Moog Music Forum

I've always been aware of the notable 'orangey' colour of early Modular cabinets...when comparing them to American or European Walnut they hardly match up. Could it be that teak was used on these early cabinets. ?

Comparing the early cabinets Teak seems much more of a match than Walnut. Even Walnut variants like Sicilian don't match up and would Moog have used exotic woods like this ? I know it's set in stone that Moog made their cabinets from Walnut...maybe over the decades the Walnut cabinets changed in appearance ?
The early keyboard wooden frames in particular seem more Teak (or other wood) than Walnut.

I'm not saying they were Teak ...I would be most surprised if they were not Walnut....yet looking at them they certainly do look like Teak. It could be the case that the cabinets fabricaters at the time had a consignment of Walnut that was notably light and orangey in colour.

I know I have posted a few pics of the old walnut keyboards that look somewhat red in the photos. Probably an artifact of using a flash makes them look red. With a longer exposure in low light they look correct.
Most of those 60's units I have used walnut veneer over furniture grade plywood for longer pieces. While the keyboard ends are solid. Remember reading that Bob had a large stash of walnut boards in the Trumansburg basement.
The latter Norlin era 35 and 55 cabinets looked to be solid wood with no veneer. Guess it depends on what year they were made?

I have an RA Moog Minimoog from the Trumansburg era and it is definitely walnut. And being a woodworker I know the different varieties of wood.

I live an hour from the original Trumansburg factory and I know a woodworker who claimed to had supplied some of that walnut to RA Moog.

Thanks for your comments. There's no comparison like eye to eye contact and as mentioned photos can deceive for sure.
When I saw two 3C's face to face I was immediatly struck by how light and orange the cabinets were...like my old school oak desk. Not much figuring in the wood.

I notice that new Moog cabinets are far more deeper red/ brown Walnut as standard American/European type. I suppose those early cabinets etc were a result of a random batch of light coloured Walnut but they have that extra magic to my mind. I've noticed that some other early cabinets are indeed quite red/brown.

The environment that the hardwoods grew in has an impact on many of their traits. It can affect their primary color, their figuring, their density, etc. The walnut from cold NY winters is going to have a different shade of red/brown/orange than that from the warmer Carolinas. In the 1950s, Gibson acquired the figured maple that went in their fabled Les Paul sunbursts from a specific forest in Michigan. Hardwoods like ash and mahogany vary all over the map for their density, from lightweight to heavyweight.

I think I read somewhere that the original walnut came from some trees on Bob's property. Probably just a legend...