Friday, February 1, 2008

NAMM Oddities

Mr. Barry Wood's the Other Room treats us once again to the best of the odd.
This is the only thing I personally wait for during NAMM season.
Go get you newest NAMM Oddities!

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Minimoog is a beautiful thing



For anyone who bought their Minimoog back when they didn't cost a whole lot and weren't worth sending to "someone" to be fixed it is either a bad memory or an ongoing love affair.

I bought mine for about $300 from Hirsch Gardner at Daddy's Junky Music (MAIL ORDER!) around 1990. If I remember correctly he was selling it for a friend, he was told something about how it had had some sort of Tom Oberheim upgrade, whatever that might have been has been lost in my memory banks.

The unit sounded great from the get go. The keys a bit squirrelly and the tuning took a moment. I think a previous owner had been a rock star or maybe even a working musician but it hadn't been used in a while.

Over the years I have never done anything but play, clean and every blue moon or so calibrate and surprisingly it seems to get better with age.

I'm sure this instrument could use a professional overhaul and in doing so we might find out what weird mods by previous owners. This being my Minimoog and the only one I have ever owned, I probably wouldn't be able to spot some differences.

I had this on my mind today because the pitch wheel had been bonkers for a while and I finally cleaned it up and now it can do what it's supposed to. It is a great instrument and despite what limitations it may have, it belongs solely in the same class as the few real classics that have maintained their thaang since time began.

Over & out...