I recently bought a used Sub 37, and did not notice it when I bought it but it has the plastic shaft filter pot problem. The seller is ignoring my complaints and I now have a $1150 synth that is in need of repair. I contacted Moog and they were entirely unhelpful, essentially just telling me that neither the PCB nor pot is or will become available.
Any suggestions for how to deal with this? I heard they later used the same pot as on the Voyager but that seems unavailable too. I believe the early ones were surface mount, so maybe a long shaft pot mounted behind the board would work?
I’m surprised that its not interchangeable with Subsequent 37 panel PCBs, not that I know if those are available, but given they still sell them you would think they would be.
I’m happy to say that it is actually working fine. I had set it up to use as a MIDI controller for a VST and that’s where I saw the jumping values. But I hadn’t noticed it sonically which is why I never noticed when I bought it. I ran a pot calibration (not sure if that played a role) and hooked it up to MIDI monitor and the CCs look fine; it’s only when controlling the VST that it jumps. So I don’t think the problem is actually the Sub after all, thankfully.
Very disappointed with Moog though. It’s the same part as used in the Subsequent 37 which AFAICT they are still selling, so not encouraging that they don’t have parts or any expectation of getting them.
A friend of mine experienced this problem with a second hand sub37. This was in 2021 and I contacted moog service who forwarded me to moog in Germany. They were very helpful and sent the replacement pcb and new pots to replace the original with plastic shafts, for free. Changing the circuit board was easy, but replacing the pots needs some soldering skills. It’s a pity if there are no spare parts available for this factory fault, as i think all sub37 with these bad pots eventually will go bad and need replacement.
I may be stating the obvious, but frequently you can buy some spray cleaner and force some into the pot to get rid of dirt in there that makes it jump. DeOxit makes a few products that might be useful. I don’t have personal experience with them though.
This is a known issue for Moog. I had bought mine new when it first came out and so it was under warranty. They sent a new board. I had to recalibrate everything. Prior to getting the board, I mapped the mod wheel to the filter to get around the problem.
So it could be Moog sunset (not covered in warranty or software support) the sub37 model you have, just like Apple does. If you got it on Reverb or Ebay, you should leave a very enlightening review on that seller and maybe see if s/he gets kicked off as every seller should disclose all known issues.
