Minimoog stable oscill8rs, & are they worth it?

[Sean Costello]

cyborg0 at GlobalEyes.net wrote:

> Which serial #'s included the revised and somewhat stable osc's??

I believe it was #10175 and above.

BTW, is is really a good idea to buy a Minimoog today with the "stable"
oscillators?  All arguments about "fatness" aside, it seems that the
later Moogs would be about 20 times more expensive to repair than the
earlier Moogs.  If memory serves me correctly, the early Moogs used an
exponential convertor based on a CA3046 transistor array, a tempco
resistor, and a 741 op amp.  All of these parts are easily obtainable
today (the tempco is a little harder to find, but they are still made)
and would cost around $5, all told.  The later Moogs used the uA726
heated transistor pair, which has been long out of production.  The
prices on the uA726 make the Wine Country prices on CEM chips seem cheap
- $100 and up for a single uA726 seems common.  Also, my guess is that
you could improve the stability on the earlier Minis by substituting a
modern FET-input op amp for the crummy 741 that was used in the original
design.

Sean Costello