How my Slim Phatty evolved into a Little Phatty Stage 2

[theshaggyfreak]

It almost feels like a Pokemon tale looking at that title (if you even know what that is). Here's the deal...

Back at the end of November, I ordered a Slim Phatty from Sweetwater and was told it’d be a while before they’d get some in. Around the first of the year, I finally received my Slim Phatty and I loved it. Unfortunately the Value encoder knob was pretty glitchy. Sometimes it’d recognize a click and sometimes it wouldn’t. Sometimes it’d recognize one click as two. It was really touchy and it started driving me a little crazy. So, I contacted Moog support and was told that I should just have Sweetwater ship me another one to replace. After a quick e-mail, I had everything worked out to get a new Slim Phatty but I’d have to wait at least another month to get it. Luckily, I was able to keep the first one while I waited.

Fast forward to this past Thursday and things get more exciting. When the delivery guy brought the package to my door, I noticed it was rather large. It seemed too large to be a Slim Phatty and I was right. Inside the box was a Little Phatty Stage II which is quite a bit of an upgrade from the Slim Phatty. Now, I could have kept my mouth shut but that would have been the wrong thing to do, right? Well, at least it would have been morally wrong. With a deep sigh, I called my rep at Sweetwater to tell him of the mix up.

I’ve been working with Bob Mondok off and on for a few years whenever I ordered something from Sweetwater. He was a little confused about what happened at first but he told me that he’d look into the situation and get back to me. I got a call the next afternoon and was told that when Moog sent them a shipment, they accidentally had a handful of Stage II’s labeled as Slim Phatty’s. So, I basically asked Bob to make me a deal on the Stage II and we could just wrap up the whole situation. In the end, I got $200 off a new Stage II which made me pretty happy.

Customer support was A+ on both Moog and Sweetwater’s part. Not only did they quickly deal with each issue that came up, they treated me better than I could have asked for. After playing around with the Stage II, I have to say that it does sound a bit different than the Slim Phatty. It certainly has more headroom. Anyway…that’s my story.

[EricK]

Thats awesome!

[David Bulog]

Yeah I had both and thought the stage 2 sounded a little better--could not exactly point out why

[theshaggyfreak]

David,

I have a strange feeling that it's the power supply. It's amazing how much that sort of thing matters. The Slim Phatty doesn't sound bad at all but the Little Phatty does seem to sound better. It definitely has more head room and the synth seems much more responsive to the keys on the Little Phatty itself compared to a separate midi controller. I totally enjoyed the time I had with the Slim Phatty but I think the Stage II is more my speed.

[David Bulog]

Get a Voyager --Noisebug have great deals on these --for $2495 you will walk out the door with a open box
I use both the LP2 and Voyager and could not be happier
Sold my vintage synth collection and dont miss them a bit with these two
Im also going to order the new SEM 4 voice at $3495

[theshaggyfreak]

Oh, I was lucky that I could talk my wife into letting me keep the Stage II. I think I'll have to be satisfied with what I have for now but I do have plenty of toys....er instruments.

[David Bulog]

Sell then and get the Voyager and 4 Voice SEM
Problem with the vintage synh gear (apart from TB-303) is the shortage of decent service people in USA that can restore this gear
Do you realize to completely service an ARP-2600 will cost around $2000
At least with the TB-303 you can ship it off to Australia for service to Robin Whittle cheaply
A CS-80 would need to go to the UK for service, nobody in USA can service these