StudioMaster 16-4-2 - Any opinions?

[chess999]

Hello Guys,
I'm thinking of purchasing this board to get some "roughness" to my otherwise overly clean digital tracks. I don't want to sum with it, just use it for passing tracks through and printing to tape and for routing from tape to my computer. Any one with experience with these boards? I've heard everything from they have great eqs, to noisy preamps, to fat bottom, to crappy pots. Were the older 70's ones with VU's better than the later 80's models with leds as I've head on gearslutz before?

Thanks so much,
DG

[Richard King]

I sold a 24 channel version (a 16 channel board with two add on 4 channel modules) to a now very prominent FOH engineer (Rob "Cubby" Colby). He didn't have national experience at the time, but he was respected in the local Twin Cities market. He used the Studiomaster while mixing for one of the most popular bands in the Twin Cities (Daisy Dillman Band) and was always quite pleased with it. Eventually he moved on to FOH positions with Kansas, Prince, Genesis, Phil Collins, Bob Seger, Shakira and a ton of other rather well known acts. He liked the EQ and was able to get quite a good sound out of the board. It even held up well for him on the road, although once in a while one or two of the buss wires connecting the modules together would need to be re soldered.