Moog Synthesizer IIIp Modular System Reissued For $35,000

Moog Music has introduced the Synthesizer IIIp modular system, a meticulous reissue of the original 1960’s modular system.

The system, housed in three tolex cabinets, includes thirty-seven hand-stuffed, hand-soldered discrete modules, created using the original documentation, art and circuit board files. Available modules include: ten 901-Series audio oscillators, the 984 Matrix Mixer, and the 905 Spring Reverb.

Here’s what Moog has to say about the system:

In 1965, Bob Moog began taking orders for individual modules and customized modular systems. By 1967, he and a team of ten skilled technicians were hand-building production models in an unassuming brick storefront in Trumansburg, NY.

The cutting-edge musical instruments that they called “synthesizers” signaled electronic music’s maturation from an awkward and shy intruder in the realm of music to a dynamic and significant medium of musical expression.

The first models were aptly named Synthesizer I, II, and III. With the introduction of the Moog Synthesizer IIIc — the “c” referring to the walnut “console” cabinet — musicians could purchase a complete instrument pre-configured for logical access to a range of facilities usually associated with the largest classical studios.

This was followed by the availability of the Moog Synthesizer IIIp – a fully portable 3-cabinet iteration of the venerable Moog Synthesizer IIIc. Each synthesizer took weeks of patient, steady crafting to complete, but the payoff would be rich — a tool that would change the landscape of music.

Here’s Moog’s promo for the Synthesizer IIIp, featuring Anthony Gonzalez and Joe Berry of M83:

Features:

  • Recreated using original documentation, circuit board and art files and traditional manufacturing techniques
  • 37 hand-stuffed, hand-soldered modules custom mounted and hand-wired in three solid wood, tolex-wrapped cabinets
  • 10x discrete 901 series oscillators (Not found in the Model 15, System 35 or System 55)
  • 905 Spring Reverb module (Not found in the Model 15, System 35 or System 55)
  • 4x CP3 mixers (Not found in the Model 15, System 35 or System 55)
  • 984 4-channel Matrix Mixer  (Designed for parallel processing, complete with dedicated controls for Bass and Treble, Not found in the Model 15, System 35 or System 55)
  • 100% discrete design (No op-amps – not the case in the Model 15, System 35 or System 55)

Modules:

  • 1x 901 Voltage Controlled Oscillator
  • 3x 901A Oscillator Controllers
  • 9x 901B Oscillators
  • 3x 902 Voltage Controlled Amplifiers
  • 1x 903A Random Signal Generator
  • 1x 904A Voltage Controlled Lowpass Filter
  • 1x 904B Voltage Controlled Highpass Filter
  • 1x 904C Filter Coupler
  • 1x 905 Reverberation Unit
  • 3x 911 Envelope Generators
  • 1x 911A Dual Trigger Delay
  • 1x 912 Envelope Follower
  • 1x 914 Extended Range Fixed Filter Bank
  • 1x 984 Four Channel Mixer
  • 1x 991 Lowpass and Highpass Filter with Attenuator
  • 1x 992 Control Voltage/Attenuator Panel
  • 1x 993 Trigger & Envelope Voltages Panel
  • 1x 994 Multiples Panel
  • 4x Console Panel No. 3, each including: 4-input mixer with + and – outputs, 2 Trunklines, Control Voltage Switches, Master Volume, and Click Filter
  • 1x Console Panel No. 1 including: 3 Control Voltage and Trigger Outputs
  • 1x Console Panel No. 9 including: Power Switch, Pilot Lamp, Fuse Holders
  • 1x 350 Watt 120 VAC or 230 VAC Switch Selectable Power Supply

Pricing and Availability

The Moog Synthesizer IIIp is available to order now for US $35,000

51 thoughts on “Moog Synthesizer IIIp Modular System Reissued For $35,000”

    1. Moog Music is an employee-owned company with well under 100 employees. Envision them as the Rebel Alliance.

      Uli Behringer’s Music Group is a holding company in the Philippines that owns 12 companies with over 3500 workers, most of them in their massive factory complex in Zhongshan, China. They’re the corporate equivalent of the Galactic Empire.

      2. Lets not kid ourselves here. None of these people are saving lives. One is running an inefficient model, taking more money than they should for a brand (and yes your paying up for the name. No diff than Nike) that has seen its best days. They didn’t invent any of it and have shown a lack of ability to innovate. They are down to reissuing their own stuff! They are like apple post Steve Jobs. The other is meeting market demand through the use of technology and capitalism. Survival of the fittest. Neither is good nor evil. They are doing similar things. One is doing a better job becuase the other was greedy and lazy.

        2. Recent Apple gear works fine for me – particularly for running all of my music apps. 😀

          I don’t have any problem with companies reissuing (or cloning) classics or developing new instruments – I have vintage instruments, modern analog synths, and iOS devices, and they’re all great!

          [Also as a PSA I would like to say that I also am a big fan of cool musical gadgets (e.g. volcas, pocket operators, compact battery powered synths) that a few commenters derisively call “toys” – as if that is somehow a bad thing and “serious” musicians should be ashamed of making music with them!]

          1. Never said apple gear didn’t work. It works great. Just saying that since Steve Jobs passed away so did the ideas and innovation.

            1. Apple Music, Apple Pay, Air Pods, Home Pod, Apple Watch, iPhone X face recognition are some post Jobs innovations. Steve also had his share of flops in between the innovations.

              1. Everyone of those things you just mentioned was Apple copying and in many cases improving on something that was already in the market – perfecting but not innovating. I may give you the watch because it was so much better than other smart watches and integrated in their ecosystem. I happen to own/use several of the things you mention so I’m not a hater. Just sad the days of them being an innovator is over.

                1. “Every one of those things you just mentioned was Apple copying and in many cases improving on something that was already in the market – perfecting but not innovating.”

                  By that measure, NOTHING they’ve ever done has been innovating, because the idea of graphical user interfaces came from Xerox.

                  Innovating doesn’t necessarily mean creating something in a vacuum. I’d argue that what Behringer has done with the Behringer D – while unoriginal – is still innovative.

                  Apple’s reason to exist is to make state of the art technologies refined, usable and reliable. And certainly with things like the iPad, Apple Watch, AirPods, they’re still doing it.

                  And Behringer’s reason to exist is largely to make things inexpensive. So don’t hold your breath waiting for them to do something truly original, but they’ll certainly shake up the industry.

                  1. I disagree. Jobs vision of what an operating system could be was revolutionary. He also cracked the code on digital music distribution, was revolutionary with the ipod and iphone. ios is based on osx and was a whole new way of interacting. That was all innovative. I never made any parallels between behringer and apple if you would’ve read rather I was comparing post moog moog to post jobs apple….thats all. Furher more just expressing opinion which makes you free to disagree, but unable to prove it wrong.

      4. Mr. Madison, what you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

  3. fine. this is awesome.

    But i feel moog is lost in that they havent figured out the money isnt in complete systems, its in modules so people can include moog in their existing systems! but i guess they’re stubborn so no money from me! sorry! <3

    2. Au contraire: I’m pretty sure that they know exactly what they are doing. The Mother’s series is the response to that, and probably they’ll develop more stuff for that niche. But the expensive reissues are a thing. People buy those, and a quite few of them. Exclusive stuff is another niche, and a good one. Moog is not Behringer

  4. Moog must be tapping into a market we don’t even know exist. Or maybe these are made to order like McDonald’s sandwiches.

    2. You do know this market exists, and they very likely are made to order like Big Macs. That is to say, if the patties are hard-to-find electronic components and the customers at the drive-thru are Tiësto, Steve Aoki, and Deadmau5.

    3. “Moog must be tapping into a market we don’t even know exist.”

      Most people commenting in forums have no clue about the market for pro gear. That’s not a criticism of you or anybody else here – just noting that, because they are hobbyists and not in the market for professional gear, they have no clue about the pro market.

      Every college electronic music studio, for example, would want to have an example of a Moog-style modular, and a Buchla, for students to learn on. For electronic music departments that were founded in the last 40 years or so (most of them), reissues like this and Buchla’s mean that students can actually have an opportunity to get hands-on experience with historical synth designs.

      The worship market is another market a lot of musicians never think about. Churches aren’t buying modulars, but when Yamaha and Roland intro their $4k workstation keyboards, churches are buying them up.

      Recording studios buy a lot of the high-end gear, too. And lots of recording studios do types of work that most people would never think about.

      Moog’s going to sell $1.4 million of these. So, while a $35k synth might seem crazy to hobbyists, it would be hard for Moog to justify NOT reissuing the IIIp.

      2. This isn’t language you see in products targeted at professional musicians:

        “Recreated using original documentation, circuit board and art files and traditional manufacturing techniques”

        This is audiophool-level Moog worship, only a little better than the $3k/m mains lead crowd.

      3. Pro gear doens’t exist. Only professional musicians exist. Whatever instrument they use is by definition pro gear. Might be expensive but I guarantee you that Pro’s look at their expenses, more than lots of amateurs do.

    1. Perhaps “upwards” in the case of $35K synths. But grand pianos are expensive too, and lots of college music departments buy them, as do many professional and amateur pianists. I expect these things could last for decades and also have decent resale value.

  10. Moog is not targeting these systems to starving artists on a budget. They know that there are people with $$ who will buy them.

    Here’s the thing, modular is over-hyped and over-expensive for what you get out of it (cue the subjectivity meter):

    I have yet to hear one patch on any modular system ever that left me awestruck and blown away more than sounds from far less expensive hard-wired synths. Thousands of dollars (tens of thousands in some cases) for what? Flexibility? Pfft.

    Once you get that expensive modular patched with a sound that you like, undo the cords and move the knobs and you will never get that sound back exactly the same. Patch memory (ala a $300 synth), forget about it.

    Take it on the road. LOL. Just ask Keith Emerson’s roadies and keyboard techs about how easy that is to do.

    Did you ever notice that many times you will see studio shots were some rich guy is surrounded by numerous expensive synths, including a giant modular system, and there isn’t one patch cord in the modular synth. That’s because they are often expensive status symbols. It’s like a guy who buys an expensive super car but doesn’t drive it much.

    To each his own. For what you get versus the expense, there are a lot of other synths that offer far more bang for the buck (shut off subjectivity meter).

    1. The ‘no patch cord’ and ‘expensive status symbols’ arguments are signs of extreme ignorance about how modulars are used by pros.

      Nobody EVER bought a modular as a status symbol. That’s just a butt-stupid idea. You might buy a nice car or a watch as a status symbol, because they actually are recognized as status symbols, but not a modular synth.

      A modular synth conveys ‘music nerd’, not status!

      When it comes to cord-free modulars, you’re clearly uninformed about how people use modulars. For many, the point of a modular system is to avoid the ‘choosing a preset’ mindset, and forcing yourself to do something original.

      The idea of keeping the same patch all the time on your modular is literally something no modular owner would ever want to do. The point is to create patches that would be impossible on a standard synth.

      And if you think Keith Emerson’s roadies are in any way relevant to how musicians use modulars these days, you should try getting to some electronic music events!

      1. First of all, didn’t your mother teach you to be nice to others? Why does your comment/reply have to be filled with venom? Did you not read the word subjectivity at the beginning and end of my comment? Am I not entitled to an opinion?

        You wrote, “Nobody EVER bought a modular as a status symbol. That’s just a butt-stupid idea. You might buy a nice car or a watch as a status symbol, because they actually are recognized as status symbols, but not a modular synth.” LOL. That is a naive thing to say.

        Read the first paragraph of this article:

        http://www.serge-fans.com/history_3.htm

        You also wrote, “When it comes to cord-free modulars, you’re clearly uninformed about how people use modulars. For many, the point of a modular system is to avoid the ‘choosing a preset’ mindset, and forcing yourself to do something original.”

        The idea of keeping the same patch all the time on your modular is literally something no modular owner would ever want to do. The point is to create patches that would be impossible on a standard synth.”

        My only point was that you will never get back to an exact recreation of a sound made using complex modular patching. To me (again, I used the word subjectivity twice in my original comment), this is a limitation. If I create a sound that I like, I like to be able to recreate it and use it again if desired.

        In your final paragraph, you wrote, “And if you think Keith Emerson’s roadies are in any way relevant to how musicians use modulars these days, you should try getting to some electronic music events!”

        Again, my point was subjective. Yet you felt the need to again write with a disparaging tone. The point that I was (obviously) trying to make is that many modular systems are not easily portable. More often than not, modular systems are confined to a studio. To those who want to take their music to others in a live setting, a modular system can add an extra degree of challenge. This obviously depends on the size of the system. To me, this is another limitation.

        What I have heard from many live modular performances are performances done via sequencers. These kind of performances can initially sound cool, but they often get repetitive and overall just don’t interest me. There are hundreds of clips of stuff like this on YouTube:

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jr_jVqe1OH4

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrX6eFPzvK8

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY8lR7Hkjyw

        To each his own.

  12. More power to what Moog n other Modular manufactures do. There’s a big variety out there to dine on. $$$$$ to $$$$$$$$$$$…… Variety is the spice of life. Hats off to the Hobbyists n the Professionals. Personally I love Modular way more than the boards. I love starting from a blank canvas every time. Maybe the pics that get posted…etc…showing professional modular systems cable-less, is for a reason…sometimes a blank canvas tugs at the creative juices….or maybe folks don’t want to share their ideas…..don’t ask me,…

  13. More power to what Moog n other Modular manufactures do. There’s a big variety out there to dine on. $$$$$ to $$$$$$$$$$$…… Variety is the spice of life. Hats off to the Hobbyists n the Professionals. Personally I love Modular way more than the boards. I starting from a blank canvas every time. Maybe the pics that get posted…etc…showing professional modular systems cable-less, is for a reason…sometimes a blank canvas tugs at the creative juices….or maybe folks don’t want to share their ideas…..don’t ask me,…

  14. When I was a teenager, I had posters of swimsuit models and Moog gear on the walls. I took turns touching myself in an impure manner over them. Now I realize that both are a maintenance nightmare. Hooray for real women and affordable synths!

  15. See: https://reverb.com/item/10412151-moog-music-synthesizer-iiip-serial-number-1-in-stock-right-now-not-a-pre-order

    Just a bit of casual market research… If this thing sits out there, for more than a day or two, at fucking retail/MAP, then I think it’s safe to say Moog finally jumped the shark…

    Hell, even with something like a modern Corvette (the car), when a new one comes out dealers ask (and get, from suckers I guess…) like $10K+ in Dealer Mark-up…

    The fact that this amazing “opportunity” to own #1 serial is at MAP, not marked up… Makes no sense to me…

    If there was an opportunity here, seems like you could buy up #1 just as an investment… Apparently the smart money with pockets that deep are not buying into this…

  16. So a few years ago, the Fairlight CMI was reissued for $25k. Now, the Moog is reissued for $35k.

    Look, people, I like nostalgia just as much as the next person, but you know what? Nostalgia has its limits.

    1. “because they can”

      I don’t agree. They did a lot of research to make these exact replicas, and finding the out of production parts took time too, and the whole things are being hand made and they’re only going to sell a few of them. This is like building a prototype and selling the prototype. There’s no way they are making any money on these in the quantity they are going to sell them. It’s likely being paid for as a marketing expense. It solidifies the history of the brand and brings a sense of nostalgia to both purchasers and observers and fans of the brand, leading to sales of their less expensive offerings. It also establishes it as a premium luxury brand and provides a psychological pricing anchor that makes their $3500 synths seem much less expensive than they seemed before the $35,000 ones were revealed.

      1. Yeah, I think it’s something unique and speaks of the history of their products. Although I doubt Miog can afford to lose money on this. But what it does is support its most talented engineers salaries/benefits for another year. Those individuals are indispensable to what makes Moog a great synth company.

  18. They reissue a 50 y.o. synth for $35,000, but no Moog polysynth for $3,500 yet? I don’t think they know their market. They’ll be bankrupt again in several years if they keep this up.

  20. What’s the problem? If you’re 18… you drive a Toyota. Do you say “Ferrari should stop making cars because I cannot afford one?”
    Everything on the market has high quality and low quality or is this concept beyond your comprehension?

  21. The comments I’m reading are so infuriating it’s actually hurting my brain. It sounds to me like people are mad that Moog is a botique company that’s not a mega corporation?? Everything Moog makes that’s not a reissue is wildly affordable, and the quality between them and behringer is night and day. Even if the behinger d sounds like a real MiniMoog, the behringer d will be in the trash in a few years because it’s all cheap non repairable SMD parts and the d can be repaired and will be singing for a hundred more years. People don’t think about quality but behinger is making disposable electronics that destroy our planet. Moog makes works of art with sustainably sourced wood. One is a mega corporation exploiting foreign workers. One is an employee owned company. Yeah behringer is the company to root for…

  22. Kind of surprised nobody mentioned Arturia here. Their Matrix Brute is more innovative then anything Moog has done in quite a while but it’s affordable and competes with Behringer in terms of pricing. Their new eurorack compatible gear is also pretty innovative and affordable. They’re doing much more interesting design than Moog or Behringer IMO. Apple? Really? Feels like discussing Proctor and Gamble or Chevron.

  23. The previous systems were pretty much all sold from the get-go. Forget price, brand, functionality, what Behringer or Arturia are doing, or what any other manufacturer is doing for that matter. If someone told me, as a stakeholder of a relatively small company (despite what you may think), that I could produce a few hundred of these, all of which will be sold, almost all of which are comprised of components we are already making for other systems, and that I could charge $35,000 each for them, I’m probably going to do it in the absence of some other sort of groundbreaking product evolution that I should be investing my employee and working capital in (which I’m not seeing from Moog or anywhere else for that matter).

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