Ones that got away…

You must have done it – sell something that you think is redundant and then years later regret it, I know I have…

Leaving the USA hard-tail Strat aside (as this isn’t a guitar related blog thingy), the one I really regret selling was an Oberheim OB-1 number 00036.

The OB-1 was the first commercially produced monophonic synth with memories. Only eight, but that was eight more than anyone else! A truly stunning feat as there was no microprocessor in there it was all done with discrete digital logic. Same principle as later programmables such as the Prophet V, scan all the pots in quick succession, digitise the voltages on each and store the values in RAM. Use a synth voice where every parameter is voltage controlled and derive all these voltages from the previously stored values to be able to recall sounds at will.

However it isn’t the programability that I now miss, it is the truly glorious sound of a synth with the smooth Oberheim filter that is quite different to the MiniMoog that replaced it.

Ho hum…

PS: Finally resolved this problem by getting a “modern” Oberheim 2 voice. Still not programmable but the bonus of having two of those lovely filters and a very capable MIDI sequencer as well…