Whats wrong with this Neve ?

[NYMo]

Hi there,

For my own education(i don't know much about Neves !)

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Neve-1272-Dual-M ... dZViewItem

Are these...

(a) Too expensive ??
(b) Badly racked (JLM) ??
(c) Don't sound as good as other Neve's ??
(d) All of the above ??

cheers
N
Y
M
O

[Kris]

Rick would be the one to comment most accurately given that he has owned a stack of these, but I would suggest there's nothing wrong with them. If Joe has racked them they'll be done right.

$2,400 sounds about right for 2 x 1272 pre's. Maybe a little on the cheaper side but not much.

[Chinagraf]

From the look of them, there's nothing wrong with them, and if Joe racked them there's even less wrong with them..
The thing about 1272's is they only sound identical to a 1073 pre up until about 40dB gain. Some people jerry rig them to get up to 70db without adding another gain stage and that's where the problems begin. The frequency response changes once you get past the 40db gain level if you have only the original gain staging that has been messed with. Coincidentally, Joe makes a 1272 to 1073 kit that you can add which will give you the same gain as a 1073 (70dB) without altering the frequency response. It would worth asking if these have had that option added.
I have a pair of 1272's from years ago that were racked by the unique and interesting Dan Alexander in the US. Mine are stock, no extra gain or mods and I have to say I have never found myself wishing I had more gain. They are my favourite stereo pair amongst other I have (Shep, V72, Great Rivers, Al Smart, API) and if I wasn't a few months from an @ssbreaking tax bill I'd buy that pair myself. I also use mine when mixing sometimes as the summing amps for my console, I just patch around the in built amps. If you want some Neve sound at a good price I doubt you'd be dissapointed with those.
Cheers.

[rick]

looks like one of joes earlier racking job , butin essence nothing is wrong , that the price i would sell them for but i think they will go much higher .
in my world they would be in a sealed box with better xlr connections and would have a set of vu meters on them , but apparentlyi am not the only guy in the world:)

if you have the bucks buy them

[heathen]

Someone did.

[Brent]

Me. Seemed an ok price so what the heck. The Publison Infernal machine is gunna have to wait.

Noodles for a few weeks....

[heathen]

Noodles for a few weeks....

Suffer, heh. :)