Originally posted on September 19th, 2009

Last edited on March 6th, 2010

Hardware synths have always been fairly expensive - even when they first came onto the consumer market in the 1960s and 1970s, synths already cost many thousands of dollars. In 1981, the Pro-One from Sequential Circuits became the first synth to retail for under $1,000 - which after accounting for inflation would still add up to more than $2,300 today.

While hardware synthesizers can still often cost thousands of dollars (not to mention tens of thousands for large modular setups), not all quality synths are that expensive.

The following table lists the top ten hardware synths most widely used by bands in the database with an average eBay closing price of less than $400. Average prices on other international eBay websites are listed as well as a list of the bands that have used each synthesizer. The table is generated dynamically, so it is subject to change as price and band information becomes available.