I downsizing my studio, and I was about to post my Liberation for sale, and I wanted to make sure I had all the facts about my synth correct before posting.
I purchased the Liberation from a gentleman in Toronto about 1994-1996 (I can’t remember) and I have owned it ever since. When I bought it the synth was a maroon / burgundy color and looked (and still looks to my eyes) factory. The paint is super high gloss and anywhere it has been chipped its just wood beneath, no black or white. I’ve heard of Tom Coster’s blue one, and a weird baby blue/yellow one, and a red one used for an Alan Thicke movie … but I can’t seem to find any pictures of colored ones online (aside from the black and white).
Can anyone shed light on the history of the Liberation and customization from the factory ?
From the catalogs I have, the Liberation was available in factory colors of black or white. They didn’t offer custom colors and their custom department was primarily low quantity non-production stuff like modulars and rack mounts such as string filter or dual oscillator expander. However it is not entirely impossible that they did custom paint jobs. A better person to ask is Roger Luther of moogarchives.com, he worked at Moog during that era.
Never have seen a red one, but have some NAMM '81 info reading that Moog would offer white and red Liberations. Interesting to note, some Liberations came with serrated pitch wheels, while most had the ribbon bender.
EDIT:
Also found a 1982 catalog with red/white/black Liberatons.
Google “Tom Coster Moog Liberation” and look at images. Tom had a red one with a pitch wheel (not ribbon), there’s a few others that come up in search results.
