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[Steve Jones]

As a service tech I fix Moogs often, and as I was working on a Memorymoog Plus yesterday I remembered hearing many disparaging comments about them over the years, how they never worked properly, were unfinished, had all kinds of problems (sounds like an ARP Quadra description to me) and how they could be modified to become "real".

I am curious about this, as all the units that I service and maintain sound great, and considering how dense they are inside, and how many IC sockets are in them, they seem reliable and stable. I wonder if anyone knows the story behind the stories?

[Guest]

> As a service tech I fix Moogs often <
I can't believe that. You often fixed MMs and you know nothing about the problems?
It sounds strange for me...

[Steve Jones]

You don't think service technicians fix Moogs often? There are plenty around. Apart from the various smaller machines ( Mini's, Multi's, Micro's, Taurus, Poly's) and the odd modular I maintain a couple of Memorymoogs belonging to regular customers plus the odd floater that may come into the shop now and then, and apart from bad key contacts and the odd failed chip, they run day after day with no complaints from my customers. Mind you all of them are Memorymoog plus units and have had all of the factory ECO's carried out. They don't get toured either. Compared to things like Yamaha CS-80's, rev 2 Prophets and OBXa's, they seem quite stable. Somewhat awkward to work on though.

I certainly don't work on Memorymoogs every day, and while I don't find them particularly difficult to service I am not an expert on them, I just fix and calibrate them when thay come into the shop. So rather than taking a shot, perhaps you might like to elaborate on your statement and tell us some of the problems you have encountered? If I knew all the problems that people had with them I wouldn't have asked the question, I have not noted any major issues with them, but I have heard that they are not well thought of.

[analogbass]

Intresting that you say this, because i've noticed the same-very few, minor problems with my Pluses, yet I'll often see a comment about their unreliability. Would never consider taking them out of the apartment.

Seems the problems might be largely found in earlier non-Plus versions, to units that are gigged, and in Memorymoogs that have a high degree of tech difficulties to begin with-perception might depend on the degree of work necessary to remedy the problem. I know that techs generally don't like working on them based on the complex/messy internal layouts.

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[analogbass]

Precisely