I always find it interesting to find that people are spending so much on these old, crappy things that they surpass the original MSRP. IMHO, if you want to be a Casio collector, that's cool if you want to spend 75 bucks for a VL-1 to complete your collection. As most of us more-veteran benders remember, the whole point of circuit bending at the beginning was that it was a great way to repurpose unused, boxed-and-closeted toys and keyboards and entry-level studio equipment from friends, family, and Goodwill/Oxfam. Now that every guy and his brother are hearing about circuit bending, the demand for vintage stuff is too high and the creativity is too low, and everybody is asking "can you please tell me how to do everything to my Casio xx-xx?" or the youtube comments "how much do you charge for this?". If you bend for business, that's awesome that you get paid to do what youl like, and spread experimental instruments out there for others, but the consumers are really missing the point, then, which is that Circuit Bending is supposed to be a personal, creative, challenging journey that ends in victory (and sometimes, gut-wrenching tragedy, like when i killed my Casiotone CT-390). Sharing ideas and bends are great, but the lack of pioneer spirit is killing the art/science/waste-of-an-afternoon.
But we're on the cutting edge if we can turn our backs on building the same SK-1s that we've been doing for years (and nothing against the SK-Xs, and their builders), and move on to other things. I interviewed Q. Reed G. for my paper zine Search&Rescue, and he told me about a lot of his new ideas for new things. Think about all the 2 megapixel digital cameras, the vcrs, the cd players, the hammond transister organs that clog thrift stores and suburban garages/basements/curbsides we can be rewiring to oblivion. Maybe we can take it as a sign from Fate and walk away from the Speak&Spells and black blob Kawasaki keyboards and use this as a learning opportunity and personal challenge. The demand for the Casiotones and Yamaha VSSs will die, but the art wont.