Sad Polymoog

[kslight]

Was out Craigslist shopping today and met a guy who (among other instruments) had a Polymoog for sale... I was curious, but knowing the reputation this instrument holds and the fact that the guy said he used to tour the hell out of it, I was a little afraid at what I might find. Once we dug it out of the basement (in its custom built road case) I found no fewer than a dozen keys duct taped down (or at least they would have been, except the duct tape is so old that is not sticky) due to some unknown keybed issue I guess... He did tell me it had this issue before-hand. Not interested in taking a boat anchor home with me, I wished to power it on and try it out. Upon power on we have...lights and smoke. Not all lights appeared functional and before I could grab an amp smoke started rising... Needless to say I passed. While I have done a reasonable amount of synth tech work over the last 10+ years this was not a nightmare I was willing to acquire...

But I did end up with a couple other good deals instead, and I was already within a couple miles of him so I didn't make a special trip fortunately.


But if anyone wants parts and can afford shipping from Kansas City I might pass his info on...

[Voltor07]

Yikes! Not a project I'd be willing to take on, as much as I love the sound of one fully restored.

[Kenneth]

How can people let things like these rot in their basements? If I stopped using any one of my synthesizers for even one year I would sell it to someone who would take better care of it.

[kslight]

The owner of it is/was a somewhat successful touring musician, gear so long paid for itself that it doesn't matter, and the cost to restore is not worth the return. He also had a Micromoog with a 1/4" of dust on it (not in a road case like the Polymoog was)...didn't ask what he wanted for that as I'm not really into simple monos. He had a whiteface Arp Odyssey that looked really good, but wanted more than I had on hand for it. I did get a mint Roland JX3P + programmer from him, and an Ensoniq ASR10...both in road cases. I think the Polymoog just suffered the most over the years and was never a reliable machine to begin with.

[Christopher Winkels]

Out of curiosity, what did he want for it?

If nothing else it can be turned into an attractive coffee table.

[kslight]

Out of curiosity, what did he want for it?

If nothing else it can be turned into an attractive coffee table.

More than I'd spend on a coffee table...and more than I'd want to spend on a project synth...but if it at least worked despite all the bad keys, I was only going to give him a few bennys. If you saw it you'd realize that I wouldn't be stealing it even at that price... I realize what a good working one can go for, and that the road case is worth a couple bennys on its own...but you'd spend several hundred getting it 100% at the bare minimum, at that point unless you really wanted the project just not worth it IMHO. I imagine all but the clinically insane, uninformed, or technically over-qualified would not pay much more than I offered. For something that sounds like an even bigger Crumar Orchestrator...

[EricK]

I inquired because I know someone whom it might be worth it to take it to, but it sounds like the keyboard assembly was shot and I understand that can be a very expensive piece to find. I don't think I would even bother unless it was the synthesizer version.

I thought I was going to get my hands on a 203a for about 850, but the seller had a bad reputation for never shipping the products he sold.

[kslight]

I don't think I would even bother unless it was the synthesizer version.

The model I saw IS the synthesizer version. But an early one, when they were called the Polymoog Keyboard. It is a 203A.

[EricK]

Ahh, I see where the confusion arose. My attorney advises me to pass on this one.

[MC]

The early Polymoog 203A used a Faratron power supply that had an etch error on the PC board, thus it was vulnerable to malfunction.

Later 203A used a Moog power supply that was a lot better. Look for one with serial 3900 and higher, and you should be safe. I have a late model 203A and gigged with it for four years with zero problems. Now it resides in my studio but has some minor problems. But I do agree that resurrecting a 203A quickly reaches the point of diminishing returns. Not many scavengeable parts other than slidepots, a pair of UA726s, TOS ICs, and 3080s.

[thealien666]

Frankly, the Polymoog (synth or keyboard version) is a piece of unreliable engineering crap anyway. It's the first of Dave Luce's failures. An organ in disguise. Even Bob Moog himself sort of dismissed it by saying, and I quote him "When Dave Luce's Polymoog got into production, it needed 300 engineering changes! It was a mass of internal circuits.". He probably wanted to say "a mess of internal circuits" but kept it polite. (cited from an article written by Bob in the book "Vintage Synthesizers" by Mark Vail)

The only thing going for it is that it has the patented ladder filter and is polyphonic. But we all know what eventually happens to octave dividers over time...they fail.

[EricK]

Over the last week I got my Micro restored and modified. I got to see and play several of the original Moog lineup (MIni, Multi, Prodigy, both versions of the poly) and others (arp odyssey, solina, prophet 5 the list goes on and on) and I was very impressed with the sound and feel of the Polymoog. This wasn't 100% yet but I have read so much about how crappy they are and how awful they sound but I think they sound great and I wouldn't mind owning one even with the caveats.

I'm holding out for a clavinet though.

Eric

[Kevin Lightner]

I have read so much about how crappy they are and how awful they sound but I think they sound great

Like blonds, Steinways and Gibsons, not all Polymoogs are the same.

and I wouldn't mind owning one even with the caveats.

You don't know all the caveats.

Not trying to be hostile, but making a judgment that all of a certain thing is ok because you've tried one isn't the best way to judge them all.
The people that have expressed their negativity towards the PM were likely being honest.
While it's subjective as to what "awful" sounds like, the PM's lack of reliability is well-known.
The PM you just played was at a service tech's, no?

[MC]

Early Polymoogs had a 200% return rate - meaning for every new one off shipped to stores, two were returned for warranty repairs!

You're not going to earn much profit with that kind of return rate.

By the time they eventually got the problems ironed out, the Prophet-5 and Oberheim polysynths were on the market.