A Syntar Family Shot

The Syntar, SWAN and Mattson Mini Modular Pheonix Series. All three were designed by George Mattson.

The Syntar was the first keytar ever produced. It had a unique extended controller on the neck that essentially consisted of nine small wood blocks you could increasingly press for varying degrees of modulation. It's like having nine assignable pitch bends not limited to pitch.

The SWAN is the Syntar Without A Neck (the only one in existence).

The Pheonix is the new Mattson Mini Modular risen from the ashes of the Syntar.

If you've been following the site, you will know that the SWAN and a Syntar are up for auction on VEMIA. Click on the links for each to get to the posts.

If you have seen the posts already, check out the updates. Someone actually listed the SWAN on Ebay! It was of course a scam as the only one in existence is available on VEMIA. There was some heated discussion on AH.

Also, if you haven't already, be sure to check out the history of the Syntar on Carbon111. There are some fascinating bits concerning MOOG and NAMM. You can also find an interview and some history here. Finally you can click here for all posts featuring the Syntar. If you appreciate synths you will appreciate this unique, rare bit of synth history. It really is a fascinating story. A bit of MATRIXSYNTH trivia: I remember the first time I saw the SWAN. It was at George Mattson's place and Carbon111 was going to borrow it for bit. We drove it back to his place and when doing so, I thought how crazy it was that the only SWAN in existence was floating up the I-5 in the back of my CRX. It was a surreal moment for me. And yes, we took extremely good care of it. We all love synths.