Moog Music Forum

Hi to everybody,
one month ago I bought a brand new Moog Sub Phatty. At home after unboxing I found a weird issue with the keyboard and wheels assemby. The keyboard had all the keys not aligned in height like an overused old vintage synth and looking the synth from the keyboard line the whole keyboard was "oblique", I mean that the left side was about 5mm from the case while the right side was less than 1 mm. The last key was oblique !. The mod wheel was not aligned with the hole so it stopped at half turning touching the plastic border of the case. So I boxed it again (without even trying it) and gone back to the shop. They said it was a clear shipping problem so... I waited a month to have a new one, and two day ago I went to the shop again to bring my new Sub Phatty. I unboxed the new Sub Phatty in the shop to be sure not to came back again and... surprise the new one had the same problem. The shop assistant unboxed three of them and all of them had the same problem. At the end I picked up the best of the three but I'm not happy at all and I want a solution. I sent an email to Moog, and to the reseller here in Italy and I'm still waiting for an answer. I love my Sub Phatty, it sounds wonderful, I have a voyager RME too and it's built like a tank. So I really can't understand what's going on with the keyboards, three fails with three different Sub Phatty seems a bit more than bad luck.

Are your Sub Phatty keyboard flat ? Are your mod wheel touching the plastic side of the hole while turning ? Any suggestion ?

my Sub Phatty has the keyboard keys overall straight. ie if you jam your thumb along underneath the keys at the front, between the bottom of the keys and the front unit body metal and run your thumb to the right, the keyboard is essentially the same height all along the front.

BUT

i will say some of the keys sit markedly higher than others. it does look a bit uneven with the heights between the keys. It looks like a 20 year old keyboard that has had the crap beaten out of it on tour...so some of the keys do not return all the way up to the top in the same "rest" position. Doesnt really look great but at the end of the day not enough for me to take it back i guess. I figure its a classic looking synth and the uneven keys just convincingly accentuate the look hehe

it sounds unusual what has happened to you man i would continue to reject them all. maybe moogs foam packaging in the actual box has a fault that damages units when they are stacked a certain way? whats your serial number? maybe the work experience intern did all of those editions hehe.... show us some pics

Cheers,
Blackout.

The first was ser. 19XX (I don't want to point out the full serial) and the keyboard was ugly and the wheels touches the side borders turning them more then 50% (disaligned), than a 24XX the keyboard was better while still not aligned at all and with a center "wave", than another Sub Phatty with ugly keyboard but I don't know it's serial number because after a fast check I leaved the shop with the 24XX which seemed the less worst. But at home I found that the AMP ATTACK pot was not working at all and the EG AMOUNT pot was somekind hardware linked to the AMP ATTACK and in the editor they moved togheter. I'm deciding if asking for another change or ask for having my money back, I drived too much km for bringing these sub phatty back and forth.

I never found a keyboard so bad aligned in 25 years I'm playing (and buying) synths, nor with my vintage synth. If I'll get my money back I'll wait months before looking again for a Sub Phatty. Sorry I don't want to be used as a beta tester.

This is the 24XX (the less worst of the three)
but some knobs are not working... so... bye bye.

I'm still waiting an answer from Moog... it's about a week I sent an e-mail to their tech support.

Yes, my keyboard also has uneven keys. I wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't pointed it out.
It's not making any difference to playing at moment, only psychological now :$

Having paid good money and waited 6 months for my SubPhatty to arrive it is a little disappointing
Guess it is all in the character of the SubPhatty, after all it is hand made and on small scale.

Looking at other manufacturers keyboards I own, close up none are perfectly flat.


What was your outcome ??

Handmade means quality. But keyboards are thirdy part object, you have only to put the whole keyboard in the keybed nothing more. Bad keyboards are from source, so my complain is about the keyboard not about the Sub Phatty synth in itself. In the shop the Sub Phatty with it's weird keyboard sits near Minibrute, BassStation2 and MiniMS20 all with keyboards absolutely flat. So it's only a keyboard quality issue. I' don't know which keyboard Moog is using for the Sub Phatty but it's crap. I really hope Moog address this and change the keyboard in next batch.

Luckily I have an extended 4/5 year warranty. So if ever Moog change actual keys and it remains issue for me I guess I'll take it back to shop to change keys.

Until then all is good and happy about my SubPhattaay!

M

My keyboard is flat, but has arthritis in a couple of places; longer description here: http://forum.moogmusic.com/viewtopic.ph ... 14#p121614.