960 Sequencer reissue
Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2023 12:04 pm
I recently bought a new Sequencer Complement B. Others have posted on this forum on the build quality of Moog's current modular products and I thought that I'd add a few comments of my own here.
With the exception of the use of panel pots that were made by Alpha I think the overall construction is quite good. I have seen previous comments on the use of Alpha pots and I tend to agree that unsealed pots are maybe not the best choice but it is possible that the legacy sealed panel pots such as those that were made by Allen Bradley, Ohmite, and Clarostat are no longer available and Alpha is now the only choice. I did a quick search and found that sealed pots are still being made but there are far less options for ohmic values and more importantly, taper. For example, I found 1 megohm pots but only with a linear taper, I couldn't find audio taper pots in that value. This would be a major issue if these were used in a 911 envelope generator for example, use of a linear taper instead of an audio taper would throw off the front panel markings for rise and decay time.
Before receiving the 960 I had wondered what Moog had done about the long obsolete RTL logic chips that were used in the original 1960s design. I remember reading about how Gene Stopp had scrounged around to find enough RTL chips for the building of the Emerson modular clones in 2014 and I was curious if Moog had continued to use RTL in the current products but I was glad to see that they didn't do so. The main logic board in the 960 has been completely redesigned using 4000 series CMOS running at 5 volts supplied by a 7805 voltage regulator. This is exactly what I would have done had I been in charge of this product at Moog. The 961 and 962 were done differently though, the original PCB layouts were reused without modification, 4000 series CMOS was again used but the different pinouts were accommodated by the use of small daughter boards that each held a CMOS chip and in turn plugged into the socket where the RTL chip would have been. I'm not sure why this was done, it would seem to me that altering the original board layouts for CMOS pinouts wouldn't have been any more difficult than making a bunch of daughter boards but that's what they did.
The walnut cabinet looks good and matches the appearance and construction of my '70s vintage cabinets well.
With the exception of the use of panel pots that were made by Alpha I think the overall construction is quite good. I have seen previous comments on the use of Alpha pots and I tend to agree that unsealed pots are maybe not the best choice but it is possible that the legacy sealed panel pots such as those that were made by Allen Bradley, Ohmite, and Clarostat are no longer available and Alpha is now the only choice. I did a quick search and found that sealed pots are still being made but there are far less options for ohmic values and more importantly, taper. For example, I found 1 megohm pots but only with a linear taper, I couldn't find audio taper pots in that value. This would be a major issue if these were used in a 911 envelope generator for example, use of a linear taper instead of an audio taper would throw off the front panel markings for rise and decay time.
Before receiving the 960 I had wondered what Moog had done about the long obsolete RTL logic chips that were used in the original 1960s design. I remember reading about how Gene Stopp had scrounged around to find enough RTL chips for the building of the Emerson modular clones in 2014 and I was curious if Moog had continued to use RTL in the current products but I was glad to see that they didn't do so. The main logic board in the 960 has been completely redesigned using 4000 series CMOS running at 5 volts supplied by a 7805 voltage regulator. This is exactly what I would have done had I been in charge of this product at Moog. The 961 and 962 were done differently though, the original PCB layouts were reused without modification, 4000 series CMOS was again used but the different pinouts were accommodated by the use of small daughter boards that each held a CMOS chip and in turn plugged into the socket where the RTL chip would have been. I'm not sure why this was done, it would seem to me that altering the original board layouts for CMOS pinouts wouldn't have been any more difficult than making a bunch of daughter boards but that's what they did.
The walnut cabinet looks good and matches the appearance and construction of my '70s vintage cabinets well.