Hi guys,
I am new here but thanks for welcoming me!
Just had a question on what to look out for when buying a Prodigy. I found one on craigslist local and am going to pick it up. The guy is asking 1050 for it, so I want to make sure if there is anything to look out for. I am told the condition is 9.5 out of 10…so… let me know. Much appreciated!
-Lawren
1050 seems really high to me, but I’ve never played one so you might want to not take my word for it. Prodigy is a pretty basic monosynth, much more limited than the Phatty. You could probably find a Phatty for 800-900 and save a few bucks. That would be my advice.
Prodigys (as well as all the older moogs are expensive now!) even in the UK they,re hitting 650/700 pounds ($1200), for that money I’d rather buy one of the newer moogs (or an SE1) 2nd hand. However - due to their easy resale, plus they hold their value, you wont necessarily lose any money if you decide to sell the Prodigy in future!
Usually the later Prodigy models go for a little more money, because they have the extra inputs on the back. Something to look for. The older models only had a single audio out, and IMHO, should not be in the same price range.
Soundwise, probably no difference, but the later ones were easier to interface with other CV gear, like a sequencer or MIDI to CV. Only thing missing on the later ones was an audio input for processing through the filter. Easy to add on as a mod though.
As mentioned, make sure it has CV IN/OUT’s. If it doesn’t, this is too much. If it is an older model, (serial #4160 or less), it may need an oscillator modification. I purchased one recently (256th off the line) and OSC 1 would not stabilize for anything. Took it to my local tech and it took him a good month of digging into archives to find that there was a mod that Moog recommended for the early models to stabilize the oscillators.
For an un-serviced early S# I’d say $650-$750 is a better price. An un-serviced later S# would be about $100-150 more than that.
Factory Prodigy mods: http://www.synthfool.com/docs/Moog/prodigymods.pdf
This is great, Kevin! One problem. Where is page 26? I was excited to add the CV IN/OUT’s but some of the info is missing and the pages go from 25 to 27 
Sorry.. I didn’t know it was missing pages.
I’ll look and see if I can find page 26.
I think I also have other mod sheets for the Prodigy as yet unscanned.
Fixed it.
Try downloading it again.
Thank you very much for pointing out the error. 
Thanks Kevin, That fixed it.
Other mod’s you say? When you have the time, could you post or PM me some stuff? Part of me wants to do at least the LFO mod to extend it’s range, but I’m fighting if I would be ok with drilling into the case or not. The prodigy I got must have been bough new in 79, played for a night, then put in silk sheet and stored in a clean room until about 6 months ago.
I’ve never tried to modify the Prodigy LFO, but I’ve done others.
Here is a possible tip that might help though…
The opamp for the LFO is (I think) a 4558.
By replacing that amp with one that has JFET inputs, an LFO will often run with increased range.
You may have to change the cap to something else depending on what range you want to obtain (larger=slower, smaller=faster.)
At extremes, waveform symmetry may vary also but you can usually extend the range much farther before any skewing is evident.
I once modded an SH-5’s LFO with a 3 position switch for (overlapping) ranges.
Slowest was several minutes per cycle. Fastest was around 5khz. Center was stock range.
It’s often a lot easier swapping an opamp and some R/C components than it is to find a compatible potentiometer of higher resistance.
Also, most LFOs are such simple circuits that it can be of benefit to simply build one that’s like the one in the synth, fiddle with it externally and then mod the actual synth LFO later.
Less wear on the synth.
Thanks for the info Kevin. I’ll try breadboarding the Prodigy LFO with a TL072 and play with some different cap values. I like this idea much better. The mod I found calls for adding a cap and a switch and I believe cutting a trace. The switch is for Hi/Lo LFO rate. I’d prefer to keep it all internal.
Did you get it ?
1050 is appropriate if your unit is REALLY a 9.5. You only get what you pay for with vintage analog. Long distance E-bay and Craiglist deals are always a risk. Being close, at least you get the chance of evaluating up front before opening your wallet.
I don’t mind paying fair market value for top notch equipment. Like this modded Prodigy, fully refurbished, with plexiglass illuminated mod wheels, blue led for pitch, red flashing led (at mod rate, when a key is pressed).
Asking price was 1200. I hesitated less than my attack time on VCA fast envelopes. And it gets played much much more than the lilPhatty right next to it.
I have noticed that vintage moogs are harder and harder to find lately, even on E-bay. You can buy an LP anytime. Grab what you can (within reason) while you can.
