Today I pulled an old Moog Prodigy out of my grandparents’ attic and decided to give it a go. I powered it on and the red LED went on, but no sound came from it, though there was a faint hum coming from the amp when I turned the master volume up and down. I opened her up, dusted and checked all the connections, whick looked fine. Does anybody know the source of this problem?
Why can’t I find a great vintage synth in my grannie’s attic?
I bought a non working Prod. a while back with much the same symptoms, turned out to be one of the transistors, but I had to pay a tech to sort it.
It’s probably worth putting it in to a tech anyway, as once you get it working, the key contacts, pots, switches etc will probably need cleaning, and it will probably need a re-calibration i.a.w. the service manula.
Worth doing though, the sync sounds from a Prodigy are second to none.
Good luck
Thanks, you,re right, definitely needs to go to a tech. I do all kinds of work on guitars, but electronics are beyond me, especially vintage ones. It was really quite a find, my uncle bought it as a teenager and couldn’t figure out how to work it so he put it up in tha attic without getting more than a day or two of playing with it. My grandfather said to take it, it hasn’t seen daylight in decades anyway.
There is something good about the world when people are still finding Moogs in attics, closets, garage sales, or thrift stores. : )
great stuff, just like with vintage guitar gear.. finding a vintage and rare piece is always cool!
Well, I had to post after another “rob” and animal hybrid user name. I mean, really. Rock.
Take it to a tech, yes. But take it to a tech who knows what he’s doing. I took my poor little prodigy to a tech and gave him my copy of the service manual and he said he could fix it. A month later he gave it back, charged me 150 bucks and said it was good to go. It has exactly the same problems it did when I gave it to him, and he said no refunds on vintage equipment repairs.
So ask around, find someone with a Moog and a tech they trust.
On a similar note, now that I think about it, does anyone know a good tech in the Austin, TX area? My prodigy has been suffering for a year, and may soon be sacrificed for some Little Phatty cash…
That’s a cool find!
I’m interested in buying broken (or working) analog synths if anyone wants to sell their Prodigy or others…
Thanks.