcy. I had it for about 2 years and made the best music I’ve ever been able to produce. An absolute dream machine. Thought I’d end up getting a Kronos, but after using the Oasys the Kronos felt cheap and that played tricks on my mind. Made me feel like it sounded different.

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#4

That’s a good point I should have mentioned…

Octatrack

So much posts about learning curve and clunky workflow have made me avoid it.

But it there is one box that is the king of seller regret it’s undoubtedly the octatrack. At least from what I observe

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#5

More times than I can count in my forty years of electronic music. Don’t ask about the Yamaha CS-60 or Jupiter-4!

However, one time beats 'em all. Quite some years ago, I bought a beautiful, near mint ARP 2600 for the paltry sum of $680 - the only extra cash I had at the time. It had been brought into Guitar Center where a friend of mine worked. The owner wanted to trade it for a guitar for his son. I didn’t have the space for it, and I tried to talk the seller into letting me help him sell it to someone who would be willing to pay much more. However, he didn’t want to wait and a few minutes later, I got a call from my friend asking me if I wanted it for $600+shipping.

I had it for years, tucked into a crowded space in my over-stuffed studio. However, I finally decided something had to give - and I really wanted a new Wacom Cintiq, so I put the 2600 up on eBay. I put a pretty high (for the time) Buy It Now price on it. I then walked down the block to the grocery store with my son who, hearing what I’d done, insisted that I cancel the auction. I decided to do exactly that once we’d gotten back from the store.

You can probably guess what happened. By the time we’d returned it had been purchased. It took less than 20 minutes. I could have cancelled the sale, but couldn’t stand the thought of disappointing the buyer - I’d been in those shoes before and it sucked.

So yeah, that was the one I kicked myself over for years. I promptly made a new rule: never sell something old and rare to buy something currently in production.

It took me years to replace the old dear and it cost me ten times as much to get my second one! Needless to say, this one isn’t going anywhere. :upside_down_face:

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#6

I wanna like this, but I also wanna cry for you at the same time.

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#7

Never had any instant regret, normally because the need for money far outweighed the future hope that I might use something later on. But looking back, I’ve sold a lot of gear that I would love to have with me right now just to see what I think after gaining experience. This includes multiple guitars and amps, the EHX HOG, EHX English Muffin, Moog MF-104 Delay, Octatrack Mk1 (though I learnt my mistake and got the Mk2 recently enough), TE OP-1, Elektron Digitakt, Analog Keys, Tascam 414, Yamaha SU-10, the list goes on and on

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#8

Jesus Christ…

I wont ask how long ago it was but an arp 2600 you got for 600 sheets sounds like a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Man that must have killed.

But despite the cost you paid to get it again I’m humbled it brought you so much joy.

Maybe the same thing will happen to me.

When I sold my mpc 1000 I got more than I paid for it due to the third party jjos adding significant value to the box. But man i still regret it.

I bring this up because Roland has an imminent release of a firmware upgrade for the mc 707 and 101 which will elevate these units massively. Rumour has it they are developing an editor for them too.

Now i have to think maybe I should have waited simply for getting a better price.

My situation is very similar to yours. Listed last night at a fair price on eBay, woke up this morning the funds were in my paypal. I totally agree not my style to dissapoint a buyer.

Thanks for sharing. What a story!

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#10

I figure if you haven’t used something in something like a year, it’s wasting space and maybe someone else will use it more. What goes around comes around :slightly_smiling_face:

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#11

Nord Modular G2 rack… And my Nord Mod G1 keys. Miss them both dearly. Will probably never have the extra money to replace them. Wish there was a Reaktor Blocks Nord Mod simulation. Love Reaktor, but hard to get the filthy grimy sound of the Nord Mod.

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#13

Yup, Monomachine (twice, once for a Spectralis 2), Tempest (for a MDUW), WMD Synchrodyne + Expander & Nonlinearcircuits CellF system (for cash)…Oh yeah the Nord G2 with the expansion card… But the only thing from that bunch that I wouldn’t buy back is the G2.

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#14

Yep, we’ve just got to bide our time right now :slightly_smiling_face:

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#16

Pay for postage online and get the package collected. Not rocket science.

Also people are buying a lot right now online. I know I am.

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#17

The only real regret I had was selling off a Korg PolySix when I decided I was going to hold off on music to focus on painting and drawing. It was in really good shape as well and sounded lovely. I hadn’t used it in years, but it featured prominently in many of the recording from those early years, and I have yet to acquire another analog poly of similar calibre. I mean I have a volca keys, but it’s not exactly the same thing.

This is why, when I know that I really never want to sell a piece of gear, I will personalize it a little. Usually I do this with a sticker or inscribing my name on it. So even if I don’t use it for a year I know that I shouldn’t sell it, I’ll come back to it. I wouldn’t even get much money for it, after all, because to anyone else it’s defaced. Nothing too extreme mind you, nothing that couldn’t be undone with some effort and nothing interferes with the functionality.

It’s been working out alright so far. I would say about 60% of my gear has a little drawing or sticker on it. The rest are modules and roland boutiques.

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#18

An Ovation Breadwinner: Long-out-of-production, obscure electric guitar shaped like a stylised battle-axe. Picked it up for a song in an estate sale.

It sounded fierce and was very comfortable to play but I was a broke university student in the late ‘80s and a mate’s dad made me an offer I couldn’t turn down.

For a year after, every time I went to their place his dad would enthusiastically play me something he’d learned on it and I’d just feel a tad bereft. Stopped dropping by in no small part due to the sense of regret.

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#19

Dang, that actually looks really cool.

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#20

AR mk1, I had so much fun with that guy. Had it in my head it wasn’t for me till I was boxing it up. Absolutely miss that thing to this day.

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#21

nord rack 2x, 0coast, dfam.
I miss them quite often but I would sell them again, cause I just don‘t want to own too much stuff.
Good thing, they are all easily available any time.
So is your mc101. If it gave so much to your music why not just buy another one?

2 Likes
#22

I only really regret getting rid of my Digitakt not once but TWO times. The first time was because OB wasn’t out and I felt it wasnt worth waiting around for without a time line (the public beta came out like 6-8 months later so it kinda worked out.)

The second time I really had no choice. Really, really tough financial time. I had to sell like 70% of my gear to make it through the month and it was my most valuable possession aside from my car which obviously I needed more.

Even though it was necessary, I often think maybe I could’ve found a way to keep it. It was the most inspiring piece of gear I ever had. I picked up a model:samples last week to make up for the loss but even though it’s dope it’s just not the same. I’m probably just gonna return it and try to get another DT when funds allow it. I’ve also considered the 101 but the Elektron workflow has a hold on me like no other when it comes to boom bap beats.

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#23

ha. forgot the DT. Also sold it twice, still want it back :see_no_evil:

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