I first saw her in a magazine around 1975 or so. A full-color center foldout. What a beauty she was! Those big dual knobs on the front just begging to be tweaked. Rumors of her capabilities ran to the extreme. Some said she would go further than any of the others.
As I drooled over her specs and features I silently cried because I knew that she carried a high price - way beyond anything a paperboy could come up with. So I contented myself with lesser models, but always knew that one day she would be mine.
Years, then decades passed. I had countless others but never stopped thinking of her. By the time I reached a point in life where her price wasn't really an object she was largely unavailable in pure form. So many others had peaked, tweaked and done other unspeakable acts to her and her sisters that it was hard to find an unmolested example. I never gave up hope though, having prepared a place for her when the day came that she would be mine.
That day finally came early last week. A near-mint, Tram D201A with the original G-stand mic. Recently rebuilt (and documented) by Barkett electronics. All the right mods, done the right way. Even the troublesome channel selector operates properly. It is as fine an example as might exist outside of a museum.
She sounds as well as I knew she would. Mated to a vintage tube amp she sounds as no other.
It took 35+ years but I finally got my baby. When you hear that warm tube sound OTA, it's me.
As I drooled over her specs and features I silently cried because I knew that she carried a high price - way beyond anything a paperboy could come up with. So I contented myself with lesser models, but always knew that one day she would be mine.
Years, then decades passed. I had countless others but never stopped thinking of her. By the time I reached a point in life where her price wasn't really an object she was largely unavailable in pure form. So many others had peaked, tweaked and done other unspeakable acts to her and her sisters that it was hard to find an unmolested example. I never gave up hope though, having prepared a place for her when the day came that she would be mine.
That day finally came early last week. A near-mint, Tram D201A with the original G-stand mic. Recently rebuilt (and documented) by Barkett electronics. All the right mods, done the right way. Even the troublesome channel selector operates properly. It is as fine an example as might exist outside of a museum.
She sounds as well as I knew she would. Mated to a vintage tube amp she sounds as no other.
It took 35+ years but I finally got my baby. When you hear that warm tube sound OTA, it's me.
