Thursday, May 19, 2011

Moog Modular Professional Systems and modules price list, March 1976


Moog Modular Professional Systems and modules two-sided/three-panel price list from March 1976.

Update: Added to Moog's advertising timeline tool.

Here's one outta the ol' tickle trunk.

This doc just drips with historical info. Sorry it's not in the best of shape - my rather excellent excuse is that it was trashed a long time before it ever got into my hands.

It is definitely not the first Moog doc I've posted with pricing information, but it is probably one of the oldest. And one that comes with a bit more sentimental value, since it came with my modular, along with some other great historical Moog pieces.

Plus, since it came with my modular, it also provides me with a indication of when approximately the system most likely came into the hands of the original owner. Nice.

But to me, one of the coolest thing about this price list has to be that it is Canadian. At the bottom of the middle panel of the first page is a "Distributed by Norlin..." tag, with only a "Scarborough, Ont." location.

I did a quick Google search to try and confirm that the prices were Canadian, and found Synthfool.com's 1974 price list info. Even though that list is from 1974 - two years before this price list was printed - the prices are quite a bit lower, suggesting that the 1976 prices are indeed in Canadian funds.

Even cooler, the price list intro text from Synthfool's 1974 list is very similar to the intro text from this 1976 list. And, the list of modules is almost identical - with the addition of the Bode Frequency Shifter in my 1976 list. This suggests that content for price lists, and probably other Moog materials, were shared between US and Canadian counterparts in some way or another.

A few other interesting historical facts that I hadn't realized until I took a closer look:
  • The System 55 apparently came with "up to 43" patch cords
  • The System 15 and 35 had an alternate version without a Fixed Filter Bank (and was labeled with an "A" after the name; System 15A and System 35A
  • The System 55 had an alternate version without the "Sequencer Complement" and was labeled with an "A" after the name: System 55A
  • Apparently Moog liked the photos of the System 15 and 55 used in this 1976 price list so much that it looks like they used the exact same photos in the 1982 product catalog (last page)!
Great stuff. Time to get back to work.

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