This website is reader supported. When you purchase items on eBay through the links on this site, we may earn an affiliate commission at no cost to you. Read our Privacy Policy for info.

muSonics Moog Sonic V,

“Musonics (properly spelled “muSonics”, per its trademark), was a synth manufacturer that existed briefly in the late 1960s. It is notable for the fact that its owner, Bill Waytena, bought Moog Music from Bob Moog in 1970.

Waytena created Musonics in 1967 or ’68, with the idea that he would market a synth as a home entertainment device, a market that Waytena saw as much larger than the professional musician market. He hired ex-Moog employee Gene Zumchak to design a synth called the Sonic V. However, the synth did not sell, and Waytena reasoned that it needed a well-known brand name for marketing purposes. In 1969 he learned that Bob Moog’s existing company, R. A. Moog, was in financial trouble, and arranged to buy the company from Moog in 1970. He then merged Musonics with it. Thus, Waytena became the owner of the first incarnation of Moog Music. The merged companies were first called Moog/Musonics, changing to Moog Music in 1972.

The Sonic V was Musonics’ only product prior to the merger. Post-merger, Bob Moog took the design and made a few improvements, fitting it into an integrated flight case design that had been proposed during the Minimoog prototyping stage. This became the Sonic Six, a model that Moog himself subsequently often used for public lectures and demonstrations.” Click here to visit listing on eBay