PlanetZ forums - scopeusers.com

I have just bought a Minimax ASB yesterday and noticed that there seems to be some differences in the way it looks from pictures (or actual other) units I have seen.

For a start, under the selection keys at the front of the unit, I have a strip of wood at the bottom of the unit, unlike others I've seen where the metal goes all the way down to the bottom. On the rear of the unit, I have a deep strip of slightly lighter coloured wood at the top, where on another model I saw, the rear panel was all metal. From what I can gather, it's from August 2005 (version 00000101).

Anyone know anything about this? Did Creamware change the case a little? Any internal differences? Just curious.

Thanks!

Because it's vintage handmade like in '60...

Well, I've been told that it's because mine comes from an early release, the very first version to be released (of which I'm also told, there have been three versions).

VERSION 1: Half metal/half wood below the buttons on the very front of the unit. One third of the back panel is a pale wooden strip and the rest is metal and the top panel has a raised-up purple Creamware Minimax ASB badge (also, from what I've seen, the wood on the whole unit looks to be a slightly different colour than later versions, but that's just my guess here, not fact).

VERSION 2: Front panel below the buttons is all metal, no wood, as is the rear panel, but the unit retains the purple Creamware badge.

VERSION 3: The current build of the Minimax ASB which is the same as V2, but the purple Creamware badge has been removed and has it's name screened on the top of the metal case like the rest of the units text labels.

Sorry if this makes me sound like a bit of a geek, but I take an interest in the gear that I own and I have to say that in my 19 years of synth buying, the is one of (if not) the best synth I have ever owned. It's so much like the real thing (and I should know, I've had "THE ORIGINAL" (as Creamware like to call it in the manual), I don't think of it as a replica or a clone, it's so close to it's feel and sound that I think of it more like it's reflection!