Vintage Moog P2 Modular Synth (Rick Powell Collection)

via this auction

"This unit is part of the Rick Powell Collection. Rick was a musician, a major producer and a contemporary and close friend of Bob Moog, among others, and often received original units from manufacturers to test in the studios. Rick was my studio partner up until the day he passed away and his wife has asked me to sell some of the items that were studio kept for many years. There are many treasures in this collection and we will be adding them as they are photographed, tested and cataloged.

This is probably the crown jewel of the collection. The Moog P2 Modular Synthesizer. Rick used this very unit on his Choir Book LP and also the Switched On Country LP. You can see it in its full glory on the attached album photo. You can also read about the P2 and the other modular Moogs at synthmuseum.com


This synth has no power supply (that we could find among the storage area in their home). Perhaps if someone can show me a picture of what it's supposed to look like, we could find it more easily. Or perhaps it's not available. I've read that the power supplies that originally came with this unit weren't very reliable and many collectors have built their own. The unit has been kept in the home for many years. Stored in A/C. We have no idea what it needs in order to make sounds. Perhaps a few tubes and a power supply would get it going. You collectors will know more than I do about it. I can barely work a light switch.

This unit has the 950 keyboard (serial 2048) in very good condition. Also the 2 loaded banks, also in good condition built into the travel cases. The modules are 4 of the 902 voltage controller amplifiers, 2 of the 911 envelope generators, a 907 fixed filter bank, a 904-A voltage controlled low pass filter, a 904-B voltage controlled high pass filter, a 901-A oscillator controller, a 901-B oscillator, a 903 white sound source, a 901 voltage controlled oscillator and 2 of the mixer units. The cable that runs from the keyboard to the units and the cable that runs from unit to unit are there and look to be in fine condition.

Here's a little story about Rick you may enjoy. He told me that when he was in Nashville, RCA approached him about doing a series of albums to compete with Walter Carlos' LPs of Switched On Bach. Rick turned them down, thinking it wouldn't go over very well or pay very well. So RCA went to another synth artist named Tomita. Rick always laughed about how stupid he was to have turned that down. But being the good-natured optimist that he was, he kept working on the "next tech" device that would enhance people's ability to make music."