Rockman SD 12 CEM-500 MIDI Programmable Stereo Half Stack

The Rockman 500 watt Guitar Stack. Gotta have one of those!
Sunburst
Posts: 270
Joined: Sun Mar 30, 2014 12:46 am

Re: Rockman SD 12 CEM-500 MIDI Programmable Stereo Half Stack

Post by Sunburst »

All,

I listed it on eBay last night:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-SR-amp-D-R ... RK:MESE:IT

Again, I'm inclined to keep it but will consider generous offers!

Very respectfully,

Sunburst
RockmanCentralBob
Posts: 421
Joined: Fri Feb 06, 2015 2:10 am

Re: Rockman SD 12 CEM-500 MIDI Programmable Stereo Half Stack

Post by RockmanCentralBob »

Damn, that's a knot!!
Good luck with that!

Makes me wonder what a full stack, autographed by Tom Scholz, with a Rev 20 in it would go for?

Care to make an offer?
Sunburst
Posts: 270
Joined: Sun Mar 30, 2014 12:46 am

Re: Rockman SD 12 CEM-500 MIDI Programmable Stereo Half Stack

Post by Sunburst »

Bob,

Hmm...

The beauty in my half stack is that it is factory and it is MINT! SR&D stage heads and Rockman 500 amplifiers go for over $1000 each in decent condition (and $1500 or more isn't uncommon), if you can even find one for sale! Same probably is true for the speaker cabinets. But this example has MINT examples of all three! Plus it has the factory wired SD 12 CEM-500, which is the only variant one might consider keeping "as is." So add $1250-1500 for the modules (maybe more for the factory wiring)! In decent condition, it would cost at least $4000-6000 to acquire this setup - again, if you could even find the individual pieces. So my $12,499.99 BUY IT NOW price is high - although there is a BEST OFFER option - but this is a once in a lifetime find that I'm not going to give away at average market value!

Reference your REV20 full stack, is it an SR&D REV 20 or a clone? As you know, an SR&D REV 20 is worth several thousand dollars. But I know Boston acquired one of the clones and it did not function exactly like a factory REV 20 - specifically, the compressor stage, which also affected the AUTO CLEAN. So it's hard to determine the value on a REV 20 clone. Everything else comes down to condition. Assuming yours are in decent condition, $1000-1500 for the stage head, $1000-1500 for the Rockman 500, $1000-1500 each for the speaker cabinets, and either $1250-1500 for the modules or a lot more with an SR&D REV 20!

But then it all comes down to capitalism; i.e., finding someone who is willing to pay your asking price!

Very respectfully,

Sunburst
Last edited by Sunburst on Wed Sep 06, 2017 11:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
RockmanCentralBob
Posts: 421
Joined: Fri Feb 06, 2015 2:10 am

Re: Rockman SD 12 CEM-500 MIDI Programmable Stereo Half Stack

Post by RockmanCentralBob »

Sunburst wrote: But then it all comes down to capitalism; i.e., finding someone who is willing to pay your asking price!
Cutting to the chase, I think this is all that matters and what I was trying to point out. I don't know that such a collector willing to pay that in a lump sum is still out there.... but maybe you'll get lucky.
Sunburst wrote: Reference your REV20 full stack, is it an SR&D REV 20 or a clone? As you know, an SR&D REV 20 is worth several thousand dollars. But I know Boston acquired one of the clones and it did not function exactly like a factory REV 20 - specifically, the compressor stage, which also affected the AUTO CLEAN.
Interesting. As far as I know, I'm the only person who has ever modded a Sustainor into a Rev 20, so the Rev 20 you speak of must be the one I sent to Tom. I never got any feedback other than appreciation for sending it to him, so it's interesting to finally hear that.

Though it's also possible, likely in fact, that you could be referring to the one I sent as a gift to Gary's guitar tech which DID have an intermittent issue with the compressor/auto clean circuit. It had issues when I bought it and I thought I had resolved them before sending it to him, but he told me later that it was still there. We talked about him getting it back to me, but he never did. Last I heard he got Boston's engineer to look it over and he told me though I followed the schematic, there was something missing that I would not have known to look for.

All that said, I know for a fact that, though not near as good as the first unit I modded and kept for myself, the compressor and auto clean worked quite well on the one I sent to Tom... and far better than any stock Sustainor I've ever played through. So maybe your sources were referring to the other unit I sent.... who knows?

Regardless, I agree that a modded Rev 20 probably won't perform as well as the few that were hand selected personally by Tom to become Rev 20's. Every Sustainor is different due to the many hand selected parts and the combination of tolerances involved, and some naturally sound better than others. When you have thousands of units to choose from to start with, it's easy to end with an exceptional Rev 20.... kinda the benefits of owning the factory!! Needless to say, knowing the specifications of how to precicely match the hand selected components with their counterparts is another advantage.

All I know is that other than that one Sustainor that had an issue (which still sounded great when iit wasn't acting up), every other unit I've modded into a Rev 20 sounds awesome! But as you've noted, they don't fetch prices worth going through the effort to mod them, which is why I still have a Model 200 Sustainor that I haven't bothered to mod. I'll keep the 3 I have for my own use (even though now I just use the Kemper profile I made from my best unit).
Last edited by RockmanCentralBob on Wed Sep 06, 2017 3:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Sunburst
Posts: 270
Joined: Sun Mar 30, 2014 12:46 am

Re: Rockman SD 12 CEM-500 MIDI Programmable Stereo Half Stack

Post by Sunburst »

Yes, every Sustainor is different - I've had 100s that sounded great and 200s that didn't! Must be a ghost in the machine! I once did a "taste test" between my handpicked, refurbed 100, 100A, 200, and 200 Double IC and I really couldn't tell the difference!

I do not have a REV 20. From what I understand, the distortion "sizzles" a bit more than a stock 200 - kind of like an XPR? I like the XPR sound so maybe some day! Very cool that you figured out the mod much less sent one to Boston and got feedback! I guess that makes you kind of a BIG DEAL!!!

;)
Last edited by Sunburst on Wed Sep 06, 2017 2:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
RockmanCentralBob
Posts: 421
Joined: Fri Feb 06, 2015 2:10 am

Re: Rockman SD 12 CEM-500 MIDI Programmable Stereo Half Stack

Post by RockmanCentralBob »

Sunburst wrote:I guess that make you kind of a BIG DEAL!!!
Naaa, just trying to return kindness for kindness.
Tom, Kim and most of the people in Boston have always been very nice to me.
And I always try to return favors to those that show me kindness.

In this particular instance, I located a PGE2 for Tom and he had offered some tickets and backstage passes as "deal sweeteners" for me.
I responded by sending a Rev 20 I modded to him while they were on one of their breaks.
Kim forwarded a very nice reply to me from him answering some questions I had and thanking me for such a cool gift.