Maker

MAXIMOOG

A tribute to the man who gave us so many good vibrations.

By Jimmy Guterman

If you knew Bob Moog, chances are you still associate him with the synthesizers that bear his name (which, by the way, rhymes with “vogue”). He started experimenting with his landmark electronic-music instrument while at a Columbia-Princeton joint program. By 1963, he had developed a machine that could be played in real time, and by the late 60s, he’d developed enough of a following among musicians that his synthesizer was being featured on hit albums by everyone from the Monkees to Wendy Carlos.

Moog figurine designed by Archer Prewitt for Press Pop Gallery

RIP Bob Moog, 1934-2005. The electronic music pioneer died in August of a brain tumor at age 71.

Those early analog synthesizers were modular, controlled by an almost infinite variation of patch-cord combinations, but the devices went mainstream in 1971 with the introduction of the Minimoog. The device’s leap in ease and functionality made new sounds and possibilities available to nongearheads. That’s when art rockers became Moog’s most reliable and popularizing clients, folks like Rick Wakeman of Yes and Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake & Palmer. It’s a period well documented in the delightful short film, Moog.

Moog’s synthesizers led to an explosion of the imagination and were stuffed with DIY add-on opportunities. Unfortunately, much of the most popular music produced with synthesizers was more interesting technically than musically. As someone who has written books about Jerry Lee Lewis, the Sex Pistols, and Bruce Springsteen, I’m not the sort of guy who adores the flatulent art rock that made the Moog synthesizer famous. But blaming Bob Moog for the not-so-great music made on his great invention is like blaming Jimi Hendrix for Yngwie Malmsteen. You can’t control who will be influenced by your genius work. And, to be fair, Beck and others have made stellar records with Moog synthesizers at the center.

In recent years, Moog circled back to his first love, the theremin, the only instrument that makes music out of thin air. I’ve been a semi-competent theremin player for several years now, so it’s been a treat to see the most famous maker of theremins this side of Leon Theremin return to his inventing roots. The theremin’s most famous contribution to pop music is in the Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations.”

Moog built theremins for fun, going back to the Truman administration. After describing how to build one in Electronic World, he returned to manufacturing and selling kits and fully made theremins in the 90s; even the fully constructed models come with notes on how to “hotrod” your theremin, soldering iron in hand, showing that Moog’s DIY ethic was still with him. As he met his final challenge, I suspect it served him well.

Jimmy Guterman (guterman.com) is the editor-in-chief of Forrester magazine. His most recent book is Runaway American Dream.