Used Gear
 

If your choice was to buy off ebay sight unseen or buy new gear what would you do? My budget is extremely tight but I am firends with a music store owner. He says the margins are thin on PA gear, but he can get me Yamaha MG166CX for $407. It seems on ebay they sell for half that. My budget is very small. What would you do? PA gear locally is hard to find.

As long as you pay with Paypal ebay is safe. Make sure of the return policy before purchasing though... I have gotten some serious deals from ebay.

Buy it new from your buddy. It'll be under warranty. You'll feel better knowing what you bought wasn't beat half to death by someone else. You could end up saving in the long run, instead of saving short term.

I have no problem with buying used electronics,as long as I can test it in person beforehand.. Sight unseen? No way.

My mixer, power amps, and five of the six units in my processor rack were all bought used. None were bought "sight unseen" without a warranty or good return policy, though.

I bought a power amp from the TB classifieds. It was a great price and has proven to be a great amp.

YMMV

music 123 using the discount code of heart14 it totals to $370.00

I just sold an MG166cx for $175. It was nearly mint. Deals are out there, but buying a mixer means you need to check everything out, I'd be wary of buying one untested, but that's just me I guess.

I have no problems buying used gear, but I don't do Ebay.

so another question:

Alto TS112A and a Prohl sub
or
Peavey PV15D and no sub

Thanks everybody

also, for a 16 channel board with effects how would you guys rate this as far as bang for the buck?

with the yamahas you may want get a warranty. We bought a 16 channel powered yamaha board about 8 months ago to use in the smaller clubs and have had 3 channels go bad on it already. just sent it back under warranty for repair.

The church I just started running some sound out has a big yammy board (unpowered) but they have like 5 or 6 channels marked out that have quit working - dont know how old their board is but it's one of the ones with the built in effects.

That said I've bought a lot of used gear no problems. I have a early 90's small yamaha board (no effects) that I bought used for $100 about 4 years ago and have not had one issue with

ymmv

I'm sure you could find a hot deal on a used unit, but no warranty. I recently bought a 166CX new from my local music emporium, for about what your friend is offering you. I love it - it's one of two or three units in its price range worth looking at.

I have no problem whatever with used gear and Ebay. But my reasoning for buying new was this: I was replacing a mixer I bought used that gave me much heartache. The amount I could save buying used would never, ever make up for the headaches, delays and band problems I just went through with the mixer I replaced. The only thing I'd recommend is that you invest in a hard mixer case to protect that plastic case (the low priced mixers have all gone heavily to plastic, but a hard case solves that problem).

I have a Yamaha MG mixer that I recently gave up on.
Great features for the price, but a nightmare to maintain (in my experience). I almost always have a few dead channels.

The problem is the ribbon cable connections, which seem to corrode easily/fequently. Cleaning them requires removing every knob, nut and bolt of every pot and jack on the top. (No wonder repair places double their bench charge for mixers!) Making the situation even more time consuming is that Yamaha doesn't use male connectors on the ribbon cables...just tinned wires inserted into the board-mounted female connectors. So you need good eyesight and steady hands to reinsert them (two things this over-the-hill bifocal wearing coffee addict doesn't have) without bending the wires out of position.

I have a 15 year old PV board that lacks HPF, channel inserts, etc. of modern boards, but has never given me any problems.

Of course, this is just my experience. YMMV, etc.

My PA rig is comprised of stuff bought on-line new, TalkBass, and CraigsList. Nothing has failed yet (knock on wood) other than an attenuator on a power amp. Before buying, do your research and talk to your local tech. He may give you a heads-up on what to look for and what to avoid.

Riis