Are you man enough to bid on this?
You know, having an auction for this behemoth seems wimpy. I really wanted a Sword in the Stone kind of challenge instead. I was thinking of setting the DX 1 up on a slab in the town square. You would have to pick up the DX1, get it set, and then carry it with one arm to your car. The downsides would be the lawsuits from hernias, pulled muscles, and strained backs, plus the fact that the DX-1 could only survive so many drops.
Times sure have changed.
Nowadays, anything heavier than a laptop and an M-Audio controller is inconceivable.
When people discuss the keyboard legends of old, you probably hear the phrase "larger than life" being used. Well, I'm here to tell you that wasn't just a saying. The old-time keyboardists *were* larger than life. The average size of your classic rock/prog rock keyboard star back in the day was about 6'8" tall and 290 lbs.
Think about it - why would Yamaha build a CS-80 weighing 220 lbs or a DX-1 weighing 115 lbs? Because they knew the keyboard players of the day could carry it, that's why. Think of your average stack back then -- you'd have a B-3 on the bottom, a Mellotron stacked on top of the B-3, and a MiniMoog on top of the Mellotron. You would have to lug that stuff in and be able to play it all. There's no way you could play that searing lead solo on the Mini unless you were tall.
Have you ever seen those bands set up? The keys player would walk in with a Leslie 122 under one arm and help the roadie carry the B-3 with the other arm. Why, just the Leslie connecting cable weighed as much as some synths today. Setting up and tearing down stacks of synths, organs, and electric pianos was a great way to build muscle and have fun while doing it.
Dennis DeYoung certainly lugged his Oberheim 8-voice around by himself. Tony Banks? Mellotrons were a piece of cake for him. The Mk II or the Model 400 were no problem. Nobody messed with the keyboard players back in the day.
If you win this auction and need to have your friends help you carry it in the house and set it up, then maybe this isn't the synth for you. Maybe try FM8 on a computer instead. If you can't lug 115 lbs around you shouldn't be buying vintage gear. Maybe you should work your way up to this one. Start with a Jupiter-8, then a Synthex, and then a Chroma (with the original power supply). Maybe throw in a Sequential T-8 to change things up. Once you're comfortable with those, then you can think about a DX1.
