would you......hey? fire!

[Phosphene]

Ebay 1176 Compressor

Would you buy an 1176 for $1100 if it had gone through a fire, but came out "unscathed?"

 

[Chris Shaeffer]

Fires are *nasty* and nothing comes out unscathed. If the exterior got a smokey coating you can bet that the interior did, too. It may be working 100% now, but there is no telling how long that will last.

I wouldn't trust it unless I didn't need that $1100. That a pricey risk, though well worth it if the machine turns out to be OK for many more years...

Take care,
Chris

 

[Rodger Hartlett]

it looks OK. 1176 is a very nice compressor that is a standard.

 

[MessianicDreams]

i think i would question why the seller is trying to sell it for so cheap...been thru a studio fire and come out unscathed? ya, right

 

[riffy]

I say don't do it. Like Chris said, fires are nasty and almost as bad, the smoke. I don't know what smoke or resin can do to contacts, etc. maybe nothing but I wouldn't take that risk. Get a Distressor instead

 

[MOFO Pro]

If he really wanted to display the actual condition of the unit... he would have turned the flash on his digital camera... I think the "vintage" look described is a bit more "pronounced" than the picture would indicate.

 

[Deadlove]

He does say "no returns" so I don't know...but if the gear is in the condition he says...it's a deal. Someone made a good point mentioning that it works now but for how much longer can it hold up?

 

[soundchaser59]

I'm surprised you even had to ask the question.......

 

[giraffe]

i pulled my power Mac g4 and my digi oo1 out of the ashes (literally) of my house fire like 4 and 1/2 years ago now.
smoke and water damage to both, everything more than about 2 feet off the ground was actually melted from the heat. (comp and digi oo1 both on floor)

look, i'm not saying nothings wrong, i certainly had things ruined, but seriously........ maybe nothing's wrong.

 

[FALKEN]

you could get a distressor for the same price.

 

[Phosphene]

I'm surprised you even had to ask the question.......

I just wanted to see what you guys would say. I don't trust smoke either.

 

[kid klash]

If it was $300-$400 and I could actually see it and pop the top to look it over, sure thing. But if it's sight-unseen for $1100, I'd pass on it myself.

 

[Robert D]

There's a reason a lot of gear ads say "used only in a smoke free studio". Aside from the smoke damage, there's also the question of how hot it got. Heat has a way of permanently changing component values.
It may be salvageable, but I'd expect to automatically replace all non-hermetically sealed components, and evaluate all components for the effects of things like changed dielectric spacing resulting in changed capacitance, etc. A gamble at best.

 

[Phosphene]

It may be salvageable, but I'd expect to automatically replace all non-hermetically sealed components, and evaluate all components for the effects of things like changed dielectric spacing resulting in changed capacitance, etc. A gamble at best.

Well, I guess I did learn something from this thread.

 

[MOFO Pro]

It may be salvageable, but I'd expect to automatically replace all non-hermetically sealed components, and evaluate all components for the effects of things like changed dielectric spacing resulting in changed capacitance, etc. A gamble at best.

Seller claims it was in a fire... not on fire!!

Seriously though... heat is the number one reason for component failure... the seller states that the actual chassis is more smoke damaged than the face... you have too wonder how hot it got to cook the dinge on... I had an acoustic guitar that I salvaged from my VW Micro Bus after it burst into flames (yup... I'm that old), I just wiped it clean... never smelled right after that though... and I found myself bursting into campfire songs... then the ghost stories after the gig

 

[flamin-gitaur]

Ebay 1176 Compressor

Would you buy an 1176 for $1100 if it had gone through a fire, but came out "unscathed?"

That might sound like a "HOT" deal , but it doesn't take much to melt solder, so who knows what the circuitry is like? There could now be weak connections, bad pots from smoke etc. Personaly I would stay away, especially it is on E-bay.

 

[Kiauma]

Yeah, I doubt there will be any serious takers at a grand.

Let it turn over a few times, see how low it goes...

 

[Gnash5150]

Very tempting! You have to wonder why anyone in their right mind would want to sell an 1176 that performs so beautifully though!

 

[sweetnubs]

dude you can buy a brand new compressor that sounds just as good for about the same amount of money and you won't have to have it recapped. It's not like equipment designers completely forgot how to design decent equipment after 1972. I call bullshit on the vintage gear craze.

TLA, thee sweetnubs.

 

[cortexx]

Be Carefull

I work in the electronics industry and you have the following problems you may have to face with this thing.

1) Nitric acid is very prevelent in the smoke from an internal building fire because of all the plastics and chemicals that burn. Nitric acid likes to corode the surfaces inside potentiometers and attack the surface of circuitboards over time. You will end up with noisy sliders, knobs at least, at worst the delicate etched tracks on the PCB will become faulty.

2) The heat while not enough to fully melt the solder will make the solder slightly brittle meaning solder joins around sockets and controls especially will develope whats known as "dry joints". This can actually be fixed but it's a pain in the ass looking for them on a very busy PCB (they show up as dark rings around the solder pads on the pins of chips and other components).

The heat can also cause breakdown of the electrolytic compound inside tantalum bead, electrolytic and aluminium foil capacitors. This causes them to run out of spec OR completely short out causing them to pop or damage surrounding circuits.

The heat can cause internal degredation of transformer insulation causing weakening which then breaks down during normal use.

3) It stinks and believe it or not no matter how well you clean it your studio will also start to stink!

You can get this thing cleaned , if you remove the PCB and get it dipped in a tank of carbontetrachloride it will remove all traces of the smoke damage and not affect the pcb. However trying to find a place to do this will be very hard!

Some places do this service , it called ultrasonic cleaning and degreasing.

If this is all an acceptable risk then go ahead and buy it