Moog Prodigy owners - HELP!

[Il Beholder]

Hi everybody,

I'm new to this forum and not really a Synth expert. By the way I write here cause I felt in love with The Moog Prodigy sound and I'm trying to buy one.

I've found an ad and I'm trying to understand if the Synth is in perfect condition. I mean the working condition. The seller sent to me a video to show me the Moog's condition but I can't understand if everything is working in the right way and if it colud be a good purchase.

here you can find the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wm46pAp8 ... e=youtu.be


Please help me!

[Psy_Free]

Welcome.

It's hard to tell from that video if everything is working as it should as he doesn't really explore that much of the synth. From what is shown, it sounds OK, but the oscillators might need tuning/scaling. You can do this yourself as there are little holes on the rear which house trim pots which can be adjusted with a small screwdriver. I've done this on my Prodigy and it's pretty simple.

It's worth asking the seller if

a/ :there are any keys that double-trigger, or do not make a sound, or
b/ if any knobs produce crackling when turned.

If 'yes' is the answer to a/, then the key contacts will need a clean, or very worst case a key may need replacing.
If 'yes' is the answer to b/ then the pots for the knobs will similarly need a clean.

Neither of these is a major job, if you have never done it before and are nervous, then you could take it to a synth repairer/maintainer.

If everything is working fine, then it depends on how much he wants for the synth & how much you are prepared to pay. Looking at the video, it is a Mark 1 Prodigy (minus the extra interfacing sockets), so anything between £500-£650 UK pounds would be the going rate (at least here in the UK).

It might also be worth asking the seller if you can come and try the synth out for yourself. That way you can check out the knobs/keys for yourself and have a closer look at it's general condition.

Good luck.

[Il Beholder]

Thanks for the quick answer.
Unluckily the Moog is in Spain and I'm form Italy so I can't see the Synth directly and test it. The price is quite low 500/600 € ( in Italy everybody sell it around 1000€) but I think that maybe it's to risky to base my assumption on a short video. Furthermore the Moog owner doesn't know anything about synths and cant answer to my questions... it's sound tricky... isn't it?

I think that the best choice buiying a vintage synth is to test it directly to be sure about its working conditions.

Thanks Again.

[Psy_Free]

In that case, I would probably leave it. It's a good price, but if the seller doesn't know anything about synths, in my experience that is a good excuse for the synth having some problems and the seller trying to provide an escape route (either deliberately or not) in case of any comeback.

The ideal scenario is to be able to check out the synth for yourself, but if that's not an option then it's a good idea to buy from a seller who has experience of selling synths, can answer your questions and if possible provide a demo of the synth showing it working correctly.

There are a decent amount of Prodigys out there, so it's worth waiting a bit to pick up a good one.