Moog Music Forum

And now the "woah, slow down with the phone calls" email from Moog over this 'recall'. It was really unwise to ask thousands of strangers if they have a problem. I cannot believe that anyone purchases a Voyager then doesn't contact Moog but will complain on forums to bash Moog instead. All of these problems can be handled by the excellent Moog and distributor network.

thealien666 wrote:That's why I called it a "pseudo-recall" in one of my posts earlier.

Moog should have done their homework on this, and announce a full blown recall of all Voyagers of a specific serial number range, and offer to replace the analog board, defective or not.
That's what car manufacturers usually do when some part is known to be substandard and prone to failure in their cars.

These synths are not endangering people's lives LOL. No need for gov legislation to prevent this ever happening again...

B

Well, Moog Music has now wisely published the ranges of affected serial numbers for the different models in a bulletin follow-up.

I would like to apologize to the excellent Moog Music Inc Customer Support team for overreacting to the initial bulletin and suggesting that a full blown recall might have been in order. It wasn't.
In fact, Voyager's owners should be reassured that a very dedicated staff at Moog Music is actually on top of things and carefully monitoring the situation.

In case some of you Voyager owners out there are wondering if your beloved synth is concerned or not, I'm pasting part of the bulletin follow-up here, hoping that it might be useful to some of you.

"The problem stated in the January letter only affects Minimoog Voyagers built between mid-2010 and January 2013 with the following serial numbers: Select Series 829-1724, Performer 2990-3445, Electric Blue 1506-2075, RME 1330-1925, XL 1-545, and Lunar Select Series 1-57. If your Minimoog Voyager is not within this serial number range, you should not expect these issues and we would appreciate it if you do not unnecessarily burden our small Service Staff with a call."

But I would add: ...unless there is actually something really wrong with your Voyager, even outside these serial numbers ranges, of course.

Alain.

Just to finish up the email Alain mentioned, it goes on to say:

"If your Minimoog Voyager is not exhibiting problems, then there is no need for you to be concerned. We are confident that the issues previously identified have already materialized in 99% of the instruments that will experience the problem. Therefore, if you are not experiencing problems currently, you should not expect to in the future."

"The problem identified in the January letter is more prevalent in countries with 220V power systems. Those countries with 110/120V power, like the USA and Japan, have less cause for concern."

"And finally, if you have a Minimoog Voyager within the above serial number range and it is exhibiting an issue unrelated to those stated in the January letter, then we will handle it for you, but it will be serviced outside of any warranty."

"Thank you for being our customer."

"Sincerely,
Michael Adams
President of Moog Music, Inc."

YES

No!! More confusion
The european importer mailed me that my voyager oldschool
Was in the group of. Sick voyagers. So i send iT out to them for replacement
Of the analog board. And now This mail from Moog. :/??

moogie instructor wrote:No!! More confusion
The european importer mailed me that my voyager oldschool
Was in the group of. Sick voyagers. So i send iT out to them for replacement
Of the analog board. And now This mail from Moog. :/??

I received the tech update the other day with details of the models and serial numbers involved and I did not see the Old School listed.

Models listed were: Select series, Performer, Electric blue, RME, XL, Lunar Select series. I also thought it was models produced between 2010 and 2013, dates after the Old School model finished production I believe.

How did your import deduce that your Old School was affected by this issue. Interested to hear as I also have an Old School.

My oldschool. Had a broken env generator. And iT was repaired in 2012/2013
So i mailed them with the question if my oldschool was suspect
The answer was yes. My oldschool is from the last batch 0674

And now my beloved synth is far from home waiting for something that Will never
Happen

today is the day my voyager old school returned with a new mainboard and sounds like new calibrated and all and on top of it the golden moog knob was enclosed
happyhappy joy joy thanks moog for the perfect service

My little-used Select Series stopped making oscillator sounds last week. Hope Moog is still fixing these.

Ledbetter,
When was yours made and what is the symptom?

2013, I think. The serial number is within the range set out in this thread. All oscillators have stopped generating sound. Filter sounds can still be produced.

Hi guys,

as I'm the original starter of this thread, I just wanted to give you a short feedback, what happened in the meantime:

I returned my new Voyager back to the dealer within the 30 days money-back period.
Why? I wasn't happy with the user software/interface. I got the impression that the hardware part and the software part of the Voyager didn't fit very well together, like two antagonists... Too much things in the menus, not as intuitive as the "analog" user interface. OK, very subjective opinion...
Of course, the sound was outstanding.

Next thing was a second hand Slim Phatty: Wow, what powerful sound this little piece had! Best value for money! But I also sold this one again and "changed" it within a few weeks into a Little Phatty 2 (also used), I still have it and love it
But one negative thing: the multi-assigned knobs. Very uncomfortable.

And I never could forget the incredible sound of the Voyager! And so I observed the secondhand market for a while, and a few weeks ago I fell over a Voyager Oldschool in mint condition.

And I instantly knew: THIS is my instrument!
And it actually is my instrument. It is exactly the thing I always wanted to have: an intuitive, direct user interface with no menus. Just turning knobs, forming the sound, playing. A real musical instrument. It's so gorgeous!

So, finally I have found "my" Moog synthesizer

PS1: according to the former owner, the complete main board was changed due to the known oscillator problems (he told me that actually one or two oscillators were defective). So hopefully my OS will be a reliable partner for many years

PS2: of course I also fell in love with the Sub 37 which is IMO the sexiest synth that's built at the moment. And it even would have been cheaper than my OS! But (for my ears) it sounds so thin and rather "harsh", even compared "only" to the SP/LP! It has definitely not the warm and "classic" Moog sound I love so much...

Already got an email and RMA from Andy at Moog. Relieved and hopeful. Thinking about sending just the PCB, not the whole unit. Any thoughts? Ahh, Moog.

Follow up. After telling me they had new replacement boards in stock, I sent mine in for replacement, again. Now I am told there are no new replacement boards at this time and no estimate of when one will be available. To say I wish i’d never bought this brick would be an understatement. To be clear, Moog made this instrument with a defective board, then replaced the defective board with another board from a run they knew had defective components.

I can’t help thinking Bob would not have done it this way.