Overview
I have listed all the gear I use in the hope that it will help people like me get started doing DJing. The main point I am trying to make is that it isn't what you've got it's what you can do with it. I bet I'm twice as hot on the decks as some of these rich kids who've got Technics or whatever. Anyway, here it is. There's a summary at the bottom of the page.
1. Turntables
Citronics CS 300D x2, belt drive, in hand built flight box
Bought 2nd hand, ex-hire equipment from Apollo Light + Sound, Melksham, England.
They cost £100, and I went halves with my brother, Marcus.
They are fairly old and worn out, but having screwed them down tightly to the flight box (instead of having them waving around on springs) they are stable and powerful enough to scratch on - better in fact than any other belt driven decks I've used. They use Stanton carts, but they are each different (!) so they left one tracks slightly better. I set them up like that since I use the left deck for the more ferocious scratches.
When we bought the decks there was a mixer fitted into the console. It was an Ice Mix 2000, and quite frankly it was pants- no crossfade, grinding faders, and generally piss poor performance. In fact it's only good point was Logic Output Switching, a system which allowed the turntables to be turned on and off by switches on the mixer. Funky.
So I ripped it out, along with it's transformer which weighed a ton. I replaced it with a Radio Shack SSM 2000 scratch mixer.
The flight box is about a meter wide and 70cm front to back. It has a lid which is removable which is currently under my bed. The whole thing is plywood, covered with black plastic stuff with knobbles, and trimmed with steel edges. Not bad at all, considering someone made it at home. Because of all this it is fairly portable, making it ideal for a small mobile show.
It has a single power input point at 240V AC.
2. Mixer
Radio Shack SSM 2000 scratch mixer.
This was the best value piece of gear I ever got - it cost me just £10 from Tandy- they were in a sale when Tandy was moving out of musical equipment. I should have bought 3 or 4.
It has a short snappy crossfade which is really light and excellent for scratching. The up faders are heavier, so not so good, but even so, for a tenner...
Actually there are more disadvantages. One is that it is not possible to use the gain knobs properly without getting really bad crackles when you use the crossfade. I overcame this problem by setting both channels to just above zero gain.This solved the problem more or less, but meant that the headphone output was very quiet. As a scratch DJ I rarely use headphones, but for the occasions where they are needed, I bought a Guitar Headphone Amplifier which boosts the output enough to mix with.
3. Amplifier
Pioneer SA 500A Stereo Amplifier.
I bought this from a car boot sale. It was right at the end, when everyone was clearing up, and the amp was on the ground when someone drove over it in a Landrover. It still looked OK so I offered the guy £5 for it. He still wanted £10, even though he didn't know whether it worked or not. But I got it anyway, and it works fine. I run 2 pairs of speakers off it, and it can go pretty loud. The bass is especially good. It's only drawback is that it looks a bit tacky- it has fake wood panels on either side of the faceplate. I don't care- it makes a loud noise so it's fine for me.
4. Speakers 120W
Goodmans Q70
I got these from a car boot sale too- £10, which is pretty good I reckon. The guy I bought them off was some kind of super dooper Hi Fi enthusiast, and he had put really high quality speaker cable on instead of the flimsy wire you usually get. However, he had also pushed in the middles of the speaker cones so that they were concaved. I don't understand why anyone would do this- mail me if you have any idea. I sucked them back out again by shoving a hoover over them and pulling. Pretty risky but they seem OK.
5. Speakers 70W
Wharfdale
I don't know what model but my mum gave them to me from her old hi fi setup which she bought in 1970. They work fine with only a tiny crackle when you turn on. They have horrible wood effect panelling- but I don't care.
6. Fog Machine
Hollygrove F-80 fogger
This was one of my most recent additions. After looking on the internet for the cheapest fog machine I discovered this one for about £20 less in a novelty shop in my nearest city Bath. It packs 2800 cubic feet per minute and really helps to show off the few light effects I have. It cost £69.99 plus liquid at about £5 a litre (which lasts for ages!). It has a remote control, 700W heater and a 1 litre tank. It also has an amusing "Manual Instruction", translated from Chinese- "F-80 is one kind is one kind of our satisfactory and durable fog machine series", "Unqualified fog liquid results in blockage or leakage", "Forbid the fogger closing up to any flame...", "forbid the spray nozzle toward any people when spraying" , " only special person can exchange the power cord" (dammit I am special!) "for long idleness, be sure to unplug the power", "If no exception turns on and push the button 30 seconds, no fog sprays also." "Indoor use only, and prevent the fogger from moisture and rains" or my favourite "You shall switch off the fogger if you don't need him, if the fogger is an stationary use, then you must install an additional switch, which switch off all pole of the power supply". Why of course.
7. Strobe light
SkyTronics Mini Flash
My brother got it for me for my birthday from Jade's DJ Megastore by mail order. "it is a high output compact flashlight and features with variable flash speed adjustment, also equipped with one mounting bracket." It is tiny and plastic and very very cool. It does up to 10 flashes a second at 20W. It looks best with the Fog Machine going. It has a very short power cord which is a bit of a pissoff, but otherwise it is brill.
8. Rotating Disco Light
This belongs to my brother, who bought it from the same novelty shop that the fog machine came from (MB's, Bath). It cost £16.99 and is very lo tech but a nice, colourful addition to our setup. Its performance is greatly improved with fog, which shows up the coloured beams of light.
9. Laser show
Mini Laser from Maplin, £29.99
This mini laser (3mw) is red and has 13 presets. It can run automatically or to the beat of the music. It can use mains power or batteries (4x AAA). It is miles better with fog. It's my brother's too.
10. Headphone Amplifier
JHS Flyspeck phone-amp
I got this from a second hand music shop in Bath called 10/15 Music Exchange. It cost £12. It runs from a 9V PP3 battery, and boosts the headphone volume so I can mix. It is intended for use with an electric guitar, but is fine for my purposes.
11. Headphones
Panasonic RP-HT242 Stereo headphones
They cost about £15 but my dad let us have them- they used to be the ones for the computer but he got pissed off when we were DJing at top volume. But he didn't realise that we wanted them for cuing, not to listen to everything through. So he still gets pissed off.
12. 4-way adaptors.
Homebase, £6.
Dead exciting, but necessary.
So here's what the whole lot looks like- set up in my room.
Summary
I worked out that this setup would cost about £310- only a bit more than a single Technics turntable! You see what you can do with a bit of searching around? If you are trying to get hold of some gear I suggest you contact your local hire place (look in the phone book), look in free ads papers, cheap shops, car boot sales etc. It doesn't matter much if you get the budget end of the range so long as you don't get fed up and waste your money. If you want you can contact me and I'll see if I can help. (I'm not selling stuff but I can give you advice)