About a week ago the RC-50 looper wouldn't power up and this looked like the Final Disaster. Failing of any expensive component means the music is over as it cannot be replaced. Fortunately it turned out to be the power brick and people rant about power bricks but it's a whole lot cheaper to replace an external power supply than to replace the whole device when the power supply fails.
I don't have the money for another power brick but there are lots of them here. They accumulate as you go along and, after a while, you stop checking the specs on them, the only thing that matters is whether the plug fits. Sure enough, I had one that fit and the RC-50 was working again.
Unfortunately, that was the power brick for the GR-20 guitar synthesizer. I have about half a dozen other power bricks but the plugs don't fit.
The problem is that the GR-20 has not been working reliably and I have suspected the cord that goes to it from the guitar as I have had problems with those before. That cord costs $80 US to replace. So, if I'm to have even a shot at getting the GR-20 going, I need to spend $30-$40 for a power brick for it and then $80 for a cord. Ordinarily, gambling $110-$120 on a $700 device (i.e. replacement cost of the synth) could possibly be worth it but now it's too big a risk.
But.
Guitar Center owes me over $300 from a couple of years ago. I saw a notice about a month ago but it's extremely difficult to get over there. What could be exceptionally cool is if I can find out if the GR-20 works over there without buying anything. The device is just fantastically beautiful when it works. Imagine a clean native electric sound with a synthesizer string sweep behind it. The sound grows and evolves as you listen. And that's just one combination.
Miles Davis said all synthesizers are programmed white but I think really what he says is that only wind instruments can sing the blues, that a saxophone is so wonderfully expressive that nothing else can sing with such purity. To the larger point he may well be right but, as to synthesizers, well ... that was a long time ago.
I don't have the money for another power brick but there are lots of them here. They accumulate as you go along and, after a while, you stop checking the specs on them, the only thing that matters is whether the plug fits. Sure enough, I had one that fit and the RC-50 was working again.
Unfortunately, that was the power brick for the GR-20 guitar synthesizer. I have about half a dozen other power bricks but the plugs don't fit.
The problem is that the GR-20 has not been working reliably and I have suspected the cord that goes to it from the guitar as I have had problems with those before. That cord costs $80 US to replace. So, if I'm to have even a shot at getting the GR-20 going, I need to spend $30-$40 for a power brick for it and then $80 for a cord. Ordinarily, gambling $110-$120 on a $700 device (i.e. replacement cost of the synth) could possibly be worth it but now it's too big a risk.
But.
Guitar Center owes me over $300 from a couple of years ago. I saw a notice about a month ago but it's extremely difficult to get over there. What could be exceptionally cool is if I can find out if the GR-20 works over there without buying anything. The device is just fantastically beautiful when it works. Imagine a clean native electric sound with a synthesizer string sweep behind it. The sound grows and evolves as you listen. And that's just one combination.
Miles Davis said all synthesizers are programmed white but I think really what he says is that only wind instruments can sing the blues, that a saxophone is so wonderfully expressive that nothing else can sing with such purity. To the larger point he may well be right but, as to synthesizers, well ... that was a long time ago.
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