Moog repair in Nashville?

Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 11:54 am

I'm going to pick up a non-working but FREE PolyMoog later this week and would love to get it serviced so it can join the arsenal. Any recommendations on shops/techs that do good work on these old beasties in Nashville? I don't really want to stray out of town so middle TN is what I'm gonna have to limit the range to.

Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 4:24 pm

Dude, I know you don't want to stray, but MOOG HQ is right here in Asheville NC. What's that, 5 or 6 hours drive time? Find a buddy, make a road trip out of it, and get that unit serviced by the folks that know and love it. Oh, and visit Bob's grave while you're here. Peace! Andy

Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 10:42 am

I'd love to but it's gonna be hard enough getting a van for the local trip to the synth doctor, let alone one for an out of state trip. Actually, two out of state trips if you count the pickup. Fraid it's local or nothing.

Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 1:30 pm

Bob Moog didn't have much to do with the Polymoog. It was manufactured in Buffalo, NY, by a division of CMI. He had sold out to them long before that model was on the scene. Because of the proprietary components and fairly crude (compared to today's digital technologies) tone generation scheme, the machine was never really reliable, even from the get-go. Bob moved to Asheville to form Big Briar, and employed my brother-in-law (Dale Ong) as his shop manager.
Your best bet is to call around that Nashville area to local keyboard/organ repair shops. Back in those days, that's typically who did the repairs on Moog and ARP gear. Try to find someone who's missing a couple of teeth and whose eyes glimmer when you say," tone divider technology"...

Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 8:54 pm

Well, here it is in all of its crusty glory! I'm kind of in love with it despite the fact that it doesn't work. It's just so quintasentially 70's. And my first vintage synth. Hopefully it's not gonna wipe me out paying for the repairs.

Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 9:48 am

Thar she blows!!!
If it's totally sound-less, that may actually be better news than if it had some sort of intermittency thing goin' on.
The sound of that instrument is what the Doobie Brothers used during their Michael McDonald era. Instead of analog VCO's to generate their sound, the Polymoog used a tone generator arrangement like organs from that era did. Then the microprocessor would route the keyed notes to a series of envelope-shaped filters/VCA's. That way, there was better pitch stability, but the sound was thinner, and the tone-shaping parameters were much more limited.

Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 10:06 am

It's alive! Well, not ALIVE alive, but it turns on and some of the keys produced sound after a minute or so of warming up. This old girl has been in an attic for probably ten years so it's anybodys guess what manner of filth is under the hood. I'm anticipating insect carcasses galore.

The preset display works, the VAR/PRE leds work, the slider leds aren't firing up but that's no big deal. The outputs have some minor corrosion on them and the ribbon controller is probably kaput as well. The waveforms all work(on a select few keys) but I don't think the EQ is kicking. Adjusting the sliders changes nothing. The evelopes are doing ok and the filter modulator is fine.

Looks like there is ALOT to address but I'm gonna try to get it all sorted out. It's serial number 3406 which is a bit of a relief. I read that anything over 3000 is considered a more reliable machine. Too bad "more reliable" when speaking of a Polymoog is nearly the same as saying "only fractionally less awfully undependable". Wink

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 1:20 pm

You could try Nashville Pro Hammond. If they can't repair it, maybe they know someone. Phone #297-2799

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 8:39 pm

jonyoung wrote:

You could try Nashville Pro Hammond. If they can't repair it, maybe they know someone. Phone #297-2799

They were the first people I emailed. Good call! The tech told me to call Tour Supply and maybe Doc would know a thing or two about it. He fixed my DPM C8 so I know he does a good job.

Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 4:34 pm

I'm having no luck finding anyone in town to repair this thing. Anybody want it? Cheap. Maybe use it for parts:?:

Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 9:07 pm

Would you ship it to California? LOL

Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2008 11:21 pm

Oh man you shoulda gone to Summer NAMM and talked to the guys from Moog, they woulda helped out I'm sure!

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