I started DJing about 6 months ago. I started with a Technics SL-1200Mk2 that I picked up for $250. Shortly after that, I found a mint KAB Technics SL-1210M5GSE on craigslist for $500. I probably could’ve gone a bit cheaper for a rig to gig with, but I haven’t seen many M5Gs here in Hawaii at all. As I learned more about my gear, I discovered that the tonearm on the MK2 was slightly damaged. I was going to repair it, until I looked on craigslist (yet again) and saw a cherry SL-1200MK5 for $120! It was missing the plastic tonearm rest, and the counterweight. The seller had no idea what he was sitting on, it was an amazing deal.
I initially learned on Traktor Pro from my friends setup, so I went with a Pioneer DJM-T1 mixer, which is perfect for my needs. It’s got a custom skin on it from Styleflip.com. My laptop is a 2008 MBP, and I recently installed under platter halo LEDs, which have numerous colors, fades, and a setting where it’ll flash to the beat. It also has a strip to light up the pitch slider. My headphones are Pioneer HDJ-2000.
Reggae & Dancehall are very popular in Hawaii, and I usually spin for local reggae shows, warming up the crowd, and spinning in between sets/bands. I love the feeling when a big tune drops, and the crowd goes crazy. It keeps me motivated and is my favorite part of our craft. Thanks for looking!
Wow, nice setup! How hard was it to install the halo lights or did you have someone else install them? If someone else did, what was the total cost? I’m looking to mod my tech 12s as well.
Thanks guys! The yellow vinyl are the old limited edition MK1. I never upgraded from 2.0.3, as it was really stable on my laptop, and I got scared reading about issues whenever newer versions came out. I think they made a couple other neon colors, I know there was an orange glow-in-the-dark one too. I picked up a big lot from someone selling a pair of every color control vinyl on ebay when everyone was dumping their MK1s. Cheers!
I have the latest version of Traktor, but my MK1 vinyl does not work. You can control the music, but when I switch songs the BPM increases like 40% if I’m using MK1 vinyl.
Thank you! I had my local shop install them for me, the kits themselves are from Ice Cold Customs, it’s the Orbit deluxe model. They’re $70 for each deck, and it cost me about another $60 for the install labor cost. If you know your way around the decks and can solder, it’s probably doable by yourself. I took it in since I was so new to Technics that I didn’t want to risk screwing it up. It’s well worth it, just for the kick that people and especially other djs get when they see these lighting up in the club. You can find them on ebay here: Pardon Our Interruption...
One word of advice: If you wind up purchasing them, request that the strips don’t ship folded. The main strip on one unit was folded on a solder joint and had broken during shipping. The seller was adamant that they’re tested a bunch of times before they ship, but the broken solder joint prevented one color from working until I fixed it myself.
@makar1 & DJEklipse: That’s interesting, I’d like to confirm if my old vinyl will still work, since it seems the latest version it stable on the platform I’d be using. That flux mode looks tempting!
styleflip.com. They have a cool custom skin plugin where you can upload your own graphics and tweak the skin how you like. I did consider 12inchskinz, but the guy took too long to get back to me regarding the custom design.
