Curious to know what the gear heads are thinking of the production of new Minimoog model D. More specifically around 2 questions:
Directionally, what do you think will be the impact on the vintage offering’s price (i.e. 70’s Minimoog)? I.e. cause a resurgence of interest for them and raise the price, or make it drop?
Also what do you think of the production of the new Minimoog D relative to coming close to the real thing? There are some new cool features, but what about the roaring bass that the Minimoog got famous for? And what about the tuning issue that was an issue for the real thing?
I’m not gonna speculate, as I’m out of the vintage game.
From the video I’ve seen, the sound is perfect. Part of the reason for tuning problems was this area of matched resistors on the oscillator board that were later replaced with resistor arrays. It’s 6 matched sets of 3 resistors. I used to sell a kit of new matched resistors that addressed this problem. Judging by the looks of the new oscillator board, they addressed that issue with .1% resistors.
I’d say a resurgence of interest… hopefully. The new ‘D’ is only being sold at Moogfest apparently, according to a Moog video I’ve seen - and they aren’t making a lot of them. It could well push the vintage prices up… but won’t lower them I wouldn’t have thought..!
Its weird, we also thought that D was only being sold at MFest, then JSharp mentioned that Sweetwater was taken pre-orders and sure enough, we were able to lock one in at sweetwater last night.
I never understood why Moog abandon this in the first place. It was an affordable “MODULAR BOARD” player. A perfect “SOUND” niche in the music market . IMO it should have remained the flagship. I must be out of my mind, but i love the fact that it doesn’t have a LCD. Except for our Korg Kronos and H9, everything else we have in the studio is LCD-less and i don’t miss’em …
I’m going to guess that when Dr Moog decided to get back into the game he decided that he should take this classic design and move forward with it. Technology had come a long way since the early 70’s. So he made something that was more stable, had presets,more features/functions etc…
I anticipate that reissues such as these and the modulars can potentially devalue the vintage units.
We’re already dealing with ebay rapists who want to charge exorbitant amount of money for certain Moog products for arbitrary reasons. The Taurus I was routinely asking for around 4k when the T3 was announced, then those prices immediately went down when the reissue hit the streets.
But from what I understand about he development of the Model D, Bob HATED the idea because it took an instrument (the modular) based on a concept of exploration and simplified it down to the bare minimum. When it came time to create the Voyager, Bob and his team intentionally didn’t remake the Model D because there were enough on the second-hand market. Plus, there wasn’t an expectation that the Voyager was going to be that successful, and like the Model D, only a limited run was made.
Both the Model D and the Voyager were in production for over a decade, so there are a lot out there already. The Voyager market was already pretty saturated and sales were likely really slow, justifying discontinuation.
Give it until next month when some of these reissue Model D hit the streets, I suspect that Voyager prices will drop. Maybe it will be harder for d-bags on fleabay to justify asking 5k for a D. It could be good for someone looking to purchase a D, but bad for people who own these units who like to see their synth hold its value or appreciate.
I’m just going to regularly play my 1978 model D and it will probably outlast me.
SlabWax wrote: Why would customers want old tech 30 years later?
Weird right, yet the sound board of the Model D just stood the test of time, as current for musicians now and it was then …raw simplicity. Plus how cool is the added MIDI in/out/thru and CV.
EricK wrote - sort of: We’re already dealing with ebay folks who want to charge exorbitant amount of money for certain Moog products
Its crazy. Some folks treat instruments like there wall street stock, that’s just silly. The prices we saw for MoogerFooger delays going for were/are silly and anyone that would pay those prices are really silly.
Must admit this came as a bit of a shock. I only heard about it when I got the email from Moog Music re post production. As the owner of both a Model D and Voyager keyboard I am unsure of impact.
One perspective is that it offers more people access to a distinctive sound at a reasonable price with new tech reliability. I love my model D and I love my Voyager and not intending to sell either anytime soon. However I would hope the prices do not drop as a result. It is unclear if the intention is to move to mass production. I have to admit I have been a bit concerned about the direction of travel re Moog and its products. Some of the new gear looks a bit flimsy. This development might be just the thing!
no,
don’t think prices will drop
why?
1 the new one isn’t the old one, give it some time and we’ll agree on that.( doesn’t neccessary have to be afcourse but the challenge is very high…)
i’ve seen it with all reissues so far: ms20, arp, buchla, jp8, synthi’s rehberg and robin woods etc , diverse minimoogclones etc
2 don’t think there will be 1000’s made, so with much more then several 1000’s old ones left the price will not be affected
3 lot of people will prefer the old one , call it nostalgia or whatever.
4 question if the new ones will be fit to stand time and servicing repair as well as the old ones ? soldered to repair, quality of pots etc
etc
what will happen is that the “stockmarket rise” will be topped and slowed for some time, which is a good thing as prices of 6-8k where becoming “normal”
after some month’s/ 1-2 years, however even more people will be interested in minimoogs and prices will rise further probably.
the old ms20 are also almost going back to prices of 1000-1300 for the vintage models despite all the mini’s and other derivates produced in big numbers over the last few years. lots of new generation interest has been created for the ms20 sound and thereby owning one of those real vintage ms20’s will not fade , on the contrary.
i think it’s a brave and good thing that moog finally took up the glove and produces a a near as possible model-d. who else could do it better?
if you want one , go for it while they last, if you have and old one, don’t start selling but play it even more
i will
Sunny,
You might be right. With the examples you listed there are some counterpoints…
Most of the reissues are smaller units, the TTSH included. The Buchla company is in trouble and have had issues since the acquisition and with quality control problems with the Easels. Stuff like this precludes these products from many people’s consideration.
EMS likely represents a super niche market, and the new VCS3s are going to probably be more scarce than the vintage units (I’m on the list).
Who has really cloned the Minis though? There is the one kickstarter but it’s eurorack and has no keyboard controller, right? There was another guy who cloned the full-size unit but it wasn’t clear if those were for sale or not.
Some people have issues with the power brick and ribbons, I tend to agree that while the sound may be there, the keyboard feeling definitely won’t be.
Maybe they will pull a SE and release a rackmount midimini.
All we can do is speculate though. I’m just glad I have mine.
Ladies and Gentleman, please put your Seats, Trays, and Model D’s in the upright position and enjoy the vibe. We predict this board to surpass the sales of the Mothers … Sorry mom.
Since the PCBs were carefully cloned, down to using the exact same discrete components, there is no reason why this re-issue wouldn’t sound as good as the vintage ones.
This is no SMT wannabe with cheap minikeys for kids. This is a full blown clone (with added bonus features, carefully chosen and implemented). The only drawback is that external PSU, but that’s a minor one.
And yes, it will probably have a beneficial effect on the current overpricing of vintage ones on EvilBay.
Since replacing the problematic Pratt-Reed buss bars and coil springs contacts with an optical system, there hasn’t been anything going wrong with my 41 year old Minimoog D.
Anyway, from what I can gather, this re-edition is mostly a clone with the same components as in the original. Only the keyboard has been changed, and a few welcome features added.
As far as maintaining a D is concerned, after much needed service mine has given me nothing but good times. Also, working on it was an absolute pleasure in comparison to many other electronic items I have repaired. The service manual is comprehensive and the circuit boards are sturdy and resilient. The different sections of the synth are also split up in the circuit boards in a way that makes a lot of sense to me. That is just my experience though, and I have only dealt with this one. It was a mess when I got it, though. I also haven’t had it that long.
It took me forever to get a minimoog, as I could never afford one. Eventually fate handed me an exploded one from a guys basement. Now, less than two months after I achieve my goal, there is a new one. I don’t really know how to feel, honestly. I want the new one, I want the aftertouch, I totally want the separate LFO so you can have those huge 3 osc sounds with mod. I want to be comfy in the knowledge that everything is new inside the box. I want, I want, I want. Coveting will get you nowhere, though.
The price, whatever it will be, will be worth it I’m sure. I hope it doesn’t hit the potential resale price of mine too hard, but I really wasn’t planning on selling it, so it is sort of a moot point.
I’d say that price should not be impacted: The vintage piece will still remain way more inspiring than a new piece of gear. As applied to guitars, we have seen Fender/Gibson reissues filling a gap in the market but people, including myself, still thrive to collect older instruments.
Probably haven’t looked for some time ?
This has been going on for more then a year at least, every 1/2 year or so +1000euro
Think due to economic crises low interest rates on savings , spreading the word , globalisstion of the syntmarket etc
Maybe even inspired moog to reissue ??
