Maestro Universal Synthesizer System USS-1. Moog Design?

[slowdive]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Maestro-Universal-S ... dZViewItem

Is this REALLY Moog designed? I know Bob designed a line of pedals for Maestro in the 70s, so it is possible.

To be honest, I've never even SEEN one of these things before!

[OysterRock]

I've never seen that either!

There is almost no information about it on the net. Wish I could see a closer pic.
The auction says the insides are stamped with "Moog", at the very least Moog built it...

[OysterRock]

Wait, Harmony Central has a review:

http://reviews.harmony-central.com/revi ... sizer/10/1

Here's a schematic:

http://www.diystompboxes.com/pedals/Maestro_USS-1A.zip

[MC]

That was a Tom Oberheim design, not Bob Moog.

Tom did design some pedals for Maestro before he went solo into analog synths. The Phaser with the three rocker switches was his work.

[goldphinga]

hang on tho, the advert its says the circuit boards have moog printed on them.

Bob definately designed some of the maestro pedals.

[OysterRock]

Look at the picture of the sticker, it reads:

"Manufactured for Maestro Division of Chicago, Musical Instrument Company by Oberheim Electronics, Santa Monica, Ca 90401"

Strange. The seller seems pretty trustworthy, it doesn't make sense that he'd lie about the "Moog" stamped circuit boards. Maybe Moog printed the circuit boards and Oberheim built it?

[slowdive]

it doesn't make sense that he'd lie about the "Moog" stamped circuit boards.

Exactly. If anything, it's odd he doesn't mention Oberheim in his item description, but does mention Moog... ??? Somebody should ask him for pictures of the inside!

[Don]

It was definitely designed by Tom Oberheim. When I was at UCLA, the tech also worked for Oberheim.

The device was simply pedals Oberheim had designed for Maestro put into a single cabinet. Great idea, huh? It should have resulted in a lower price as they could have replaced multiple cases with one case and multiple power supplies with one larger supply.

Indeed, the original design was elegant and simple. But Maestro wasn't satisfied. They wanted it placed in a much bigger box. Now here's how the pricing worked:

It cost Oberheim an extra $50 for each new case, labor, etc. So he charged Maestro the standard mark up of $100.

Maestro liked it, but because their price was now $100 higher, they sold it to retailers with a standard mark up of $200.

The retailers then sold it (or tried to) for $400 over the original price. That was $400 for a bulkier case with not one added feature. This made it more costly than the individual pedals. And if you had a problem with one part of the unit, you had to take in the entire thing for repair. That would be like taking your phaser, fuzz, ring modulator and reverb in to a repair shop if only the fuzz was bad.

As a result of being far too expensive and bulky, it didn't sell well and was eventually cancelled.

This same tech told me that the first Maestro phasers had trouble. The reason, it turned out, was that Tom Oberheim finished the design work in a cabin that didn't have a steady AC supply and on the first batch of phasers the parts had to be changed.

The tech spent a lot of his time rebuilding UCLA's modular Moog oscillators. UCLA had an early unit and he had a schematic to bring them up to the more stable ones that Moog eventually made.

At lunch breaks he and a friend would go to a stairwell of a building and play bluegrass on guitar and banjo.

The tech's name was Jim Cooper, but people here may know him better by his company, J.L. Cooper Electronics. They still are in business and make very high end controllers, interfaces, and synchronizers.

[slowdive]

The device was simply pedals Oberheim had designed for Maestro put into a single cabinet. Great idea, huh?

Wow, thanks for the info!! Interesting that Maestro wanted such a large cabinet, when they also released the Rhythm 'n' Sound units (a guitar version and a brass version), which seem to have even more effects in a much smaller box.

[MC]

hang on tho, the advert its says the circuit boards have moog printed on them.

The Source and Memorymoog have circuit boards with moog printed on them, but Bob had nothing to do with the design of either of those. He had left Moog Music by then.

Bob definately designed some of the maestro pedals.

Yes, the big silver pedals with large knobs on top or on the side. The knobs were serrated so that the guitarist could change them with his foot.

[slowdive]

Yes, the big silver pedals with large knobs on top or on the side. The knobs were serrated so that the guitarist could change them with his foot.

Yes, definitely. I have the Fuzz one and you can indeed change controls easily with your foot. I read somewhere that the wheels are supposed to light up, I'm planning on trying to take mine apart and see if there are indeed bulbs in there...

[mr.obvious]

The wheels only light up on the models that had an AC adapter input and only lit up when using the power adapter. They did not light up with batteries.

[slowdive]

The wheels only light up on the models that had an AC adapter input and only lit up when using the power adapter. They did not light up with batteries.

Thanks. You just saved me a lot of hassle

[rtuman]

I owned one of these in 1979...
I took the cover off and it said Oberheim.
Had a Maestro phaser pedal (not the one with big colored rocker switches, the one with transparent wheels that you moved with your foot) and it was made by Moog