Do they exist?
Well, one came in my door right now… Serial #396…
I’ll bet someone somewhere is proudly showing off their ultra rare Sub Phatty with cool wood end caps. 
–
Moose
I would be so pissed if I got a sub 37 and didn’t know ahead of time it was shipping with plastic. I wonder could this be something an end user did?
If serial is 396 then surely that’s a new product run and not the tribute?
It was a replacement for my original Sub 37 #9198 which I had sent in for service. The shop decided to not repair mine and instead sending me a new one. The “new” one, Sub 37 Tribute #396, came in a well used box which had been sent a few places already, as witnessed by remnants of old document pouches and address labels, without manual and quick guide, and with plenty of scratches on the keys and dust and dirt elsewhere.
Anyway I thought such thing as a Sub 37 Tribute with plastic end caps wasn’t supposed to exists(?)
@ Berlotti : Yeah, I wasn’t amused… The synth may have been with other users, ref. the address labels and document pouches.
The Sub Phatty end caps are black (at least mine are) so I don’t think that would be the reason.
Right. I was implying that someone may have thought a Sub 37’s wood end caps would look better on their Sub Phatty and swapped them.
If DrJustice was really promised a “new” unit as a replacement, it sounds like he didn’t get it. Sounds more like he got one that someone else had returned, possibly after swapping the end caps. I’d be having stern words with the shop and maybe try to get Moog involved, although I don’t know if there’s anything they could actually do.
–
Moose
I did talk to the shop and I’m getting a new one. They were apparently surprised too. Why one surfaced with this configuration is still a bit of mystery.
This seems like the most likely scenario.
Especially since the front panel clearly says “TRIBUTE” on it.
Dr. Justice,
Andy from Moog Tech Support here, I have tracked down our original email correspondence about this and I will contact you directly via email about how to resolve this.
Clearly, this is an oversight on the part of our distributor, and it appears that some previous owner was less than honest when they returned their Sub 37 to the distributor!!! It looks like they snatched the wooden sides and replaced them with Little Phatty or Sub Phatty sides. 
My apologies that this item wasn’t fully inspected before being sent to you by our distributor, I will speak to them about this matter to ensure it doesn’t happen again in the future.
Thanks,
Andy Hughes
Service Department Manager
Moog Music, Inc.
Thank you Andy!
And, yes, the snatching hypothesis… Kind of plausible, that one 
As you know from our e-mails, the issue is resolved now, and I’ll hopefully have the new Sub 37 within a couple of days. I have a Big Sky waiting for it, and some good whisky - we’re gonna be alright 