In recent years, the Teenage Engineering OP-1 has earned a place as one of the most in-demand electronic instruments on the market. Originally launched in 2011, the versatile and inventive synthesizer and sampler has become a mainstay of production rigs, YouTube channels, and the gear wishlists of a generation of music makers.
Over the past year, though, supply on new OP-1s coming from Teenage Engineering has been halted due to certain production limitations facing the Swedish manufacturer. The shortfall of new OP-1s hitting the street has sparked various rumors about the product's discontinuation—especially in light of the more recently launch of the OP-Z— and has also had the effect of pushing up prices on used OP-1s substantially.
Over past few months, used and "new old stock" OP-1s have regularly sold on Reverb for over $1,400 USD, with a few sales passing the $2000 mark. These price ranges have sparked many debates within the online synth community and prompted Teenage Engineering to say on their Facebook page that "...no one should pay this price for an OP-1."
Today, though, Teenage Engineering made a post on their Instagram that the OP-1 is available again. As some pointed out in the comments, the listing on their website now reflects a price of $1,299 up from the previous price of $849. Part of this raise may be due to whatever design changes the company needed to implement to get the unit back into full production, and part of it may be a response to the market's indication that people are indeed willing to pay more to get their hands on this particular synth.
But the OP-1 price hike isn't the only news to come out of the Teenage Engineering website this week. As reported by Synthtopia and others, the company has apparently been forced to cancel current orders on the 170 modular synth and 16 modular synth keyboard due to unspecified manufacturing problem.
These units were announced earlier this year along with the 400 modular model, which appears to still be on track. As of now though it remains unclear if this is a temporary delay of production or an overall cancelation of these new models. Those who already had in orders in place are being offered a 10 percent discount and a move to the front of the queue for the 400 modular, if they want that more expensive model.