A recent health crash has forced me to go in a completely different direction with my music, so I’ve decided it’s time to sell my Eigenharp Tau. It’s been mostly sat in its case since 2014, though I have attempted to use it in my live looping rig recently (YouTube/@stuwyatt)
It has the standard base station with it, along with PSU, cable and case, breath pipe (unused except to try a couple of times). There is no harness, and I ended up selling the cello spike back to John Lambert quite a few years back, as he wanted to take measurements so he could make some more (did that ever happen?). I’ve used the Tau purely as a desktop controller.
I’m based in Okehampton in Devon, UK, and due to health reasons, I’m only looking for a face to face transaction at the moment, so any buyer would have to come to me. I’ve set the price at £1500 to see if there are any takers, and because that’s the price of the replacement SOMA Terra that’s currently burning a hole in my credit card.
I’ll keep an eye on this thread, and I believe there are PMs on this forum, but I can best be contacted via email at stus-dio at outlook dot com
Update: I’m now able to ship to anywhere in the UK.
I’ve just had a chat with the owner of my local music shop, and he’s willing to package up the Tau and ship it out on my behalf. He packages up expensive instruments all the time, so he’ll be perfect for the task.
Hi. I have a recent video of it working with my old rig https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbpnZhdtQPY, with quite a few others from the preceding months where it was used to control the guitar, bass and acoustic percussion VST’s. I haven’t used the breath controller since trying it a couple of times in the first week I purchased it ~12+ years ago, but that side of it should work fine too.
My studio is in half-built chaos at the moment and I’ve performed a complete system restore on the studio PC, so it will be a bit of time before I can get any new videos of it producing sound if that’s what you want. But if you give me a day or few, I can upload a video of the Tau plugged in, with a close up inspection of everything, and with all the buttons lighting up when touched, and have a piece of paper with the day’s date and my name on etc.
Re: eBay or Reverb, I don’t have a seller account on either, and it could be an issue to set one up as I lack any form of valid photo ID (I’ve never driven, and haven’t travelled anywhere for 20 odd years due to health). My local music shop (Music & Bean, Okehampton) doesn’t use Reverb or eBay, but I know he sells instruments online, and I’d be willing to sell it through him if that would give you some peace of mind. I’ll try to chat with him later today, and I’ll get back to you.
Cheers!
I’ve watched the video and it’s good to see the Tau working with your old setup. I’m also happy to wait a few days for you to make another video. Having one showing the unit plugged in, the condition of everything, and the buttons responding would be more than enough for me. It might be useful if you could show it with the breath controller as I will be using that most of the time.
I completely understand the situation regarding eBay and Reverb, and thanks for explaining. Selling it through your local music shop sounds like a good option if they’re able to do that, so please let me know what they say.
There’s no rush from my side, so take your time getting everything sorted. Thanks again for being so helpful and transparent about it.
Hiya. I had a chat with the owner of the music shop, and he doesn’t really have a way to process any transaction through the store that he’s happy with (he doesn’t want to make money off me), so I’m going to have to default to a bank transfer for any actual sale. I can only try to make any transaction as public as possible, and doxx myself fully to any buyer with the knowledge that I’ve not spent a night away from this place in the ten years I’ve lived here.
Terry Hudson, the owner of Music & Bean in Okehampton has also said that he’s more than willing to give a character reference for me. Terry himself used to be one of the travelling Fender reps, and has a decades-long reputation himself if you ask around. He’s going to be shipping the Tau through his shop’s service too if delivery is needed.
Re: the breathpipe, I will try to get it to make a sound, but I honesty don’t if I have the knowledge/brainpower to do so, or even to get everything set up again on my PC. I suffer badly from CFS/ME brain fog, and that makes computer stuff very challenging now (as you can see from my earlier threads on this forum) and is one of the reasons why I’m going as dawless as I can.
I can’t see it not working, as John Lambert used insanely durable industrial parts for the Eigenharps, including the breath controller components, and it definitely worked the couple of times I tried it. There’s also a spare plastic tip for the mouthpiece in its original wrapping, along with spare washers for it too.
I’ll try to record a video and get it online tomorrow showing everything in detail
How do I send you a private message not to give away too much information on a public message board. I will probably prefer to meet you since it’s a lot of money to hand over without going through a company. Are you open to trades? I have a lovely Starrlabs Z6 Pro Standard guitar for sale which costs $2500 to buy new so would be an equivalent trade. Money is possible, but It may be a month or so before I can purchase it as I am selling some music gear to help fund new project ideas.
To anyone else reading, the only part-trade I’d consider at the moment would be a SOMA Cosmos looper, but the chances of such a trade are very slim. I’ve lost the ability to play guitars and any other instrument that requires finger and hand strength, and I actually have a Line6 Variax Standard that needs a new home if anyone is interested
Thanks BJG. Yeah, I’ve fallen head over heels in love with Soma. Their designer, Vlad Kreimer, is completely unique with his approach to sound design and expression. I feel completely out of my depth with both the Terra and the Flux, but it’s a wonderful feeling being thrown into the deep end like that, and I love the random chaos that both instruments throw into the mix. The Cosmos is such an insane soundscape designer, and I’m lusting hard for it. If you haven’t seen any demo videos, you should check it out (or not, if you wish to avoid GAS)
The Flux is amazing, but my unpredictable hands managed to lose three out of the four magnetic bows as I sent the little black bolt-looking tools flying into a chaos pile of black magnetic instrument stands. I haven’t found them yet, and have had to order four more in - but I’ve also purchased some orange fluorescent fishing float paint for future spasm episodes.
The midi side of the Flux seems a bit disappointing though, as it uses old school 9 pin midi (and needs a £180 midi/cv breakout box), limiting the true expressiveness potential, and it seemed to be a bit strange with the accuracy, but that could have easily been me with the setting up and calibration of the equipment and my body. But the Flux is 100% worth it purely for the internal vocal synth. I’m in absolute love of that. I’ve never felt such a connection to a digital sound source before
