what was your first turntable / setup?
I was a freshman in college in Montreal and I saved money to buy my equipment by ordering a $15 for 2 pizzas special on Friday nights, which I’d make last the whole weekend by eating half a pizza each meal (and oranges that I took from our cafeteria for breakfast). I got two Technics belt-driven decks, one of which I snatched from my parents, and the other I bought for $50 from a friend who was into DJing and already had 12s. I had a Numark Blue Dog mixer that I bought for about $100 (which was mildly ironic because the first night I played out at was at a club in MTL called the Blue Dog with DJ Grandtheft, which Grandtheft bought a couple of years ago).
did you get the 1200(s) from a store? how did you get the money to pay for the 1200(s)?
I got two used Tech 12s from a guy I used to ride BMX with in Boston named DJ Cutter. He was a really cool guy and ran some sort of “take back the street” anti-gang/youth organization, but he was definitely physically imposing. My apartment in college had burned down and I got insurance money for some of the stuff that I lost, so I went with my mom into Boston to meet up with Cutter and pick up my decks. We waited at Copley Sq. for about an hour and Cutter rolled up in a beat-up/blacked-out van and said hop in. I had just met him and my mom was a bit sketched out, but we went along. He rolled us into Roxbury, pulled in front of a pawn shop and told me to give him the money ($900 cash) and he’d go get them. I did, he went in through the back alley, and me and my mom waited in the van for what seemed like an hour but was probably closer to 10 minutes wondering if I’d just gotten ripped off. He came out, my two Techs in hand, and drove us back to Copley. Me and my mom went to get sushi after (my first time). The Techs worked and it turned out to be a great day.
how did you feel when you got your first technics turntable(s)?
I was obviously super-excited. I remember going to house parties or friends places who had 12s, and just looking at them, the platters spinning smoothly with the red/orange strobe light. They were ju
what is your favorite feature or aspect of the technics turntable?
Generally, I like the fact that they’re like skateboards: They’ve been around for years and they’ve been tweaked a bit here and there, but they were never fundamentally changed. It’s almost like they couldn’t be improved. Specifically, I always liked the clicking sound of the start/stop button. It’s therapeutic.
GOT AN INTERESTING FIRST 1200 STORY?
email the same questions/answers to ece@turntablelab.com
read other My First 1200 stories
