The Bob Moog Foundation has launched its annual raffle for an iconic, highly coveted, vintage Minimoog Model D synthesizer.
This year’s prize has been signed by Stevie Wonder, a musician whose career has helped shape popular music and inspired people for decades.
Wonder pioneered the use of synthesizers “integrated seamlessly with acoustic sounds,” which has influenced the development of electronic music. The Minimoog in the raffle has been played by Stevie, and is “signed” with two fingerprints, which are affixed to the front panel of the synthesizer in a brass and plexiglass archival enclosure.
The vintage Minimoog Model in the BMF raffle (serial number 8207) was built at Moog Music’s Williamsville, NY factory. The Foundation attests that the synth “has been fully restored and is in excellent technical and physical condition, with minor physical flaws that are commensurate with the age of the instrument.”
“Moog synthesizers provide a way to directly express what comes from your mind. It gives you so much of a sound in the broader sense. What you’re actually doing with an oscillator is taking a sound and shaping it into whatever form you want,” commented Wonder in a 1974 interview with The Guardian.
Tickets to enter the raffle are $25 each, or 5 for $100, and can be purchased through the Bob Moog Foundation’s website. The raffle, which is open internationally, closes at 11:59pm on Monday, April 22, 2019, or when all 5,000 tickets are sold, whichever comes first.
All proceeds from the Minimoog raffle benefit the Foundation’s education and historic preservation efforts, including the Moogseum, set to open at the end of May.
Note: The Bob Moog Foundation is an independent non-profit organization, not affiliated with Moog Music, Inc.
I thought Stevie Wonder was an ARP man, I never saw him play anything from Moog. LOL.
Read up on Stevie Wonder, TONTO, Cecil & Margoullef.
All the Stevie Wonder albums that people think of as classics came from these guys using TONTO, which is a massive modular synthesizer, built around a Moog modular.
Cecil has said that they actually recorded hundreds of more songs in that era that have never been released, and that they’re some of Wonder’s best stuff.
The keys don’t seem to align properly. And it looks like it’s got a new wooden case. Although it could have been a restoration job on an old case, but why then leave the rotten wheel faceplate? Strange.
I think its a great idea to raffle this off. Its a clever, LEGIT way to support the Foundation. I’ve never been starry-eyed over the well-known people I’ve met; its always been a moment to express appreciation & have a few laughs, because almost all have been level-headed. I hope that whoever wins it will actually play it, *especially* if they win a totally refurbed Mini for $25! Stevie would probably readily admit that its less about his autograph than it is about the instrument, because MOOG.
For those interested in Stevie’s deep relationship with Moog synthesizers, Chapter 9 of “Analog Days” (Trevor Pinch and Frank Trocco) deals extensively with this part of synth history. This includes the backdrop of the “exceedingly exploitive contract” he had with Motown and how he went to Moogists once he was freed from those obligations. A compelling part of an edifying book.