MOTM

1) Anybody ever hear of a semi-modular (2600-like) synth called the Studio
One from
"Advanced Tools for the Arts" in Tempe, Az? I got a full spec sheet. The
picture looks
like a big MS-20 (patch points grouped off to the right side) and the
bizarre thing
is that the picture is of the synth sitting in a junkyard on top of a
burned-out farm tractor.

And I noticed the pice printed was $2400 but the person hand-wrote it to say
$2700! :)

It also honestly says "These are handmade one at a time: expect 90-120 days
for delivery". I wonder if he sold one or not :)

2) A Prophet 5 was $3995, but for $1000 more you could get a Prophet 10!
Now, this was 1982,
and times were tough!

3) Found the Aires catalog. They list 5 folks: Frank Fink, Dennis Colin (as
'consultant'),
Arthur Pennell (cheif Engineer), James Bastible (Production) and my fav:
tech grunt
Dennis Graham ("He is an enigma to us all. He is willing to apply his
knowledge to our project"). This scares me.

BTW: A full system in kit was $895 and $1500 assembled. Jan 1975 prices.

As a side note: Aries used to be called B&F Enterprises. They sold Nixie
tube clock kits and
one wall clock with Sperry +180VDC tubes. These things were like $700!

The kits were in the $49-79 range. This sounds cheap, but I was making
$3.85/hr *before*
taxes. It took me about 2 years to save the money!

Paul S.