Two Roland SH-3's on the *bay

Update: Via this Sound and Sound article.

"Not everything was plain sailing, and it appears that Kakehashi infringed one of Bob Moog's filter patents when he designed the SH3. So a new version appeared in 1974. Externally, the SH3A was almost identical to the SH3, but it sported a new VCF and VCA, and it was this model that Vangelis and a handful of other famous keyboard players adopted in the mid-1970s."

Also, the SH3 was originally released ast the ACE Tone SH3, not the Roland SH3:

"Then there was Japan's first synthesizer, the SH1000 (see the box on the previous page) and its more powerful sibling, the SH3, which appeared as both the Roland SH3 and the Ace Tone SH3, and remains highly sought-after to this day."



Update: In via the comments. Thanks Shoontz!

"The Sh-3 is worth WAY, WAY more. Some have even gone for around $10,000.

The SH-3 was the original model, but it plagiarised Moog's 4-Pole filter design. After a lawsuit it's production was halted, so only a few were ever made, (some say around 100, others say less). It's supposed to sound much nicer than the 3A too. "

Link to auction. Title link takes you to Sonic State's page on the SH-3a. Two things stand out with the SH-3a. One, it was Roland's first programmable, non preset mono synth. It came out in 1974, the year after Roland's first synth, the SH-1000 (see this post for a Roland timeline). And two, it had a form of analog additive synthesis in which you used sliders to adjust stages of the different analog waveforms. Click through title link for more. Thanks goes to Ben Shannon Illustrator who sent this my way.

Two shots pulled form the auction.