Congo - worth anything?

[iDan]

Hello Lampies,

A little while ago I was given an ETC Congo desk (the original big one - not the Junior). Having had a play I've determined that I'm unlikely ever to use it so looking to move it on. I have no idea what the value of these desks might be nowadays - I can't imagine there are many folks out there still using them. This particular example was a venue desk and hasn't been toured or hired, so is in good condition and appears to work as it should (though I've not tested it fully). I don't have a flight case for it. 

Any insight anyone can give me as to its worth would be appreciated.

[J Pearce]

I can think of a few people who'd buy one just to enact a ritual destruction of it.

(No it was never my favourite console, and one particular unit in Birmingham nearly had an appointment with the nearby canal)

 

They're still useful consoles, you should make a few hundred off it at least. 

[Martin]

Many TV studios use it as their generic house desk.  So still many in use out there.

[willjam39]

I know our local theatre had a Congo Kid up for sale for a while and it didn't make much. 

[Ynot]

One of the VERY few mistakes that ETC ever made, I reckon. Don't know anyone who actually liked the Congo OS. 😞

[alistermorton]

I've seen the occasional posting in Facebook groups where people say they prefer it to EOS, but few and far between.

[J Pearce]

26 minutes ago, Ynot said:

One of the VERY few mistakes that ETC ever made

It's not really an ETC desk, it's an AVAB desk, brought out after ETC acquired AVAB.

It has a few interesting features, and back in the older days of EOS 1 was superior for busking, now much overtaken by EOS 2 and 3. Once I got my head round it the swearing decreased to only 3 expletives a minute.

My favourite Congo moment was one crashing just as I dimmed the lights for the first dance at a rather high budget wedding in Brum Town Hall. 

Sorry OP, we're probably not helping much are we? It has some value, but it's probably not going to shift quickly.

[Glyn Edwards]

49 minutes ago, J Pearce said:

It has some value

As a door stop!

[richard_cooper]

2 hours ago, Ynot said:

One of the VERY few mistakes that ETC ever made, I reckon. Don't know anyone who actually liked the Congo OS. 😞

I'm going to raise my hand and shyly admit I was one of those that did.... I found it got a bad reputation as there were a lot in venues that had simply not learnt it well at all. When I had one in a venue that did a fair amount of one night small scale theatre tours, I'd frequently have companies come in groaning that we had a Congo. I lost count of the times that we'd end up having a conversation along the lines of "wait I thought Congo couldn't do x" or "every time we used a Congo before this bit took forever to program, so how come that took 30s". I forget what those things were, but some were extremely basic, and I'll agree some things were in no way intuitively obvious!

Having said all that, do I want a Congo snr in my life now? No.

[the kid]

3 hours ago, richard_cooper said:

I'm going to raise my hand and shyly admit I was one of those that did.... I found it got a bad reputation as there were a lot in venues that had simply not learnt it well at all. When I had one in a venue that did a fair amount of one night small scale theatre tours, I'd frequently have companies come in groaning that we had a Congo. I lost count of the times that we'd end up having a conversation along the lines of "wait I thought Congo couldn't do x" or "every time we used a Congo before this bit took forever to program, so how come that took 30s". I forget what those things were, but some were extremely basic, and I'll agree some things were in no way intuitively obvious!

Having said all that, do I want a Congo snr in my life now? No.

Absolutely, We had one, most people said the same. I some how swung training on it from ETC, and it really was a good desk, BUT it came at that time when the 520 was just out of manufacture, Strand had released the pallete, and the congo was "an option". But being AVAB people didnt know it well, or know how to change the syntax from what AVAB was, to "normal". I remember one company coming and having a right go thing about having it, when it took not time at all. the WORST thing about it was the remote that lit up buttons but not numbers, and was janky if it would work or not so every few lamps we had to turn off and back on.

[Big Jay]

In my experience, alot of Congo's ended up in venues purely because it was one of very few options at the time. 500 series was dead, the pallet from strand was a dud and Eos line whilst very much near completion was not available at the time so the only option sales people were pushing was Congo by ETC! It had its uses, very well taken in Europe but that was about it really from my understanding. I borrowed a full size from a venue that had a couple (ended up with them for the exact reason above) to cover a broken junior at another venue and they won't take it back! The poor thing has been sitting in a flightcase for a good 4/5 years now.

My suggestion to the OP is contact people like White Light or Stage Electrics and see if they have any need for parts etc or certainly white light have an very active second hand department ran by a chap called Rodney. May be worth asking them to push it out for a little commission depending on any offers?

Edited July 12, 2022 by Big Jay

[richard_cooper]

15 hours ago, the kid said:

Absolutely, We had one, most people said the same. I some how swung training on it from ETC, and it really was a good desk, BUT it came at that time when the 520 was just out of manufacture.

Ah the memories... I bought a Congo Jnr to replace a 520i that had a spectacular PSU failure (and collateral damage) the evening before it was announced that the original Strand had gone under (2005?). At the time IIRC the options were ETC Express, known to be end of life, Congo Jnr, GrandMA Ultra Light, which was way over budget, and Zero88 had something, Illusion500? I think the Ion was rumoured, but not available.

 

[the kid]

6 hours ago, richard_cooper said:

Ah the memories... I bought a Congo Jnr to replace a 520i that had a spectacular PSU failure (and collateral damage) the evening before it was announced that the original Strand had gone under (2005?). At the time IIRC the options were ETC Express, known to be end of life, Congo Jnr, GrandMA Ultra Light, which was way over budget, and Zero88 had something, Illusion500? I think the Ion was rumoured, but not available.

 

That sounds about right. 05/06 was tender for the venue I think so that would match up. IIR the replacement we got in 2013 was the orb. I'm not even sure if anyone reaches the heights of 500 series now?