Eliot Curtis, the Broadcast Operations Manager for KPIX Television, was recently tasked with the restoration of a vintage Buchla Model 100 modular synthesizer—an instrument that had been sitting in a cool, dark room at Cal State University East Bay since the 1960s. During Curtis’ repairs, something strange happened: he began to trip out…it was as if he was high on LSD.
He was. According to a report by San Francisco KPIX 5, Curtis opened a red-paneled module on the Buchla, at which point he saw “a crust or a crystalline residue on it.” Curtis sprayed a cleaning solvent on the area and attempted dislodge the crystal with his finger. After 45 minutes, Curtis was overcome with a strange tingling sensation, followed by a nine-hour trip.
The substance found on the instrument was later tested and identified as LSD. An anonymous LSD researcher and expert later confirmed to KPIX that the drug can remain potent for decades if stored in a cool, dark place, and that it is possible to ingest LSD through the skin.
The instrument’s inventor—the late Don Buchla of Berkeley—was heavily enmeshed in 1960s counterculture; in 1966, his synthesizers found their way onto a school bus purchased by acid advocate Ken Kesey and his followers. Buchla was also a friend of Owsley Stanley, the Grateful Dead’s sound engineer, and manufacturer of a highly potent strain of LSD. Despite the connections between Buchla and acid, however, no one is sure exactly how LSD ended up on the Buchla Model 100 at Cal State.
Since Curtis’ trip, the vintage Buchla has been thoroughly cleaned of all LSD.
Read Pitchfork’s list “The 200 Best Albums of the 1960s.”
https://pitchfork.com/news/synth-repairman-accidentally-gets-high-by-touching-lsd-left-in-vintage-buchla
