We’ve been apart for 38 years…
And now, thanks to Thomas Ruppe I’ve been reunited with the famous Moog Oscar that I made all those years ago. It seems to have had some mods done to it. And it doesn’t work. Anyone who doubts this can see the pink wire and Cherry keyboard buttons I used on the original build still in my possession.
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38 years, wow!
How does the wire get into this?
Did you use that to connect things inside the synth?
Can you show some pics of the inside of the device?
Thx, most insightful !
Oops and a Varta battery. Any idea of its age?
What modifications have you spotted?
It’s probably the original I fitted it’s dead really, doesn’t hold its charge.
There is an aux/noise input switch and jack socket at the back, the aux socket seems to over ride a few of the normal mux input pots, so I need to look I to that, obviously someone wanted to use the amazing dual filter.
And there is also a filter mod input jack for a pedal or LFO etc. I cannot find any info on these and they certainly look home made.
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intriuging.
Can you share more about this, was it a part built proto or something else?
Nice you have it back, I found the FB post asking if anyone knew your wherabouts. Must have been a heartstoping moment when he reached out.
It was not a prototype, basically I asked Osc for a blank PCB and I built the oscar from the hand drawn schematics I had for servicing oscars. I copied the ROM from another Oscar and set about populating the PCB, building a midi board and the mux interface and power supply.
The case and keyboard was available from the unrepairable Moog Source, I don’t even remember where that came from. I used two benders from an SH101 for the bend and modulation.
I was very happy to get it back even though it was faulty, it gets to meet it’s younger brother ( also hand made). Fortunately I managed to make a deal to swap a synth I didn’t want so much for the Oscar.
Cool, I am sure the story is not concluded yet 
I’m curious about this part (and apologize for my likely ignorance) - What made you think they had blank PCBs? Was this a thing people did? What prompted the idea in the first place 
Well Osc was a very small UK company, they made there own units, why wouldn’t they have blank PCBs, I had already been fixing Oscars due to their bad internal connections. So I had the schematics and I guess I figured I could build everything but the main board.
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Mostly because they stopped making OSCars in 1985 I guess 
I love that you thought to try, and that it worked out. Thanks for sharing and then re-sharing.
I think you missed the point, I made this around 1985/86, Osc were still in business then and we were actually selling oscars at the music shop where I was working as the engineer. I didn’t call them up a few months ago. My memory might be a little blurry on the actual years, but I gigged with it around that time and I remember I worked for DEC in the UK between 84-88 so that puts it around 85/86 when I giggled it.
I might just be bad at math. I was thinking 1990s but 38 years ago was evidently 1987.
Turns out I’m older than I thought. Crap