Members and Machinery

1974-Early 1976:
Mark Mothersbaugh (voices, synths), Gerald V. "Jerry" Casale (bass, vox), Bob Mothersbaugh (guitar) and Jim Mothersbaugh (homemade electronic drums). Jim eventually went to work for Roland (one of the top electronic musical instrument companies in the world) and he is listed as a technical consultant on Total Devo. Roland equipment figured, uh, *kind* of prominently on that album.
Late 1976-1985:
Mark (voices, synths), Jerry (bass, vox), Bob "Bob 1" Mothersbaugh (lead guitar), Bob "Bob 2" Casale (rhythm guitar), and Alan Myers (all kinds of drums, none of them homemade).
1986-1990:
Alan Myers replaced by David Kendrick, friend of Bob 2. Dave was formerly in a band called Sparks, which was a something of a merge between two other bands called Bates Motel and Gleaming Spires (members of one band were "lent" to the other on occasion.) "Somewhere With Devo" on Now It Can Be Told is from Gleaming Spires' cover tune. Jim Mothersbaugh was a tech for Sparks in 1984 before Kendrick went to Devo. Alan left the band because he saw his role diminishing as electronic drums became predominant. He now plays drums in his wife's band, Babushka. He's also an electrical/sound technician.
1991-1994:
Devo, fed up with the Spinal Tap-isms they've endured over the last few years, decides to break up. Mark starts Mutato Muzika, a film/television scoring company. Bob 2 becomes his resident sound engineer while Bob 1 works on some of the scores. Jerry explores filmmaking and is the driving force behind getting the Hardcore Devo albums and The Complete Truth About Devolution laserdisc released. David Kendrick vanishes!
1995:
No one seems to know who played drums on "Are You Ready?!" and the new version of "Girl U Want." However, it should be noted that "GUW" was played in a similar style on the ill-fated smoothnoodlemaps tour, when David was part of the band.
1996:
Josh Freese was the drummer for Devo's "reunion show" in Park City, Utah (Jan 26th), and Devo's portion of the Lollapalooza '96 tour. He has also played with Suicidal Tendencies, Paul Westerberg, Juliana Hatfield, School Of Fish and Infectious Grooves.
1997:
David Kendrick is spotted drumming for Andy Prieboy!

Bob 1 has sung lead on "Secret Agent Man", "37", "Baby Talkin' Bitches", "Midget", and also sings backing vox. We used to think Bob 2 sang on "Blow Up", "Working In A Coalmine" and "Bread & Butter", but it's been suggested that It's Not Right; it could be Mark, pitch-shifting his voice. After much debate and many citings of an article from Roland, Scott Orsi seems to have come up with an explanation that sort of satisfies me: they used a harmonizer back then, which offered a primitive version of pitch-shifting.

Still, I think the first "It's never straight up and down...." in "Wiggly World" on The Men Who Make The Music speaks volumes as to what Bob 2's voice sounds like. It sounds like the guy in "Blow Up".

Birthdays

Mechanical Man

Guitars and Basses

Devo had an effects box built for them called the "Devobox"; I'd appreciate any info on it...

Bob 1 has used plenty of different guitars. These are the ones I can recognize:

Jerry has used Steinberger and Gibson (or Epiphone?) 4-string bass guitars, in addition to numerous bass synths. The bass he plays in "Satisfaction" was a Ripper with the horns sawed off.

Mark plays a Fender Telecaster in the "Satisfaction" video. (Most of them don't require quite that much cable, though.)

Synthesizers

From Chimera7 (edited for clarity)

Lately, I've been reading a lot of inquiries about Devo's synthesizer setup. Hopefully, the list below will answer some questions. For each synth, I've listed an album, song, or time period in which the synth was used. Please keep in mind, however, that Devo was *very* much infatuated with the electronic and bizzare sounds, so they used everything from synthesizers, toys, and homemade equipment to space heaters and toasters.
ARP
Odyssey: "Gates Of Steel" lead sound, "Girl U Want" lead sound.
Casio
Concert usage
Eika Aoshima MIDI Wrist Watch
Total Devo
Electronic Dream Plant
Wasp: One of Jerry's first bass synthesizers.
EML
ElectroComp 500: "Whip It" whip sound, "Through Being Cool" V-2 rocket sound, "Race Of Doom" explosion sound.
Emu
Emulator: Oh No! It's Devo!, Shout
Fairlight
Series IIx: Shout, Total Devo (used only for sequencing on this album)
Hohner
Clavinet: Q: Are We Not Men?
Linn
LM-1: New Traditionalists, Oh, No! It's Devo!, Shout
LinnDrum: New Traditionalists, Oh, No! It's Devo!, Shout
Mellotron
Early studio use
Moog
Liberation: Freedom Of Choice
Minimoog: "Mongoloid" lead, "Whip It" bassline, etc. Heavily used by Devo from the 1970's through the early 1980's.
Custom dual Minimoog: A six oscillator 'monster' custom built for Devo. Mainly used by Jerry for basslines.
Prodigy: Another one of Jerry's early bass synths.
Source: "Through Being Cool" lead synth, "Jerkin' Back 'N' Forth" lead synth
Vocoder: Used on early demos and various albums.
Optigan
Early studio use, E-Z Listening "Beautiful World"
Roland
D-50: Total Devo
Jupiter 6: New Traditionalists, Oh, No! It's Devo!
Jupiter 8: New Traditionalists, Oh, No! It's Devo!, Shout
JX-3P: Shout
JX-8P: Shout, Total Devo
MKS-80: Total Devo
MKS-100: Total Devo
S-10: Total Devo
S-50: Total Devo
S-550: Total Devo
SH-101: Oh No! It's DEVO, Freedom Of Choice (the red one "Whip It")
SVC-350 Vocoder: New Traditionalist, "Beautiful World".
Sequential Circuits
Prophet 5: Used by Devo from the late 1970's until New Traditionalists (1981).
Suzuki
Omnichord: Oh, No! It's Devo!
Synare
Various drum pads, reputed to have been used in videos because "they looked like little UFOs".
Vox
Continential: Early studio use.
drumbox: New Traditionalists
Yamaha
DX-7: Used on Devo's albums during the early 1980's.

We also know that Mark used Fairlight and Roland equipment on his Muzik For Insomniaks albums and now at Mutato Muzika. He uses all kinds of recording equipment, including Mitsubishi, Sony, and Tascam

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