NMPD ...my Sebatron Axis200VU has arrived.
 

About a year ago I was in the market for a new mic pre. It took awhile but I eventually narrowed my choices down to the Hendy Rembrandt and the Sebatron Axis 200VU. I wound up going with the Hendy and that turned out to be fortuitous because I ended up getting upgraded to the DaVinci model for no additional cost because Chris Hendy didn't have a chassis on hand for the Rembrandt ...so sweet deal.

I saw someone selling the Sebatron on Reverb yesterday. They were asking $1650 for it which I thought was much too high considering the unit costs $1950 brand new. I made an offer of $1150. I knew it was low but that was about what I was willing to pay for a used one. The seller came back with an offer of $1550 which I declined.

Then I checked to see if there was one on eBay. I've looked before from time to time but never saw one. This time it was there and for $10 less than my offer to the guy on Reverb. At less than 60% of the price for brand new, I feel like I got a very good deal. Looking forward to getting that baby in the rack.

For anyone interested...

Congrats, it looks like you have a acquired couple of world class preamps! The demos sound awesome, and you got a steal with the Sebatron IMO.

Should be here tomorrow. I'm pretty psyched.

Is it the Sebatron 4000? I've been watching that guy drop his price for weeks now. He rejected my offer of $1100.

It's the Axis 200VU. That was the unit I almost bought about a year back. It has a pad/gain knob that allows you to dial in as much or as little color as you want which makes it a very flexible pre. The 4000 doesn't have that knob.

You might be thinking of the VMPQuadPlus that's on Reverb for $1800. That's a nice unit if you need four channels. It sells for $2k from Sebatron but Soundpure is listing it as brand new and the Sebatron site says they're a US distributor so I'm assuming that it comes with the 3-year Sebatron warranty.

It's the Seb 4000-e that I've been watching. Rockabilly69 here has been RAVING about it for a while and I'm looking for a 4-channel pre.

Looks like he pulled it.

Somehow I never came across any of Rockabilly69's post on that unit. But I'm most intrigued by the pad/gain knob and the 4000 doesn't have it so that one wasn't really on my radar.

I don’t know if he’s written about it. We live in the same town and he’s been pushing me to dive in and get one.

He's probably right. You should get on that. ;)

He is almost always right. He's the most expensive friend I have! ;)

I have the same friend but I call mine "Jack." I'm pretty sure at least $40k worth of recording gear has passed through my hands over the last 15 years or so ...and I blame him. Okay, I was willing ...but I still blame him.

He called me the other day with "THERE'S A BLUE KIWI ON EBAY YOU HAVE TO BID ON IT I'D BID $700 AND THAT WOULD BE A STEAL!!!"

And now I find myself with Ebay and Reverb alerts for TLM 102s, Sebatron pres, various Neve clones....

But I did not hesitate last week to nab a KM184 for $450 when it popped up on Reverb!

I have a Kiwi. It's a really nice mic with a U87 flavor to it. When I pair it with my Demeter VTMP-2C it's beautiful, especially on female voices..

I am now 99.999999% certain you are Rockabilly69