Moby selling off studio and live equipment

Richard Melville Hall will probably not be a name known to most. However, the bald electronica DJ and musician in question generally goes by the stage name Moby. Well, he’s putting a stack of his studio and live gear up for sale.

Best known for his albums such as Play and 18, Moby has amassed a large fan base with his ethereal electronica. Last month, he released his fifteenth studio album ‘Everything Was Beautiful, and Nothing Hurt’.

Moby shop

This is all very interesting, but it gets better. You could not only swipe a piece of Moby history, but also donate to a great cause.

Online music vendor, Reverb, has announced the launch of the Official Moby Reverb Shop. This features over 100 pieces of Moby’s personal recording and touring equipment.

Moby said

This is the equipment I’ve used to make all my records. I have so much equipment, and almost all of it has profound sentimental value to me, including synthesizers I started using in the ‘80s. But rather than keep it all in storage, I want to sell it for a good cause.”

All of the proceeds from the shop will benefit the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. This organisation is dedicated to dramatically changing the way that doctors treat chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and cancer.

Moby gear

Among the items that he’s parting with is a Roland Jupiter-6 that he calls the “crown jewel” of his synth collection, having used it on “almost every techno record I made, from Go to U.H.F. to Thousand.” Before he acquired the Roland, it is fabled to have actually belonged to early techno musician and legendary producer Joey Beltram.

Other synths on sale include the Yamaha SY22 Vector that Moby used to rework ‘Laura Palmer’s Theme’ from Twin Peaks for his song ‘Go’ (the first single he released under his own name), a Yamaha SY85 he used on ‘Feeling So Real,’ a Roland Juno-106 synth used to create the basslines on song ‘Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?’ and ‘We Are All Made of Stars,’ and a rare and unique Serge Series 79 Modular unit.

You can also pick up a couple of the musician’s go-to stringed instruments, such as a 1980s Ibanez Roadster II that was his primary guitar from ‘84 to ‘98, the Fender Precision bass that appears on every record featuring bass guitar from ‘92 to 2013, or even a Harmony Lap Steel Hawaiian-style slide guitar—the sister guitar to one that he bought for renowned filmmaker David Lynch.

A couple of miscellaneous pieces include a Casio CZ-1000—one of Moby’s first keyboards from the mid-’80s—as well as two vintage AEA ribbon mics, three rackmounts Oberheim Matrix 1000 analog synths, a Roland Space Echo RE-100, and a rosewood Moog Minimoog Voyager XL reissue.