Marshall 5002A Time Modulator, Near Mint, Full Recap & Refurb, Sounds Great!

Marshall 5002A Time Modulator New Delay Modules Full Recap/Refurb, Sounds Great!

The unit for sale is serial number PL2678. It has been fully recapped, refurbished, and calibrated to meet original specs. Cosmetic, mechanical, and electronic condition are excellent. The front panel looks near mint and the unit sounds fantastic. 

This sale includes one of our new Marshall 115/230V power supplies with XLR cables is included, and a copy of the owner's manual.

At the 1975 AES Convention in New York, Steven St. Croix showed his prototype Marshall Time Modulator.  The brilliant and unique analog effects box was an instant hit.  Studios, record labels, and engineers were dazzled and ready to buy, but Steve devoted the next 4 years to improving and perfecting the 5002 before bringing it to the market.  The first batch of 5002's went straight to Stevie Wonder, who Steve played and collaborated with on the "Songs In The Key Of Life" and "The Secret Life Of Plants" albums.  Steven's company, Marshall Electronic, lined up a roster of distributors, went into full scale production, and the Marshall Time Modulator quickly achieved fame as one of the first -- and one of the all time best -- studio effects boxes.

For anyone who's not familiar with this classic box, here's what it does.  The MTM produces ultra high quality effects that include positive flanging, negative flanging, cardboard tube echo, automatic double (and triple) tracking with pitch and delay dithering, resonant flange, straight vibrato, "circus vibrato", arpeggio, pitch quantizing, high Q filtering, drum tuning, echo, Leslie, doppler panning, etc.  The MTM scored rave reviews in Studio Sound and Modern Recording, has been featured on many, many hit records.

At the heart of the 5002 are two "black box" analog delay modules of Steve's design, whose delay times are governed by a combination of manual and automatic controls.  The primary delay, adjusted via a VCO and a manual control, produces most of the time and frequency shift effects.  The auxiliary delay (adjusted by a manual control) enhances and "triples" the MTM's effects; variable feedback creates resonant and metallic qualities that range from subtle to absolutely bizarre.  By combining dry signal with the outputs of the two delays, a wide range of excellent effects can be created.  Flanging -- the so called "jet plane" effect -- is probably the most popular effect offered, but this versatile box will do all kinds of stuff, both subtle and wild, and is great fun to experiment with.  Unlike digital delays, the MTM featured continuously adjustable (non stepped) delay time, smoothly controlled by a rotary pot.  Both the time delay pot and the aux delay pots are custom made parts with custom tapers, so that in manual mode, an even hand rotation of the knob produces  smooth and musical sweeps.

This unit includes the Low Noise (LN) upgrades that Marshall included on the later models.  It has been fully refurbished and calibrated.  All the electrolytic and tantalum capacitors have been replaced.  The dbx cards have been fully tested and calibrated.  It is in excellent electronic, mechanical, and cosmetic condition.  The front panel and knobs look almost brand new.  The only flaws on the front panel are some very small, minor scratches near the rack holes.  (It might be hard to believe that these photos are the actual unit, but they are.)  The top, bottom, and sides are in excellent, near mint condition.  We're including a brand new power supply, with XLR in and out cables, along with a copy of the owner's manual.

This unit is fully guaranteed for 90 days.

It's worth repeating that the 5002 is an analog unit, totally free of quantization noise and other digital artifacts. The MTM has a dynamic range of 90 db and it's reliable circuitry runs very cool inside.  The unit features extended frequency response and an ultra wide dynamic range, with no audible background noise.  To hear the original demo recording for the Marshall Time Modulator, go to dkse.net/radio/St.Croix_MTM.mp3.  (This MP3 was created from the original record, and comes complete with clicks and pops!)

Front panel controls include input level, time delay, feed through ("dry" signal), feedback, delay output level, master output level, feedback, a time CV attenuator (which varies the blend of manual and VCO delay control), function select (delay / time modulation / phase shift), aux delay in / out, CV rate (continuously adjustable), and aux delay time.

Specs:

Frequency response; 15 Hz. to 15 kHz

Input impedance; 30k ohms

Nominal output level; +4 dBm

Signal to noise ratio; 72 dB

Total dynamic range; better than 90 dB

Input and output; unbalanced, 1/4" jacks on front panel and XLR connectors on power adaptor cable

Steven St. Croix passed away in 2006, leaving a remarkable legacy of contributions.  Many in pro audio have never seen a Marshall Time Modulator but nearly everyone who's been around for a while know his Fast Lane columns, which ran in Mix Magazine for 18 years.  As a member of the National Archives advisory committee, Mr. St Croix proposed a tape machine with 200 heads to extract audio from the infamous 18 1/2 minute "Watergate" tape, which contained an erased conversation between Richard Nixon and H.R. Haldeman.  His "revectoring" technique was used to restore audio on classic films like The Wizard of Oz, Easter Parade, and Yankee Doodle Dandy.  In the mid 90's he founded Intelligent Devices, which specializes in forensic audio products.

In 2006 Studio Electronics signed an agreement with the estate of Mr. St. Croix to be the exclusive service center for Marshall products.  We service the AR-300 Tape Eliminator, all Time Modulators models  also also offer Marshall power supplies, delay modules, and spare parts.  Please contact us if you're interested in any of these products or services.

If you'd like to know more about Time Modulators, Steven St. Croix, and the history of flanging, go to studioelectronics dot biz, click the Services tab on our home page, then click on Marshall.

Thanks for looking. Please contact us with any questions, and check out our other ebay listings for lots of great gear and other cool stuff.

IStudio Electronics, Inc. has served the pro audio industry since 1981. We run one of the best equipped service repair shops in North America, with a vast parts inventory and an extensive library of documentation on all types of audio gear -- from the 1950’s to present day. We are an authorized service center for several manufacturers, and offer expert service on all kinds of vintage pro audio gear including EMT, UREI, Pultec, Eventide, Marshall Electronic, API, Neve, and many others. We’ve installed over 250 studios -- everything from small project studios to large scale projects for firms like Warner Brothers and Disney. We’re proud of our reputation in the pro audio community. You can get more info about us by searching for Studio Electronics Burbank on the web.