New Toys

[floppybootstomp]

Several weeks ago I died a death doing a disco at my niece's wedding, I've mentioned it.

CD's jumped, stuck, stopped or simply refused to play.

Ground open up and swallow me.

POS cheapo CD players were the prob, the make was Gemini, the prognosis was not good. I vowed 'Never again'. At least I always knew where I was with vinyl

So I decided to buy a pair of Vestax CDX05 black CD players as me mate has a pair, I've used them, they're good. Problem. Sold out, none in stock, discontinued, company possibly gone bust.

Bugger.

I ask for a substitute, Pioneer CDJ100S's are the closest without being crap but they cost another £100.00 a pair.

I'm told these decks are very basic, don't play mp3's, very few effects, but they are basic, solid, dependeble decks that won't let me down. Why didn't somebody point me at these in the first place?

I said to the geezer in Cricklewood 'They'll do, but I only have £600.00. I can collect, saving you money on your free postage offer and I can pay cash'.

He said 'I can do that' so I drove there the next day and bought them.

And here they are, some pix.

It's amazing how beat up me coffin looks in a domestic enviroment, lol, it's usually only outed in a sleazy pub or club somewhere in lo-lite.

That's a Behringer DJX700 mixer, btw, I've had that over a year, very happy with it.

I've soak tested these decks now for about 12 hours, seem good. They are very basic, no frills, which is what I like.

No CD's have jumped, skipped, hopped or otherwise given me the finger (so far)

I'm testing them with my valve amp and a pair of cheapo Eltax speakers, they're in the pix.

I had to make a new piece of top wood for the coffin and I took the old Gemini twin CD player out the back of the box, that's the blank piece of wood you can see, yet to be filled, primered, undercoated and painted.

These players feel solid, handle easily and this saturday when I do a birthday party in Peckham, hopefully I can feel confident.

I've been doing discos since 1971 and it's only recently I've not felt totally reliable on playback equipment. Progress?

Vinyl was good, I much preferred finding stuff in boxes of vinyl, I knew every singles cover whereas digital is mostly just lines of text, the song titles just do not leap out at you. But vinyl weighed heavyand it jumped on sprung floors.

Here's me new decks anyways, they don't look posh, this is a working unit usually only wheeled out in low light.

I have a booking this Saturday and September 5th and 12th, and that's it.

I best get some more to pay for this stuff

 

[nivrip]

Love the coffin, Flops.

Where did you get that? Some dodgy deal with the local undertaker?

 

[muckshifter]

... I thought you were retiring from disgo life.

Need to give that coffin a lick o' paint, purple would be nice.

I think TC wanted you to play at the PCR BBQ

Them "decks" look the part, enjoy!!

 

[captain zed]

I was wondering why you were calling the set up a coffin....now i know.
I actually feel better with vinyl and only a DJ knows about record sleeves jumping out at ya when your siftin through a big pile...anyway best of luck at the gigs...also if ya wanna give the set up a test get a few kids to run about while the decks are aare playingto see if they jump much. Also you could consider putting something soft or rubbery between the coffin and the deck for some extra dampening...i used to use rubber doormats for the job....i'm getting all nostalgic. I will have to take a few shots of me room and post them. The mixer looks good with 5 channels to play with and i like the way its dropped into the coffin and not standing proud to catch all sorts of stuff.
I could rant here forever man. Any ideas how much a set of sl's are fetching lately??
Zzzzz

 

[Taffycat]

...

Need to give that coffin a lick o' paint, purple would be nice.

I think TC wanted you to play at the PCR BBQ

If you haven't dismantled the marquee yet Mucks, perhaps we could still persuade him - the bouncy castle would give the equipment a good test.

Does all look good Sir Flopps, Bet it'll sound good too

 

[floppybootstomp]

Love the coffin, Flops.

Where did you get that? Some dodgy deal with the local undertaker?

Thank you My ex-brother-in-law, Rob the chippie, made it for me in 1980.

Mucks:

I retired in 2001 but twin daughters dragged me out of retirement to do their 18th Birthday party at Glastonbury in 2006.

In it's time the coffin has been black, white, orange and gold but never purple. It will probably stay black. I'm trying to find an artist to commission a new design for the lid.

I'm up for the BBQ, bring your own instant foil dish with a few coals and a pork sausage

Captain Zed:

Thanks for the comments, and it's true, just can't beat vinyl. But it's no fun lugging five boxes between two of you up six flights of stairs. never had many problems with sprung floors and records jumping, funnily enough but can remember at some places when they was going a bit nuts gingerly holding the turntable playing with two hands by the edges to stop the record jumping.

SL1200's are about £800.00 a pair with no carts and no mats

TC:

Thanks for the comments

We have a special bouncy castle this time, everybody bouncing wears a swimming costume and is covered in goo

Should make things interesting.....

Pix of the front of the box here btw

 

[Abarbarian]

Nice handles , very Drac like .