I have been looking for a unit like this for a while. I could have never found one in a lifetime, but luck came my way. Late serial number, never played, not a scratch anywhere, it’s been kept untouched in a box for 30 some years, even the back jacks and the front headphone jacks don’t show even the tiniest amount of oxydation, they are shiny brite. As if it was not enough, the unit has been de-foamed, new sliders, re-capped, fully calibrated by a tech and the RCA jacks have been changed for brand new Switchcraft’s. No mods on it so far, I want to keep just as it is, the mintest of the mints.
Beautiful! I have a big place in my heart for the MG1! My first Moog, and I played it to death, literally!
In honor of your find, here’s a MG1 tune I did in 1991, all MG1 and my roommate’s Alesis drum machine, and some MD20/20 for inspiration!: http://www.moped10.com/images/08_finley_moog_2.mp3
Thanks for the music, very appropriate. Of all people on this site, I don’t have to tell you how good it sounds. I took some pics as soon as I got home and I have been playing it non-stop since then, totally ignoring the new laboratory 61 I brought home too, taking pauses only to fetch things to plug into. So far, it played keys, bass, guitar and the moped10 through LFO’ed filter modulation
Nice one! I remember when those appeared at Radio Shack. I was about ten, and going nuts wanting to get a synth. Unfortunately, they were something like 4-500 bucks at the time. I did manage to get one used a few years later during the great DX sell-a-thon, and that one stayed with me until recently. I always liked the sounds it made, and it was fun to layer the poly and mono sections.
Wow nice hit Portamental!
I have to try this one, it makes me curious.
EDIT: I have to prevent myself from trying one, or it would have me living in the street…
Thanks. I am almost afraid to ask, but what happened to it?
I got a few of those MG1’s, all bought, including this one, after they have been serviced. I came only lately into synthesis and I never experienced the blob myself. Call me (whatever) but I would like that.
You wouldn’t like it : made of cheap plastic, only two waveforms, no mod or pitch wheels, cheesy polyphony. So I guess you best option, if you come across one, is to call me
I just got one of these for free(!) (well, for the cost of shipping).
It’s the opposite of this one, condition-wise… was pretty rough. Got it most of the way working, and added a 1/4" jack. Replaced all the slides and switches.
It’s a whole lot of fun! I really recommend trying one.
Mine still has a few notes in the polyphony that aren’t working (have some new divider chips on order) and one other rather big problem-- I can’t get it to work in “keyed” mode. Works perfectly as-expected in “contoured” mode.
You only THINK you’d like that. That black foam is some nasty stuff! I am not a synth tech, but I’ve come across it in various home audio equipment. It’s something to be dreaded.
The MG-1 also has a special place in my heart. It was also my very first Moog synth, and “real” synth also. I had built a home-made polyphonic one before that, out of a top octave generator chip and dividers.
I had bought it used, in a music store, for cheap ($120 if I remember back in 1985) because they didn’t know it was a Moog, and they thought it was some kind of Radio-Shack “toy organ” due to the colorful control panel. My luck !
I’ve played the MG-1 for many, many years. The only mods I had done, was to add a jack to connect an expression pedal routed to the LFO modulation level of the pitch (giving me a vibrato foot control), and to replace an internal trimpot by a potentiometer to control pulse width of “Tone Source Two”. I had never missed the mod wheels, since the sliders for pitch and filter modulation were cleverly placed on the left, easily accessible with your left hand while playing. The only real missing thing was the pitch bend wheel. But I’d used clever control of the glide to play synth leads instead…
My best friend had found one on eBay a couple of years ago, and had refurbished it (removed foam,replaced all switches and sliders) and invited me to come check out his work, and as soon as I laid my hands on it, it was like meeting an old friend.
Oh the MG just got sucked into the ‘gear vortex’ at some point… sold to pay for other stuff.
Technically, a Pro-one was my first ‘real’ synth - and I still have that one. I had bought it with the intent of scavenging its Pratt-Read keyboard for my first DIY synth (got the whole synth for what Paia was asking for just the keyboard assembly - nobody wanted these back then!), but it was so good that I mercifully left it be. I restored and added pressure sensitivity to it a couple years ago, and its still one of my all-time favorites today.
These things happen sometimes, too bad. But you made the right choice between both. The Pro-one is a great synth and so hard to find. I know a guy that has one, no persuasion I could use on him ($$$) could ever decide him to part with it. But I don’t consider the game over yet!
Thanks, I am really proud of this one. Better be… I paid fair price for it.
I have read about those lucky find and it has been a fantasy of mine, for a couple of years now, to pick some vintage, a mini, an MG-1, or anything with the Moog name really at a pawn shop, garage sale, flea market etc at a dirt cheap price. But now that I know what the vintage analog market is all about, I consider my chances grow dimmer by the day. Last year, I heard about a Micro-Moog that has been on display at a music store for quite a while. I thought maybe that was my chance to bargain this one out. While wondering while the Micro was not sold, I called the guy and understood why right away when he replied he was asking $2500 for it. My bet is he still has it.
I remember that day very vividly: it was the summer of 1985, I was in my parent’s basement banging on my drums one afternoon, when my father came down and said: “Are you still interested by that Radio-Shack synth you’ve been eyeballing in their catalog ? (I guess he had noticed the drooling spots on page 23 of the 1982 catalog ). I answered:” Of course, but I don’t have that kind of money.", to which he replied “how about $120 ?”, I was ecstatic!
He said:" Hurry, get in the car with me before someone else gets it. I saw it in the store window at Diplomat Music (local music shop) on my way back from work…". Funny thing was, I had just started my fist real job at minimum wages and didn’t even have the $120, so my parents had to lend it to me so I could get it!
For days after that, I couldn’t believe it was really sitting in front of me. As the original price tag of 1982, here in Canada, was… $899.99 CDN ($499.95 U.S.) Which was quite a bit of money back in those days.
