An OTT look at how prices for popular gear are shaping up in the secondhand market.

The first guitar I ever bought was secondhand.

The assistant kindly removed the unspoiled quarter inch of dust which had gathered during its life of disregard and uttered these jewels of sales-speak. "Well, good to know nobody's been messing around with it, eh?"

I quote this powdery experience to illustrate the paranoia connected with buying anything secondhand. The cynic will think "gigged", means performed every night in a different city for 12 years, "still boxed", is gigged by someone who couldn't afford a flight case, and "unwanted gift", is only one gig on the rear of a lorry from which it fell.

We are not, here, going to attempt to settle your nerves on the 'concept' of buying secondhand — that's a minefield set in quicksand — but we can help defuse the first bomb, are you paying the right price?

We picked certain of the more popular instruments, studied their performances in the second hand columns for a month, took some averages, then lined them against secondhand prices for six months ago. You'll find the results nearby.

But first, excuses. It turned out to be a worthwhile exercise only for mass produced, hi-tech devices. Drum machines and synths, for example are all built the same, and apart from serious mishandling — programmed with axes which the more alert will spot — the habits of the user can't much alter the healthiness of the software.

With guitars, basses, drums, etc it's quite different. There are so many more around, at different ages, in varied stages of decay, and valuable for unique reasons. There we could only pick bog standard classics — Strat, Tele, Les Paul — and even then, the guides here are at their roughest, and your own opinions on colour, finish, and fashionability will count more than whether the latest chip has been soldered into the right socket.

So let's look at the figures. Notice that Ensoniq Mirage samplers have already started to appear on the secondhand market. Early owners clearing the way for the Prophet 2000, or suspecting a blast of super cheap samplers next year? Probably neither and they are quite innocent sales, but it should make you ask the first question — WHY is someone selling their gear, especially when it's that new? Have they got tired of it quickly, and will you!

See that Les Paul's have started to creep up in price since June. Early '85 they hit rock bottom as hip, TOTP guitars. One Two predicts a slow but steady comeback.

Most of the polyphonics that have been around for a while have shown a slight drop since June, and the DX7, after holding out so long as the unshakeable synth, is beginning... only just.. to creep down the scale.

Our tip for ivory hunters at the moment must be a Fender Rhodes. Alright, so they're impossible to move, have as much to do with synthesis as Ronald Reagan does with politics but look at the lowest price. If you want to sit at home, and seriously develop yourself as a strong fingered, expressive keyboard player, they're all but irresistible.

In home recording, Tascam 244s have held up better than the newer Fostex X-15, sign of being a classic, maybe. The Fostex 250's also done well and the original 144 only slipped mildly.

Cast your eyes over the figures, bearing in mind that certain types of instruments will have widely varying prices between the lower and upper limits, others, especially drum machines, it seems, have little between them.

Rather than express the average prices as vulgar fractions we've usually rounded up to the nearest sensible figure anyone would quote in an ad. If there are obvious models missing, it's because we haven't found enough on sale secondhand to give what we think would be a realistic result. In the nature of all contests between deadlines and price, these will probably seem slightly high by the time we appear on the streets, so take a good look at the lowest quoted figure as well. And we've gone just by private-sale classifieds. Shops is another matter. You're on your own, there.