Moog PMS-15 amplifier - Anybody have any info about this?

[Aentons]

I'm a big fan of the Roland jazz chorus and Lab Series amps and I have been thinking about trying to build one or something like them. I don't know how it sounds but this is a small, simple, 15 watt, solid state Moog amp with a JBL speaker and it looks killer. I'd love to try to build something based off it.

Supposedly there were only 3 of these fully assembled PMS-15 amps ever sold from the early days of the R.A. Moog Company so my hopes aren't high... I'm mainly curious if anyone has a schematic for this? Videos, sound clips, pics whatever you have.




https://www.matrixsynth.com/2014/04/switched-on-birth-of-moog-synthesizer.html?m=1


There is a lot of good info in this catalog for it and apparently it was sold as a kit too.
https://moogfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/1964-R.A.-Moog-Catalog.pdf
"The amplifier circuitry includes thirteen transistors and five diodes"


http://www.moogarchives.com/pms.htm
"The resulting instrument embodies several departures from conventional circuitry, and other design features that combine conventional components and circuitry in novel ways. "

http://moogarchives.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=145&highlight=pms
Apparently, John had a pair of kit chassis about 16 years ago...

[Aentons]

Hmm, somebody else seems to be interested too. I ran into this right after I posted.

https://modwiggler.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=247225



The newer amp mentioned in this thread is the Moog TB-15 theramin amp. It's not near as cool looking but I wonder if they are related or similarities. Prob not since it looks like a relabeled Crate or Gorilla.

[gordo]

I'd be willing to bet that the L3 Lab Series probably gets you in the ballpark.  The L3 was different than all the others in the series in that it was stripped down to Volume, Bass, Middle, Treble, Master Volume, and Reverb.  It didn't have the multi-filter or compressor from it's larger stable mates.

I don't think the prices have gone goofy like most other "vintage" combos. 

[Aentons]

I'd be willing to bet that the L3 Lab Series probably gets you in the ballpark.  The L3 was different than all the others in the series in that it was stripped down to Volume, Bass, Middle, Treble, Master Volume, and Reverb.

Yes, that would be great if they turned out to be similar. I haven't seen a L3 schematic but I think I read somewhere that it is CMOS based which was very newi-sh back in the early 60's.

If anyone has an L3 schematic, let's see it!


Edit: found the L3 service manual with schematic...
https://music-electronics-forum.com/filedata/fetch?id=831483&d=1382636822

[aion]

First of all, that's one of the coolest looking boxes I've ever seen!

From the description, it does appear to be intended as more of a full-range general purpose amplifier, so PA or music rather than instrumentation. I would guess it would sound pretty awful on guitar. I wouldn't salivate too much over the tone!

[gordo]

Can find schematics for any Lab amp except the L3 and this Moog.

[skyled]

Aion has the Lab Series L-5 schematics and his preamp clone pcb. I have my doubts about the Lab Series and the PMS-15 having much in common.
https://aionfx.com/project/l5-preamp/

[Aentons]

Can find schematics for any Lab amp except the L3 and this Moog.

Thanks for looking around! I did end up finding an L3 schematic and posted a link in an edit above. I have my doubts that they are related but you never know. I think I remember reading that one of the other guys(Peirce?) that worked on the Lab series had a lot to do with the design of the L3. I don't know if that is true tho. The Lab Series seems like it was more of a "back to the drawing board" type project geared specifically at figuring out how to emulate tube amps.

[Aentons]

Aion has the Lab Series L-5 schematics and his preamp clone pcb. I have my doubts about the Lab Series and the PMS-15 having much in common.
https://aionfx.com/project/l5-preamp/

I was already planning on building the L5 preamp at some point but it's not quite in the simple range. It's totally awesome that this project exists.

[Aentons]

First of all, that's one of the coolest looking boxes I've ever seen!

From the description, it does appear to be intended as more of a full-range general purpose amplifier, so PA or music rather than instrumentation. I would guess it would sound pretty awful on guitar. I wouldn't salivate too much over the tone!

Yep, my hopes arent high for it. But to be fair, this was the era before what PA is today and the whole band would commonly plug into the same amp like an AC30 which is considered a great guitar amp today. Fender amp were specifically marketed as "hi-fi" and "distortion free". The speaker technology back then is closer to what we consider a guitar speaker today. The JBL that came in the PMS-15 is the little brother of the D-130 which says a lot. The '64 catalog (posted above) specifically mentions it is for a lot of things including "musical instrument"

It also has treble and bass tone controls on it which means you might be able to scoop it to compensate and become more of a guitar amp.

Even if it is purely a hi-fi bookshelf type speaker amp then I'd still want to dig it up, just because it's there. The Moog foundation has published some schematics on their website. I might shoot them an email just to see if it's in their catalog.

It also wouldn't be inconceivable that the schematic was distributed with the kits, so I'm hoping that one of those turns up at some point as well.

[gtangas]

I understand why you're interested in the Moog PMS-15 amp; it sounds fantastic. I like messing around with amps, too, and always get excited about finding out how to make rare ones. I haven't worked on a Moog PMS-15, but I've been in a similar spot trying to dig up info on hard-to-find amps.

I found this website, https://faqaudio.com/, super helpful. It's got lots of info and articles on different audio stuff. When looking for details on another rare amp, I found exactly what I needed there – they had schematics and technical information that I couldn't find anywhere else.

[Aentons]

I understand why you're interested in the Moog PMS-15 amp; it sounds fantastic. I like messing around with amps, too, and always get excited about finding out how to make rare ones. I haven't worked on a Moog PMS-15, but I've been in a similar spot trying to dig up info on hard-to-find amps.

I did send an email to info@moogfoundation.org but I did not get a response.

[gordo]

That blows.  This certainly got my attention.  Only because it's crazy unique.