Today the Bob Moog Foundation announces its spring raffle featuring a coveted, fully restored vintage Minimoog synthesizer with a custom cabinet fabricated from rare African Makore wood, known for its beauty, strength, and durability.
The raffle for this legendary beauty begins on March 1, 2021 at 12:01am, and ends on March 29, 2021 at 11:59pm ET, or when all 4,500 tickets sell out, whichever comes first. Tickets are $20 each, six for $100, 14 for $200, or 40 for $500, and can be purchased here.
Funds raised from the raffle will be used to expand the Foundation’s hallmark educational project, Dr. Bob’s SoundSchool, currently inspiring over 3,000 elementary school students per year through the science of sound. The raffle will also help support the Moogseum, an immersive, experiential facility located in Asheville, NC, which brings Bob Moog’s legacy and the science of sound and synthesis alive for people of all ages. The Moogseum was closed for five months in 2020 due to the pandemic.
The featured Minimoog, serial number 8903, was built at Moog Music’s Buffalo, NY factory during the late 70s and has an estimated value of $6,500. Due to the highly coveted nature of this archetypal synthesizer, it will only go up in value. This Minimoog has been meticulously restored and future-proofed by lauded synthesizer technician Wes Taggart of Analogics. It is in excellent technical condition. Taggart, a sought-after wood craftsman, also built the stunning custom cabinet.
The Minimoog is widely recognized as the most iconic analog synthesizer of all time. Its internal wiring configuration and front panel layout have defined the general synthesizer configuration for decades. It is renowned for its robust, incomparable bass and lead sounds, which are rooted in its three voltage controlled oscillators (one of which can be used as a low frequency oscillator) and its legendary filters. The Minimoog uses a 4-pole (24 dB/octave) low-pass filter with cutoff, resonance, ADS envelope, and keyboard tracking controls. To this day, Moog's filter design is widely regarded as the standard to which all others are compared.
“This year marks the 50th year anniversary of Minimoog’s shipping to customers from the original R.A. Moog factory in Trumansburg, NY,” notes Michelle Moog-Koussa, executive director of the Bob Moog Foundation. “The Minimoog set the standard for an entire industry that followed, with its robust build, iconic sound, and elegant design. We are excited to offer an instrument of this caliber to our supporters all over the world as the prize for our spring raffle.”
