SoCal Sam
Lunatic Member
The serial number prefixes are the same for both of my BS 5500's. Anyways, the BS has an on-board voltage selector so it was clearly intended for the international market. 1000 for the worldwide market is not that many at all.theblackknight said:That is AWESOME!!!!!!
Concept 16.5's are not that uncommon and there were only around 1,200 of them made(according to Richard Schram). I have a feeling that around 1,000 total setton pieces were made instead of 1,000 BS-5500's made--Why?--because setton could have combined serial numbers.
Just my guess, they are so rare, 1,000 of them could not have been made.
Regards,
OTOH, the 16.5 was made for the U.S. market only and so most of them ended up in North American hands with the vast majority staying in the U.S. That's why they are still relatively common. As far as the final number of 16.5's produced, NN's serial number database has a high in the 2700's so a lot more than 1200 could have been produced.
EDIT: The 16.5 does not have an on-board voltage selector nor an FM de-emphasis switch for European FM. This makes them undesireable for export so 16.5's are likely to stay here and remain relatively common.