Now that the analog synth hysteria has taken us to unbelivable value records for the JP8 and so on — let's take a look on the organ side of things. As they might be the next area of golden rediscoveries.

A typical Electone organ from the 1970s has several polyphonic and monophonic sound sources. There were of course many other brands, but let's begin this way.

My Yamaha B-60 — from 1976 or so I believe —has the following built in instruments;

- monophonic bass pedals
- two fully polyphonic keyboards with one sound each
- several more sounds if in auto comping mode
- a drum machine
- an engine-driven rotor kind of thing with chorusing
- a spring reverb.

If I remember everything correctly. You see it has ended up in a corner of shame somehow. Which really is a shame.

So — what is a synthesizer about it? It was released in an era where Yamaha already had started building a few really cool synthesizers. I've played the SY-1 with its amazing aftertouch — the best aftertouch on any keyboard I've ever played, in fact. Very light and musical to use.

So these organs were about say $2500 to $8000 for the top models. I believe B-60 ends up in the lower end just above the B-40 and B-50. And what does the B stand for? Were there even smaller versions too? Logically it seems a number series like this should begin with B-10?

And to complicate it even more I think they had other organ lines as well — at the same time. A whole forrest of organs if I've gotten the picture right.

But does it share any components with synthesizers? Like VCAs? Oscillators are in there for sure — but they never go out of tune. Perhaps it could even be midified? Anyone heard about any projects like that?

It's so cool somehow to think that this, nearly piano sized, piece of furniture houses what really could be compared to;
- two complete Korg Lambdas
- a TR-606 / CR-78 "sound alike" analog beatbox
- a spring reverb / leslie / chorus effect processor
- a Moog Prodigy for the bass pedals... well not quite of course but still — not a zillion galaxes away from that, but perhaps not too many moons away anyway.

I've toyed with the idea of separating all of this from the speaker / pedals underneath to create something of an ultra large Jupiter 4 kind of sibling.

What wasn't mentioned here is that it's got pretty powerful speakers and line out, line in and headphones out.

If you ever wondered why the early Roland SH-1000 and 2000 models were designed the way they are it's because they were intended to sit on top of organs like these. I had a SH-2000 and was a bit of a match made in heaven to play all of that. With the SH synth going to the organ input I could really feel like moving back in time to the early 1970's - and the synth would fill in and add just the sounds the organ doesn't have.

For a technically competent person it shouldn't be too hard to add filters, LFOs etc to a machine like this really.

All of this can be found for $50 maybe, or even for free. All you need is a large car and a friend with some patience.

Now, it does feel so funny that say a TR-606 is worth ten times more than this large passenger boat with all its 659 cabins.

Even the SH-2000 felt a bit as a little extra on the side and in reality the organ is much funnier to play as it is polyphonic.

So I guess I didn't have to think twice when I'd doubled the price of the SH just by having it for a few months: and even soundwise, the organ can be used for creating ultra analog audio tracks.

Perhaps it's time that these instruments really get to shine again: technical masterpieces much more advanced than say JP-4 or even the Prophet-5. I mean there's so much in the organ I bet it's like a snake nest of cables in there. And probably a respectable amount of dust lol. Some oxide problems here and there but otherwise it's in a pretty good shape.

All of these "synthesizer relationship" thoughts came up as I added a much later Electone, called ME-50. That one is digital and apparently cost about $3500 in 1985-86 somewhere. Multitimbral FM synthesis, sampled drums, chorus and midi — again, landing on $50 or for free. The ME-50 can be separated from its organ look very easily as that's how it was transported. I recycled the stand and the pedals so now;

[attach]

...sits nicely on my synth wall and literally contains two DX-21's or even three, a RX beatbox and some more quite amazing features; the string sounds are quite spectacular actually.

So what say you guys :D The orban / organ exploration has begun! Fill your home with something from the lost home organ era :D

An era that, as you may or not may know, included the lion part of the vintage synth history and Star Wars, JM Jarres two groundbreaking albums Oxygene and Equinox, wide jeans and punk. Queen, Abba and Blue Swede.

Greetings from Sweden by the way!

Yep way ahead of you, picked up a YC45 a couple weeks ago. Absolutely love the sound.. was drawn to it because of early Mates of State. Got it home, lugged it in all by myself and found it needs work. Looked at the service manual... was shocked. I may as well try to fix a CS80 lol.

Check this out
This guy turned an elect one e70 in to 2 polyphonic and one monophonic synths

There's an E-75 on seattle craigslist for $500. Then again, I'm over here wondering how the hell I'm going to get an FS 2600 into my house, so...

Got a Kawai DX100 myself, and it’s a shame (but understandable) that all these are disappearing due to their size. The higher end models even had three manuals, with proper analog mono synths on the upmost. I’m always on the lookout for one, but they don’t show up locally, hardly nationally (I saw one years ago that I kind of regret not buying despite high transport costs).

I made this video for my Yamaha Electone years ago. I wish I never sold this thing. It sounded awesome...

I had some small American combo organ once, would like a full sized getup some day. It did have some kind of mini Leslie speaker in it though, so that was cool.

The question, as always, becomes: how much precious space can I afford for an instrument whose primary sound is a one-trick pony, is heavy to move, and difficult to service?

i love all these old organs and its just a shame i dont have room for a 70's drinks cabinet in the studio ! must be a smaller model that does the same ?

While impressive for their time and sonically still usable, I dont personally think their size is justified unless you are really nostalgic about the furniture aspect of these machines. There are modern dual keybed organs pieces that are a bit more elegant / smaller.. And if that’s still too big there’s the YC61’s and Nord electro’s of course. Although you start missing out on pedals

In the interest of full disclosure, I'm on my third Hammond tonewheel organ, though this is the first time that I've lived on a ground floor such that moving it in / out is not a major task.

Relatively speaking, I find it much easier to service than its electronic tone-generation equivalent.

A public service message:

Electones and other combo organs are typically hard (or time consuming not cost effective) to fix when they break

They can have wire looms on the level of a CS80 inside

Tonewheels can be serviced because of church techs and parts
A Hammond A-100 without foam is what you seek

I literally had to trade a broken YC45d for peanuts :( !!

I love combos but buy one with your eyes open

YC45D in da house !!

I’ve had a YC45d I got for $75 (maybe $50, I don’t remember) several years ago that’s pretty cool and has made it on enough projects to justify its space. Though it’s really confined to the basement, no room in the studio.

I also had an Electone organ, I picked up off the curb. Was mildly amusing for awhile, was glitchy and needed service...when someone posted they would haul off old organs I let them take this off my hands without giving it a second thought.



Not to say you can’t or shouldn’t tinker with these if you feel so inspired, but I personally only have a limited amount of hours in the day...it’s not a project I’m going to devote any resources to. If you are someone like Look Mum No Computer who is obviously talented, and has time/space for wacky projects, go for it.

Several years ago I tried to buy the YC45D that belonged to Chris Larkin (RIP) of The Vels.



Chris was my neighbor when I was in high school so being a big fan of his I really wanted his YC but unfortunately whoever the seller was, was totally sheisty and the deal fell through.

Many years ago I had a Hammond T584C that I'd hot rodded to sound more B3 like. It was a great sounding spinet with the built-in beatbox and cassette player. Only used it on 1 track sadly.



Had to leave it behind when moving. Took the beatbox unit with me though. Have it in a box somewhere....

Some Electones even have boards inside that say 'CS-80'...

Terry Riley used a YC45.

I think the Eminent 310U was the main instrument in Equinoxe.

These days you can do a lot of that with the Waldorf Streichfett. And a Reface.

Timmy Thomas , Why can't we live together used an organ , nr1 in cheapest top hit ever , how many covers are made and nothing beats the original mono sound





Also old organs once where very expensive and i have an old Eminent 310 that where the cheapest of the models and payed 150 euro 15 year ago. But looking on cheaper electone and other organs there is a wide variety . Just put a phaser and some bandpass filters on the output and it become a synth .

Someone on the Philly CL keeps advertising a rare 1968 Dual nomad organ by Teisco. I would have snatched it up by now if I had anywhere to put it.

Cool. That's Kawai

Looks like a Hammond tonewheel spinet (L-1xx?)

Believe its Lowrey organ , but could be wrong .

Lowrey organ

Yes it is. Much desirability in that.

That was the reason that I sold the Electone in the video I linked. I loved the sound.

Unfortunately, it was so old that it hummed badly, making it unusable for recording. I suspect that the noise was caused by old, leaky capacitors. When I presented it to the keyboard repair guy, he saw how much work it was going to take to replace those caps and whatnot - and he wouldn't agree to repair it. I think that I sold it for what I paid for it, fortunately.

In hindsight, I should have tried to it myself or just kept it until I could find a more willing and capable tech.

How many peanuts?

How much of an influence was this guy? First it was Tubular Bells, then Klaus Schulze, and now I hear Oxygene 5 at the beginning of the video That piece is called A Rainbow In Curved Air and is from 1969!!!

Where's adamstan?

He has a D85 and E50:

Yep, I have always had a brown behemoth in the studio (two at one time), ever since you could find them almost for free at thrift stores. Many of them include great percussion, and sometimes synth leads. And there’s nothing like the sound of their speakers.

[currently an Elka of some sort, I can't remember the model]

The Yamaha E70/E75 and CSY1/CSY2 are the ones to look out for.

The E70 and E75 have the same filters as the CS80, but with primitive digital wavetable oscillators. They can be modified so you can adjust the parameters.

The CSY1 and CSY2 have an SY1 and SY2 built in for the top manual.

I was able to pick up an E70 in mint condition for $150 by checking my local classifieds regularly. The thing is a sound powerhouse. I haven’t done the mods yet, but it sounds great as is.

Well, you know what to do, right - sample those transistor waveforms!

That’s what I regret not doing. I’m fairly certain a lot of this stuff is easy to emulate since it’s all locked phase square wave things, but I really should’ve sampled it.

I know of an older Solina organ I could have for free - not the legendary Eminent 310 however, I had that one too - but if things aren’t working it’s near impossible to service. So many parts.

I serviced and repaired a Solina String Ensemble. Not a task I would give to my worst enemy. Hardest repair job I ever had. Start at the power supply. There's so many ways it can go wrong it's ridiculous. And that's the thing that kills everything else in the machine. Don't try to make it right according to the book. Just get the relative relationships of all the output voltages right without any being too high. If the whole thing sags but maintains those relationships then you're gold.

If you can't fix the thing you can mount a 455 cubic inch engine to the frame with axles and $hit and use it for a dragster!