We've had a lot of white synths this week, with the Fairlight and the new Access TI, so I was intrigued to find this picture in an old copy of Blender at work. What is that he's playing? Love those grey-and-white keys. Suggestions in the comments field, please!
Posted by Tom Whitwell.
It might be some sort of electric organ... it's got mostly switches, it looks like. Only a couple of sliders. The "al" you can see on the front ending the name/company name might be a clue. Only thing I could think of with that ending is "Sequential" but that looks nothing like Sequential's logo font. -bill (Heuristics Inc.)
it's a Vox Continental , not sure which model probably 70's european model, post the BAROQUE, but it has the same keys and switches as the Continentals, and the ending 'al' is probably Continent'al'
It's a Farfisa 'Professional' Organ. I used to have one, they weigh a lot more than modern keyboards but less than a Hammond. The Dark green tabs are the flute stops (at the usual organ intervals, including halfs), light green are clarinet stops, orange is percussion and yellow is sustain (piano, harpsicord & vibe(?) sounds that sustain after thekey is released). Each sound generator group has a separate volume slider and vibrato switch. The keyboard player in the Simple Minds used one on their first 3 albums. Popular New Wave keyboard. If you find one with malfunctioning B flats and wierd metal brackets bolted to the bottom it's my old one. Fred
don't know exactly what it is, but i'm sure it became magic in his hands! i just have 2 questions for anyone who might be able to help: 1. what issue number of BLENDER was this photo in? 2. where in the world did this musical genius dissappear to?!
Still using one of these in my band...although I still had all four of the coloured sliders until I lost one a month or two ago! I've removed them all now to stop any more going missing. You can get some very strange sounds out of that thing.
Sly was all about the compact, mini-compact, and, well, here you see the 'Professional'.
Confusion amongst these smaller sized combo organs should be expected. Chicago Musical Instrument company is one to check out. Basicly, all of the organ manufacturers were seperated by about two degrees or less.
I can't speak for the vox line, but everyone else was working together on this; and the products are virtualy the same concept underneath the hood.
combo-organ.com is a great place for info on these fantastic 12 oscillator beasts.
I concur - thats a Farfisa Professional. I have one right here in perfect condition along with the electrical diagram. Offer me a price and it may be yours. Pete Almond
We've had a lot of white synths this week, with the Fairlight and the new Access TI, so I was intrigued to find this picture in an old copy of Blender at work. What is that he's playing? Love those grey-and-white keys. Suggestions in the comments field, please!
Posted by Tom Whitwell. 
: 9:05 pm