# Moog Minimoog Model D
“You are bidding on a vintage Model D Moog Minimoog synthesizer, serial number 11,770. I am the second owner and acquired this synth in 2004-2005. It has a rare optional accessory, the left hand pitch ribbon controller, and it works very well. The potentiometers sound great, and the emphasis pot in the filter section has been recently replaced – this is an exceptionally hard to find part. The pilot light and two of the fuse holders were also recently replaced. Most importantly, most of the old contact springs have been replaced, new bushings were installed, and the bus bars have been polished. The action is really sweet. It has the later more stable oscillator board with an additional category of trimpots for the oscillator callibration. The oscillators were tuned recently according to the procedure in the Minimoog manual.
The auction includes a flight case. The flight case needs refoaming as the existing foam is shedding. I will thoroughly wrap the minimoog in heavy bubble wrap to protect it from the shedding foam in the flight case, and use additional foam if necessary. Also the original manual is included and it is in poor condition though it is still readable – though you can find a pdf online. Also there is an additional few pages included about installing/callibrating the left hand controller – it’s a letter printed with Moog letterhead in 1979.
The previous/original owner installed an additional toggle switch that is visible on the left hand controller. It is wired to the Trigger/Gate input. This modification simply holds the gate open effectively holding the last note played indefinitely. I have found it useful when I want to process external audio through the VCF: I mix the oscillators out, and I can process the external audio without having to press a key to trigger the audio signal.
I am also including an S-Trig to 1/4″ cable that will be useful for you if you plan on connecting to midi-cv converters or other modules generating a gate trigger. Plus I am throwing in a fitted leather dust cover.
Disclosures:
The cosmetic condition of the wodden case is good, but there are some scratches as illustrated in the photographs. There are also some scratches on the left hand controller surface as illustrated in the photographs.
There is one somewhat esoteric glitch that is present in this synth. The 2nd key, low F#, has a bit of pitch bending/modulation that is present if the Decay switch is engaged – if you press/hold the key down and then release, the pitch of the aftertouch decay/release is slightly sharp from the press down note. Most of the key contact springs were replaced, but the low F# key spring appears somewhat deformed, and this may be the cause of the problem. It does not exhibit this problem when controlled externally, and it isn’t much of an issue for practical use.
I have posted several videos on YouTube to demonstrate this Mini in action. I’m a hack on the keys, so I applaud your patience if you make it through all of them. It’s important to note that I’ve transposed the actual pitch by a 5th – I kept the Midi-to-cv-trigger device hooked up during all the demos (even though #2 is the only one where I control via a midi device). The reason it’s transposed is because when you control via an external midi device it’s typical to sync the mini to the lowest note on the midi device. In my case the lowest note on the drum machine’s synth output was C – so if I’m hitting a low F on the mini keys it’s probably transposed to C. No worries though, I calibrated the oscillators and it scales well and plays in tune.” Link