The official MG-1 thread

[DirtyLarry]

hey, hopefully people will keep this thread going, here we can talk about problems we may have encountered with this little devil, that awesome black goo on the inside, trade sound patches, give advice, talk about other musicians that use the MG-1 and basically just shoot the bleep about this prize synth of realistic/radio shack/moog family.
Start posting!

Rob Wilcox

[Midiot]

i never looked on the inside. What black goo are you referring to??

[DirtyLarry]

well, on the inside they placed these thin foam rubber sheets that were used to capture dust that fell in between the sliders and knobs and whatnot and keeps it from getting to the circuit board. The only problem is that after 22 years, it begins to decompose and if you press down on it, it turns into a crude liquid substance. And the bleep sticks to everything. I opened both of mine and cleaned them out. It's good to use isypropyl (spelling?) alcohol to get all the gunk off of whatever its sticking to. As for the rest, use an x-acto blade to shave it off and anything else u can think of to get it out of there. Basically it's just to clean ti out.

[writeroxie]

that black goo is horrible!
i had an opus 3 shipped to me and that black stuff was EVERYWHERE when it arrived! It's like Tira Misu mixed with TAR! I've yet to deal with the goo dwelling inside of my MG-1, but next week is doomsday. I'm having a few replacements/mods done: Inputs replaced, sliders replaced, on/off switches added on the osc/polyphony outputs. The tech is gonna hate me!

[nick]

I recently purchased an MG-1 and I'm having some problems! I got it from a friend of a friend for a hundred or so bucks, and it works, sort of. With the contour 'tone sources' switch on contoured, some of the keys on the keyboard don't work, and the ones that do work sound really weak and sometimes out of tune. With the 'tone sources' switch on continuous, the mg-1 sounds awesome, all of the controls/knobs/sliders seem to work and all of the keys work fine, it's just that it sustains indefinitely which i 'guess' is the desired effect with the 'continuous' setting. I don't know. And that's all I really know. Not that much..

I did open it up and clean out the black goo, which at least made me feel a little better about it!

I e-mailed Paul Schreiber who was supposedly involved with the development of the MG-1 and he told me it was simply dirty key contacts, and told me to order a specific cleaning agent which would fix the problem. I cleaned the contacts with rubbing alcohol which did nothing, so I'm wondering if cleaning them with the special chemical will do the trick. I read somewhere else that faulty keys was caused by some chip that needs to be replaced. Anyway, any ideas would be appreciated!

[DirtyLarry]

Nick--
oh man, are you in the anna bocci band!?! I think i end up going to the purevolume site at least once every week. I need to get the ep. Hey man, if you are in ABB, wanna do a cd trade? i'll send you my bands stuff and you can send me yours?<p>
As for the MG-1, you might need to replace a chip :-\

Use this list of references...<br>
www.moogce.com <--old moog employee/tech, charges $50 an hour for repairs
www.Kurtsamps.com <---does synth repair
Fred McNiff// [email protected] <--moog repair

www.kleonard.com/gear/mg-1.htm <--this guy talks about how he completely fixed up his MG-1, he's a cool guy, IM himat Kltron

www.planet-zero.org/wiki/index.php/MoogMG1 <--MOog MG-1 cleaning and synth info
-----------------------------
good luck with all of that, if you want, IM me with AIM @ punksurfer15

[HowIMadeMyMillions]

Just a warning to any Liberation owners as well... the same foam used in the opus3 and MG-1 is used in moog's super cool guitar synth as well.,,,I spent a nice while cleaning that crap up and would recommend taking it out as soon as possible as it will gum up just about everything it touches and effect your synths performance. I suppose it must be in Rogues too....what about Prodigy's? As far as the MG-1, my friend had one and as far as bang for your buck it didn't seem bad at all. Can't go wrong with yummy moog filters!!! What I don't understand is why people go for a MG-1 when they could get a Rogue for around the same price but get some wheels to play with. Don't get it.....am I missing something?

[MC]

That foam was used in Liberation, Rogue, Opus 3, Taurus II, Polymoog, 10-band EQ, Synamp, and MG-1. All of these used a certain brand of slidepot and toggle switches. I have to admit that those slidepots were rugged and the lube didn't dry out like dreaded ARP slidepots.

I have never heard of foam problems in the Sonic Six, Satellite, or Minitmoog and those used different slidepots and switches from the others. Likewise with the original Taurus pedals.

[DirtyLarry]

i just visited the technology transplant website, they are the guys who make the replacement sliders for the mg-1, and it looks like they are soon going to be selling replacement slider caps, THANK GOD!

[HowIMadeMyMillions]

Any relation to Liesure Suit Larry? Can you leave the web address for Technology Transplants?

[DirtyLarry]

technologytransplant.com unfortunately, theres no contact...but i think ebay user "chipsforbrains" has something to do with it

[vorlon42]

[...deleted...] What I don't understand is why people go for a MG-1 when they could get a Rogue for around the same price but get some wheels to play with. Don't get it.....am I missing something?

I'm not sure if you're talking about the current market, or the market of the early 80s.

If you recall, the MG-1 was sold in Radio Shacks (Moog Music was the OEM -- original equipment manufacturer -- to use modern computer lingo), and the Rogue was sold in music stores. The MG-1 was OK for someone new to synths, whereas the Rogue was for someone a little more advanced.

If I weer to buy one now, I'd probably prefer to Rogue, but I guess the MG-1 is apparently more common or easier to find.

[sundaeclubber]

[quote="vorlon42"]
If you recall, the MG-1 was sold in Radio Shacks (Moog Music was the OEM -- original equipment manufacturer -- to use modern computer lingo), and the Rogue was sold in music stores.





Is the MG-1 more common than the Rogue in the USA then? I'm sure there were more Rogues sold in the UK than MG-1s. This may be because Radio Shack products were distributed by a now defunct franchise trading under the "Tandy" name which had a reputation for poor value in audio, and overpriced electronic components. Tandy stores were the only audio dealer where stereo speakers were priced singly to make the catalog prices look low!

Not many self-respecting musicians would have bought a keyboard from Tandy and it took a careful glance at the appallingly named "Realistic Concertmate MG-1" front panel to realise that this was a quality item on sale. (The next generation of Concertmate keyboards were cheap rebadged Casios, which proves the point!) I reckon most would-be Moog owners in the UK would already have bought a 'proper' moog before discovering that the Realistic MG-1 WAS a Moog. To my knowledge it was never advertised here and you really had to 'discover' it yourself. Furthermore, being marketed by Tandy Stores incurred the usual cost penalty removing any hint of good value that the MG-1 may have had over its rivals in the UK.

The final problem with the MG-1 in the UK was the social stigma of the huge "Realistic" logo on the rear panel. Many audiences would have laughed themselves silly at the sight of that name and its poor value associations even if it had sounded like a Memorymoog!!

Even though I'm glad that MG-1s are getting their deserved recognition as real Moog products, I still can't quite understand the current popularity of the machine these days when a Rogue offers more of the traditional Moog monosynth experience at a similar price. The Polyphony section of the MG-1 I've always regarded as near-useless. ...... I reckon that Radmike may disagree with me on this point!

SCx

[thepeoplesrubicon]

i finally found some pdf manuals for it. the main thing wrong with it that i can tell is that no sound comes out unless the polyphony slider is all the way up. i think that's a problem. and i'm not getting any reaction out of either of the tone sources.

[motioncitymoog]

Does Anyone Have One For Sale, Or Know Where I Can Get One? Ive been wanting one, i cant pay alot for it like on ebay, but if you could help that would be great, my e-mail is [email protected].