The Vintage KeyBlog

My lovely wife Karen bought me a Fostex MR-8 digital 8-track recorder for my birthday!

The following recording uses the Wurlitzer sound from my Nord Electro 3, processed with its internal amp simulator, drums from my Casio WK-3000, and my Stagg EDB 3/4 electric upright bass. The drums and bass were processed via the recorder’s microphone emulation.

Maybe this will help answer the question raised earlier of what 1950s rock music might have sounded like with electric keyboards…

Anyone like brightly coloured instruments? Remember orange Voxes, red Farfisas, green, red or beige Wurlitzers? Maybe you even own a Kustom Kombo covered in sparkle blue or gold Naugahyde…

Well, remember those nice folks at Vintage Vibe? They now have a gallery at their website showing their Electric Tine Pianos in every colour of the rainbow!. It’s not faked - each photo is of a real, hand-built electric piano in that particular colour. I like the gloss lime green and the sparkle purple ones…

To see these beautiful instruments, click here and then click on the word “Pianos”.

Here it is - a (very rough) demo, showing the Wurly sound, grand and upright pianos, and Hammond, Farfisa and Vox organs.

Enjoy!

Well, I’m now the proud owner of a 73-key Clavia Nord Electro 3. And I guess it’s time for a review.

What is the Nord Electro 3?

About ten years ago, Clavia, a small Swedish company best known for electronic drums and analogue synths introduced a new type of instrument; a “virtual electromechanical” keyboard. The Nord Electro featured a modelled Hammond organ, using a novel system of pushbuttons and LED ladders to simulate drawbars, plus high-quality samples of Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer and Yamaha CP-80 electric pianos, and a Clavinet emulation which allowed all the tone settings of the original. The intention was that the Electro could replace a number of vintage keyboards on stage or in a studio. To this end, no synthesiser sounds were included and there were no acoustic instrument sounds apart from a grand piano of questionable appeal.

Despite these apparent limitations, the Nord Electro (soon upgraded to the Electro 2, with a software update available for the earlier model) became the industry standard as a stand-in for vintage keyboards, and the little red instrument rapidly became a common sight on stages world-wide.

But Clavia continued to develop other products, and when they launched the top-of-the-range Nord Stage in 2005, including the ability to download new piano sounds plus an organ section which had Vox and Farfisa models as well as Hammond, it was clear that the Electro was due for a revamp.

1… 2… 3!

The Nord Electro 3 has inherited both the spirit of the earlier models and some of the improvements of its big sibling. Like the Electro 2, the emphasis is still on vintage keyboard sounds, and it still only allows one sound to be used at a time. No split keyboards (apart from upper and lower organ voices) and no layers. If you want those, you’ll have to pay more than 50% extra and get the Nord Stage 2. On the other hand, you now have three classic (and very different) organ models to choose from, plus access to some of the most authentic electric piano sounds currently available. Also inherited from the Nord Stage is a Sample Bank. That’s right – you can now download impressive multi-samples from the Clavia website (including a huge range of Mellotron and Chamberlin sounds) or even create your own sounds on your home computer and put them on the Electro 3. Two DVD-ROMS of pianos and samples are included along with interface software for Mac or PC and sample-editing software.

Out of the box

At 9.1 kg (20 lb, 1oz) the Electro is reasonably light. The first thing you notice (apart from its distinctive red finish) is the sheer build quality. The end-blocks and keyboard cheeks are solid hardwood, stained bright red and given a thick, glossy coat of varnish. The case itself is made from sheet steel, painted black below and red on top, with the control panel printed in black, grey and white. To the right of the panel is a list of hidden functions including system, MIDI and sound options. Along the left rear edge are labels corresponding to the connections on the back.

There are only two types of control on the front of the Electro 3. The first is a rubber-coated knob operating a pot (rather than an encoder). There are ten of these, and they have a smooth action with a fair amount of resistance. The second type of control is a small rectangular plastic push-button with a dimpled top. These buttons are variously coloured black or grey, with a single red one dedicated to storing settings. Most of the buttons are set horizontally but a few important ones are vertical to make them easy to locate. These buttons, like all the hardware, feel positive, heavy-duty and well made.

There is a plethora of LEDs, mostly red, set into the instrument’s control panel and fitted flush with the surface. These include a 3- and a 2-digit readout for identifying presets and sound variants, tiny round and triangular LEDs used as status indicators, a single green one to denote slow rotary speed and 9 “ladders” of 8 rectangular LEDs which show drawbar and tab settings for the various organ models. The control panel is a masterpiece of ergonomics and restraint.

The control panel

The keybed is a slightly unusual one, unless you are familiar with Hammond organs or their imitators. The white keys have a “waterfall” profile, with a small radius between the playing surface and the vertical key front, and no protruding lip as found on most pianos. The black keys have a smoothly curved top. The overall key length is slightly shorter than on a piano, but the width is normal. This gives quite a firm but responsive feel to the keys, and I couldn’t work out why it felt familiar until I realised that my Hohner Pianet T, sadly stolen back in 1988, had a very similar key design and feel.

One thing which might seem strange is the lack of pitch-bend and modulation controls. The simple fact is that the majority of the instruments which the Electro emulates don’t feature pitch-bend or modulation as part of their playing technique, although I would argue that Mellotrons have a limited but often used pitch-bend facility and that tremolo or panning intensity could have been implemented as a modulation wheel, but Clavia have evidently decided that these features are not required. Oh, and the Electro doesn’t recognise pitch-bend or modulation data via MIDI either. Just thought I’d mention it.

The mains connector is, surprisingly, not the usual 3-pin IEC but a 2-pin “figure-8” usually associated with electric shavers or portable stereos. These are fairly easy to find, but don’t rely on being able to borrow one from a fellow band member. Better get a spare… The rear panel features 6.3mm (1/4”) sockets for stereo headphones, left/mono and right line out, sustain, rotor and control pedals, MIDI In and Out, USB (for sound management rather than MIDI) and a rather unnecessary 3.5mm (1/8”) “Monitor In” whose signal is routed solely to the headphone socket. Lastly, there is a large oblong pushbutton to turn the instrument on. Press it and the display shows the OS version for a few seconds, and then you are ready to play.

Back to basics

It’s probably best to think of the Electro 3 in terms of whatever you are using it for. You want a Hammond? You’ve got nine virtual drawbars, each operated by a pair of buttons, one for up, the other for down. Each pair of drawbuttons has a ladder of 8 LEDs which light up to show the drawbar setting. Some have criticised the Electro and its kin for not using real drawbars, but I find the buttons easy to use, and of course they jump to position instantly and are easily visible on a dark stage!

The Organ control panel

Most functions are controlled by a single button, often in conjunction with a “Shift” button. In the case of the Hammond emulation, these include the three standard variations of Chorus and Vibrato, and percussion. Of course there is a rotary speaker simulator, complete with adjustable overdrive, and a button controlling the speed. Although there is only one set of virtual drawbars, they can be used to control either of two settings; either as instantly available presets, as a split keyboard or with the lower sound controlled by a second keyboard via MIDI.

Vox pop

There is also a model of a Vox Continental combo organ. In this case, seven drawbars adjust footages (the model is based on a dual-keyboard Super Continental) while the last two (displaying a single LED rather than a bar) control the amount of the Foundation (near-sine) and Reed (triangle) waveforms at the selected footages. Vibrato for the Vox is preset; either on or off, and there is no percussion available.

Italian cheese

Lastly on the organ front is a simulation of a Farfisa Compact Duo. The Farfisa used tab-stops for a variety of voices at selected footages, and on the Electro 3 this has been implemented by using the drawbar buttons as on and off switches for each stop, with a bar of either the top or bottom four LEDs showing its status. A very neat trick. Vibrato has four settings, fast and slow in each of two depths. Farfisa purists might be disappointed that there is no Tone Booster facility; however it is difficult to see how this could be implemented.

It’s piano time

Now you press the Piano button, and the LED ladders turn off. You can now select from six “Types” of instrument; “E Piano”, “Wurl”, “Clav/Hps”, “Samp Lib”, “Grand” and “Upright”. That’s right – “E Piano” means “Fender Rhodes”, and out of the box there are four very different ones, from a raunchy Mk I Suitcase to a ridiculously glassy and pingy Dyno. Some might like it, but I used the sound management software to delete it and replace it with a nice late-60s Sparkle-top.

The Piano control panel

By contrast, there is only one “Wurl”, but it’s a very realistic one, and you can EQ it, use amp modelling and add effects to get anything from Richard Carpenter to Ray Charles. I could play it for hours (OK – I have played it for hours), and as a Wurly enthusiast I should point out that once you’ve played a real one, it takes something really special to live up to it.

The Clavinet offers pickup selection and tone filters just like a real D6, although purists might miss the damper slider – there just isn’t one. After cycling through all four pickup settings, you suddenly (incongruously) hit a harpsichord. A real, acoustic one, and so authentic you can practically smell the ancient wood, felt and leather.

Switch to “Samp Lib” (Sample Library) and you get the good, the bad and the plain unnecessary. Mellotron and Chamberlin strings, flutes, brass and choirs; yes please. Wheezy pump organs; not so sure. “Jump” and “Final Countdown” synths; no thanks. But it’s all a matter of taste – some poodle-haired moron will love those sounds, and they can easily be deleted and replaced with more Mellotron. Or an RMI Electra-Piano. You even have the option of adding velocity sensitivity, slow attack and one of three release times to any sample.

Piano. Ah yes. One of the main criticisms of the earlier Nord Electros was that the acoustic piano was not only an afterthought, but it sounded like one, a bit embarrassing on a keyboard that costs more than many dedicated stage pianos. Well, under “Grand”, we now have two impressive grand pianos, one big and mellow, the other more focussed and lean, plus a Yamaha CP-80 electric grand which, while not really my kind of thing, is very authentic and playable.

Just one “Upright”, but it’s a very nice one – very Beatles-ish. And of course you can download others if you like.

Cue FX…

There is an optional three-band equaliser with fixed bass and treble bands, plus controls for mid-range frequency and gain. I found this useful to add some extra “honk” to the Wurlitzer sound.

The Effects control panel

Below the EQ are four sets of digital effects that can be used simultaneously in combination with any sound. The first offers tremolo, stereo panning, ring modulation, auto-wah or pedal wah. There is a knob for speed, but tremolo and pan depth are restricted to three preset levels. If an expression pedal is attached, it controls ring-mod depth or pedal wah. Next is phasing, flanging or chorus, again with a speed knob, and three preset levels for each effect. Amp simulation is next, offering “small speaker”, “JC” (Japanese solid-state amp popular with Fender Rhodes players), “Twin” (American valve amp popular with Fender Rhodes players), “Rotary” (mostly for use with organ sounds) and a handy compressor. A knob adjusts drive/distortion/compression. Lastly, there is a digital reverb unit offering “Room”, “Stage soft”, “Stage”, “Hall soft” and “Hall”, with a knob to control direct/reverb balance.

All the way to the bank

You can store up to 128 user presets in banks called A and B. There is no way to “jump” between numbered presets; you can choose to scroll through all the A’s or B’s or to scroll through all the presets in the form 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B etc. For any numbered preset, however, there is the facility to switch instantly between banks A and B, so you could have, say, a Wurlitzer as 1A and a specific Hammond setting as 1B. And don’t forget that an organ preset actually consists of two separate settings, available as whole-keyboard sounds or as a split.

The Program control panel

So you can have four organ sounds (each pair sharing the same organ model and effect settings), two organ sounds (both using the same model) and a piano/sample sound, or two piano/sample sounds for each preset number. That’s a bit of a bargain, and it can hugely reduce the amount of scrolling required. When you store a preset, it stores everything (apart from “System”, MIDI and “Sound” parameters), including features which are switched off. So your Wurly sound can have tremolo switched off as default, and when you switch it on it’ll appear at the correct speed and depth. Features not stored as part of a preset include “transpose”. But then again you probably wouldn’t expect the Nord to even have a transpose function. I mean – where’s the transposer on a Hammond?

In use

The user interface is initially quirky (this is from the country that gave us Saab cars, Gravadlax and IKEA, don’t forget), but pretty intuitive once you get used to it. If you’re expecting hi-res, full-colour touchscreens you’re in for a shock – a 3-digit LED readout is the nearest that the Electro offers. That kind of thing was last seen back in the 1980s, but it works, it’s easy to understand and, above all it encourages you to save presets in places that make sense to you.

The Shift button cuts down on the number of buttons required – it either activates alternative functions, accesses “hidden” features (permanently listed on the front panel) or reverses the order of buttons that select sequentially. One button which can’t be reversed is the Piano Type selector, but to go from any type to the previous one takes a maximum of five key presses. Fortunately the preset selector is allowed the luxury of dedicated buttons for up and down.

The virtual drawbars have been often singled out for criticism since they first appeared on the original Nord Electro, but they have stood the test of time and, let’s face it, they work fine for building organ sounds. It may not be quite as easy to tweak them into a “smile”, “frown” or ramp as real drawbars, but they are quick and easy to adjust, and if you overshoot, just press the opposite button to correct it. If you really feel you need drawbars, various third-party add-ons exist, including at least one designed specifically for Nord keyboards.

Verdict:

Well, if you like vintage keyboards, this thing has it all, albeit at a price. As long as you are happy with the concept of having a warehouse full of organs, electric pianos, Clavinets and Mellotrons in perfect playable condition but only being able to plug in and play one at a time, this is the best you can get. The sounds, if not flawless, are the best currently available in a single keyboard, and they give a strong flavour of playing the real instruments. For the first time I understood why a Vox Continental makes you play in a particular (and very non-Hammond-like) way. The Wurlitzer sound gives my playing an authority that I experienced when I was using a real 200 and which it lacked while I was using the (surprisingly good) Wurlitzer sound from a Casio WK-3000. It’s not just me – after a recent gig using the Nord, the keyboardist from the support band complimented me on my authentic Wurlitzer sound. I’ve never really got on with Clavinets, but having the wah-pedal facility available made me want to play 70’s funk all day. And so on. This is a completely addictive instrument and I would recommend it to anyone who can afford it.

Clavia Nord Electro 3 73

Price: approx. £1400 (US$2200)

Quality: *****
Versatility: *****
Ease of use: ****
Value for money: *****
Fun: *****

Alternatives:

Clavia Nord:
There is a 61-key version of the Nord Electro 3 available for a bit less money, and since it has octave-shift (plus or minus one or two octaves) available, it may not be as much of a limitation as you might imagine. Going upscale, Clavia make an Electro HP version with a hammer-action 73-note keyboard (E-E rather than F-F) and four performance presets for instant selection. This might be an option if you don’t feel that the organ-style keyboard suits your style of playing.

Far more expensive are the Nord Stage 2 models, with 88- or 76-note hammer-action keyboards and the Stage 2 Compact, with the same keyboard as the 73-key Electro 3. These not only allow piano and organ sounds to be used simultaneously in splits or layers but have a full-featured polysynth section as well. Oh, and they have a pitch-bend lever and a modulation wheel too.

Other manufacturers:
The other current contenders are Hammond-Suzuki’s 61-key SK-1, with Hammond, Vox and Farfisa models controlled by real drawbars, plus a wide range of other sounds including vintage electric pianos, and Korg’s SV-1, available with 88 or 73 keys and featuring a wide range of electric pianos, but only preset, non-editable organ sounds.

I’m very excited!

I will very shortly be getting a 73-key Nord Electro 3*. This will replace my Casio WK-3000, which in turn replaced a Wurlitzer 200 which sadly had to be retired due to its weight, age and the strange and non-musical noises that it made while warming up (the Wurly is owned jointly by my band, The Skanx, and hopefully we will continue to use it for songwriting, rehearsal and recording).

Although it was my sole keyboard when I joined the Skanx, I have been using the Casio exclusively for its Wurlitzer sound for about a year, along with the band’s Roland VK-7 drawbar organ and my Stylophone S1 (see review on this blog). The Casio WK-3000 and its newer relatives actually have a pretty good Wurly sound for the price, but the Nord will take it to a new level of authenticity.

When I joined The Skanx about four years ago, I made a deliberate choice to only use organ and Wurlitzer sounds. This gives our music a distinctive edge – many other ska and reggae bands use an acoustic piano sound. It’ll be interesting to see whether the Nord Electro leads me to try out its Vox or Farfisa sounds or if I reserve the non-Wurly sounds for my own musical projects.

Expect to see a full review of the Nord Electro 3 on this blog very soon!

*If you don’t know what a Nord Electro 3 is, it’s a modern digital keyboard containing functional models of Hammond, Vox and Farfisa organs, plus accurate multisamples of Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer and Yamaha electric pianos, Hohner Clavinet and Mellotron sounds. It’s made in Sweden. And it’s red.

In 2004 I started an on-line think-tank called the New Combo Organ Project. The idea was to discuss the possibility of producing a modern version of a Vox- or Farfisa-style combo organ. At the time, all available organs aimed at gigging musicians were limited to reproducing the sound of a Hammond-type organ, and it seemed that musicians who preferred the quirkier sounds of 1960s transistor organs were being ignored.

The people who joined me included musicians, manufacturing technologists, electronics and computer experts and vintage keyboard collectors. There were discussions of what type of tone generation to use, MIDI implementation and so forth. I even produced a 3D visualisation of a possible MIDI module which I named the ComBox.

Of course, it never happened. You can’t buy a ComBox, and you never will be able to. But I realised that seven years on, you CAN buy a new combo organ, functionally equivalent to a Vox or Farfisa, and that perhaps our work was done. Only not by us. So I sent what may be a final message to the New Combo Organ Project:

“I don’t mean to sound defeatist, but it’s been more than seven years since the New Combo Organ Project started, and nobody has yet built a prototype oscillator/divider board, never mind a whole organ.

Simon Beck

Electric and electronic keyboard instruments were first invented at the turn of the 20th century – Thaddeus Cahill’s mighty Telharmonium was probably the first, and by the early 1930s dozens of inventors in America and Europe were putting together organs, pianos and keyboard instruments which could not as easily be categorised. The Ondes Martenot and Trautonium captured the imagination of avant-garde composers, while the Hammond organ and the same company’s Novachord synthesiser soon became mainstays of the entertainment, recording and broadcasting industries.

Around 1950, various strands of American popular music began to blend, mutate and evolve. A mixture of electric blues, country, jazz and boogie-woogie became rock ‘n’ roll, and rapidly became the music of choice for young people across the nation. The instrumentation of this new sound comprised electric guitars, drums, upright bass (soon supplanted by Leo Fender’s electric bass guitar), saxophone and piano. And the strange thing is that the piano wasn’t replaced in rock music for another ten years.

It’s not as if the instruments didn’t exist – Wurlitzer’s electric piano first appeared on the market in 1954, just in time for rock ‘n’ rollers to adopt it. It was portable, easy to amplify and had a funky, futuristic sound. And yet nobody used it until Ray Charles in 1959. Listen to classic rock ‘n’ roll, doo-wop or rockabilly records and you will hear nothing but acoustic piano and the occasional celesta. Similarly, Hammond organs (which had been around since 1935) didn’t really crop up in rock music until the late 1950s with Lord Rockingham’s XI, Johnny and the Hurricanes and Dave Cortez.

So why did the early rock ‘n’ rollers stick to the acoustic piano? It could be argued that once they had found a winning formula, there was no need to change it – the bass guitar made a practical difference, but not one that the record-buying public were likely to notice. The image of electric keyboard instruments may have been another factor – Hammond organs and Novachords were used in mainstream pop music and even on Nashville country recordings, but they were seen as being a bit staid and “square”, whereas an old upright piano had a certain “street” image harking back to saloons and honky-tonks.

It took the 1960s to give rock music the keyboards it deserved – brightly-coloured transistor organs with reverse-coloured keys and chrome stands; electric pianos that looked like sleek Scandinavian furniture or like heavy-duty guitar amplifiers, and later on, massive synthesisers that resembled the flight-deck of a spaceship. But that’s another story.

Simon Beck: Hi! I’m talking to Chris Carroll and Fred DiLeone from Vintage Vibe, a New Jersey-based company that has not only become one of the world’s top specialists in servicing and customising vintage keyboard instruments but has also recently started manufacturing their own electromechanical tine pianos to considerable critical acclaim.

Chris, when and how did your business start up, and what were the first products and services you provided?

Chris Carroll: Vintage Vibe started back in 1997 as a Vintage Keyboard rental company in Manhattan. We were ahead of our time with the Vintage thing. Unfortunately we spent more money on repairing the classic keyboards than we did renting them, so I spent some time perfecting the craft of repairing Fender Rhodes and Wurlitzers. A Manhattan audio repair centre offered me the opportunity to work with them as they were young and growing, I ended up running their keyboard dept. (previously they would do all of my electronic repairs on my gear).

I ended the rental part of the business for the most part at this point. We became good friends and they taught me a lot about electronic trouble shooting. We would churn out repairs by the dozens. This was a real grind house experience. There are definitely more Wurlitzers and Fender Rhodes per square mile in NYC than anywhere. I was still operating Vintage Vibe at this point driving my van all around New York picking up and delivering keyboards to my customers.

Fate had us all in for a change when on Sept 11th 2001 New York City was attacked. Chaos ensued and nothing was the same again. All businesses were heavily stressed and no one was spending any money. Business as we knew it was dead. Everything was cut down to part time and I had just had a son and needed to make more money. The time was right to make Vintage Vibe a full time vibe for me and my family.

The first services I offered was door to door pick up and delivery with specialized tuning, voicing and amp repair. Our first product was making reeds. They were inconsistent but when you got a good one, they did the job. The true recipe for making reeds was years away at this point.

SB: When did you start manufacturing reproduction parts, and what problems did you encounter in the process?

CC: Oh, man this has been an ongoing project now for years. Probably around 2003 we started making reeds, inconsistently due to the wrong recipe. When manufacturing parts, there are always many factors to deal with: blue prints, vendor reliability, reasonable costs, marketing the parts for sale, public expectation, public perception on what parts should cost, etc. Sometimes vendors just do not get it and you do things over and over and you want to scream.

SB: Is there much competition in the vintage keyboard repair and restoration business?

CC: There have been times of competition and some struggles but most of us are all friends and can talk easily on the phone. Anyone who excludes himself from the community is dealing with an inflated ego. We are all in the same boat trying to play music, have a happy vibe and to support ourselves or our families. We are down to earth here and we love our friends and customers.

SB: What have been the most interesting, challenging or unusual keyboards you’ve worked on?

CC: Oh, back in the day, that would be a Mellotron or some Chamberlin tape drum machines. You would never catch me working on those these days. I also remember working on some Claviolines or Solovox’s as well as some Optigans.

Fred DiLeone: The Rhodes Pre Piano, as parts are tough to come by, or early Wurlitzers. Models 110-112 can be tricky to voice, and the 120 (also 112A and 700) can be a nightmare!

SB: Let’s talk about the Vintage Vibe Tine Piano. When and how did you have the idea of making a brand-new electric piano and what did the design process involve?

CC: Fred is one of our main techs here and he and I used to work late at night repairing and refurbishing silver sparkle tops and other old Fender Rhodes. We would be drinking Coronas after a long day and he would talk to me about making a lighter piano. It was a great idea that he had a lot of dreams about. We just talked about it for a half a year until one day, I told him to show me something. He came in the next week with a prototype harp and action rail, the sparks of imagination flew and the rest is history as they say.

The design process was a lot of trial and error, a lot of cut-outs and templates, glue, clamps, jigs and customized Fender Rhodes parts. We built each prototype part and slowly added them together until we had our first Frankenstein. Fred still has it! It involved many late night phone calls and get-togethers after work with the help of Coronas. 1 part Fabrication and imagination, 1 part belief and determination, and 1 part crazy -

FDL: I’ve been a gigging musician for many years, and found my sound in the early Fender Rhodes pianos… The “golden years”, like ’71-’72. Lugging around a beast that weighs more than myself, I figured there MUST be a way to make these things lighter.

Working those late nights on those early models with Chris, I started bouncing ideas off of him. I think it was the summer of 2009, I had brought in a Farfisa Combo Compact for repair. About a week later, Chris handed me the bill, which was heavily discounted. My “homework” in return, was to build something out of those ideas I had. I brought in the prototype harp and action rail, and we immediately began designing various other components of the piano. There were more Coronas to be had, always lights. I would have preferred regular, but hey, free beer!

SB: A certain other company is currently making tine-based pianos. Do you have any comments regarding their products?

CC: I wish them all the success in the world, truly. The better they do is testament to the climate of the industry. They push many pianos out to dealers all over the world. We are making instruments one at a time and are happy with those numbers. We can keep the highest standard of quality to our customers. Our pianos take so long to build that we have a very long waiting list. It is something we want to improve but we need to grow the right way first.

FDL: It’s a great thing to see companies producing “real” instruments in the digital world. When you realise how much work goes into an electric piano -all of the components to be manufactured, assembly, setup, etc., it is very impressive.

SB: When the first photos of the Vintage Vibe piano appeared, it came as a surprise to most of us. It was a while before we learned that it was electromechanical, tine-based and made from all-new parts. It’s a fantastic instrument, but might there also be a possibility one day of a reed-based version of your piano?

CC: Yes - We basically have the model all designed, we just need the capital to get it going. The tine pianos have taken every penny the company has. Remember we are small and we operate with gratitude and contentment. We may show our reed prototype at this year NAMM.

SB: Do you have any advice for people who either own vintage keyboards, would like to own them or want one of the new generation of retro instruments?

CC: Yes, Take it seriously, learn about the instrument, learn what makes it tick, how to set it up and fix them. There is a whole new wave of piano players who have no idea about these pianos. The guys who played these in the 70’s and eighties knew what they were doing, they all took the responsibility on themselves and learned to do basic maintenance. We get the most basic questions everyday, I don’t mind answering questions for people, but when you own one and you have done absolutely no reading up on your instrument, it’s a disappointment for me. Today there is a treasure trove of written material and video on these instruments. To call up and ask how to tune a tine on a Fender Rhodes is lazy.

Our Vintage Vibe pianos are like no existing Fender Rhodes you will find out there today. They are of the utmost in perfection. We painfully go over them until they are an absolute dream to play and listen to. New Pianos are not inexpensive due to the nature of time, parts and labour but to play one, you cannot put a price on it. We spend so much time perfecting each piano and we will not let them out the door until they have lived up to our standards. Usually this is way past any price we have sold it for. I would highly recommend anyone interested in a new piano to dive in and make the experience. It is a life long friend and companion that will give back to you multitudes more than you put into it, especially any monetary cost.

FDL: There will always be respect for a “real” instrument. Sure, samples have come a long way and there are many practical uses for workstations, but they are still a facsimile of the real thing. A sample will always fall victim to the programmer’s interpretation of any particular sound. The feel of a real piano can never be matched by the latest keyboard.

As for the new generation of retro instruments, if electric piano is the main sound you’re looking for, go for the real deal. Initial cost seems to scare some people. Remember, these are not “keyboards” banged out on an assembly line. These are pianos, hand built, set-up and regulated one at a time. Fifty years from now, they will still be serviceable, and valuable. Just try to find a replacement motherboard for your ten year old workstation! Chris put it best, “a life long friend and companion”.

SB: Chris and Fred, thank you very much for your time!

Vintage Vibe main website (spares, servicing, vintage keyboards):
www.vintagevibe.com

Vintage Vibe Electric Piano Company site (new Tine Pianos):
www.vintagevibeepc.com

Hi, and welcome to my first Vintage Keyboard Review!

So what IS a Stylophone?

Sometimes you have to start small and see where it takes you. Well, vintage keyboards don’t come much smaller than the Dübreq Stylophone, a marvel of primitive electronics and creative marketing that first appeared in 1968. Invented by an Englishman, Brian Jarvis, it was a simple monophonic organ whose keyboard consisted of just over one and a half octaves of small printed-circuit pads which were played using the metal tip of a ballpoint-like stylus connected to the instrument by a thin wire. The whole thing, including a small loudspeaker, mono earphone socket and 9v battery fitted neatly into a plastic case measuring about 4″ by 6″ (10 by 15cm) with a tuning knob on the back. Three models were produced in treble, tenor and bass ranges so in theory a group of Stylophonists could play in harmony. In reality this rarely happened, but the Stylophone became an overnight success, due in no small part to the enthusiastic promotion of the instrument by Rolf Harris, an eccentric and hugely popular Australian entertainer and musician whose photo appeared on the packaging. The Stylophone was given a further boost among musicians by David Bowie, who used the bass version on his early hit “Space Oddity”. Its space-age, buzzy sound suited the song perfectly, and the Stylophone took its place as an icon of the 1970s until production ceased in 1975.

In 2007, Brian Jarvis’ son Ben relaunched the Stylophone as the “S1″. So, what has changed in 32 years, and what can this instrument offer in the 21st century?

Back in the 1970s, the Stylophone may have primarily a toy, but it was an expensive one, costing 8 pounds 18 shillings and sixpence, the equivalent of about £100 (more than $150) today! The reissue costs nearly one-tenth of that, so it’s cheap enough to buy on a whim.

Out with the old…

The appearance of the S1 has been deliberately kept “retro”, so as to appeal to those who remember the original, but it’s not just a simple reproduction. The new version has subtly rounded corners and edges instead of the sharp edges of the original, and some of the labelling has changed too. The on/off switch is now labelled “POWER” rather than the ambiguous (and somewhat overstated) “ORGAN”, and the “black” notes are now labelled as decimals rather than fractions! This makes tablature easier to produce… Playing technique is identical - you press the stylus firmly against the desired keyboard pad, and typically slide from one pad to another, briefly sounding any intermediate ones on the way. The resultant “fretted organ” sound is part of the Stylophone’s character, although you can of course also play staccato by “poking” selected pads. There is still a Vibrato switch,and this adds a nice preset wobble reminiscent of a Vox Continental to the sound.

…and in with the new!

So what else is new? Well, purists may be disappointed to hear that the sound is less - how shall I put it? - organic than the original. Dübreq have done a very good job of sampling an original Stylophone (a treble version) and tweaking it, but it’s just a bit harsher and less mellow than the transistorised original, due in part to the cheaper loudspeaker. Ah well. But here’s the good bit: you now have a choice of three subtly different sounds pitched over three octaves, all from one instrument. From the lowest upwards they are called Bass, Synth and Traditional, and are selected by a slide switch on the front of the case. It is (just about) possible to change sounds while playing, and the sounds are similar enough to be able to fake quite an impressive keyboard range, but it’s a shame that Dübreq didn’t give the keyboard a few extra notes at each end. The tuning control underneath allows detuning by several semitones sharp or flat, and can be used for off-the-wall effects, but isn’t really controllable enough for melodic pitch-bending.

Other 21st-century additions include an edge-operated volume knob (most originals lacked a volume control), a stereo rather than mono output socket, compatible with Walkman-style earphones but requiring considerable ingenuity to connect to a mono amplifier without shorting out, and a rather grandly titled “MP3″ facility, which is simply a stereo input for an external signal. Being digital means that it is less power-thirsty too, running for weeks or months on three AA cells instead of a hefty 9v PP3.

Summary

How can anyone resist this cute little instrument? It’s pocket-sized, it has a proper chromatic range, it runs on batteries and it costs less than any other electronic instrument on the market. You can play it at picnics or on concert stages, play Christmas carols or hip-hop bass-lines (check out Brett Domino on YouTube if you don’t believe me!), annoy your parents or embarrass your children! I use mine alongside a drawbar organ and an electric piano in a 9-piece ska band. Meanwhile, here is a recording I did using the Stylophone alongside a ukulele and a double-bass. Enjoy.

“Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve)”

Quality: ***
Versatility: **
Ease of use: *****
Value for money: ****
Fun: *****

Hi! I’m Simon Beck, and this is my Blog.

Some of you may know me from Simon’s Hall of Electric Pianos or Vintage Keys E-Zine. Others will have come across my contributions to discussions about combo organs, clonewheels, vintage electric pianos, Stylophones and CIEPs (Cheap Italian Electronic Pianos). I suppose I’m a bit of a train-spotter in a keyboardy way. Ten years ago when I started the Hall of Electric Pianos website, I knew about perhaps a dozen electric pianos - Wurlitzer, Rhodes, Hohner Pianets and Clavinets, Yamahas, and a few more obscure ones like Baldwin and Kawai, but I never would have guessed that the list would grow to its present length. This is thanks largely to people who have shared their knowledge and resources with me over the years. It’s good to know I’m not alone!

The music industry has also acknowledged the continued popularity of vintage keyboard instruments. From a few pioneering instruments such as the Korg CX-3 and the original Clavia Nord Electro, there has developed a new type of keyboard; the “virtual vintage”. Some of these are very specialised; the Manikin Memotron and Mellotron’s own digital version are dedicated to emulating as closely as possible the unearthly tape-recorded tones of the Mellotron and Chamberlin. Others seek to cover a wide range of bases; the Nord Electro 3 and the Hammond SK1 both have tonewheel and transistor organ models on board as well as carefully-sampled vintage electric pianos. There are also pure software emulations available of everything from Wurlitzer pianos to Polymoogs and Hammonds.

One of the most exciting developments is the return of true electromechanical instruments to the market. Alongside the digital Mellotron, you can buy a genuine brand-new Mellotron with motors and tapes from either of two manufacturers. Similarly, tine-based electric pianos are now being made again by both a relaunched Rhodes Music Corporation and Vintage Vibe, a vintage keyboard specialist in New Jersey. Much further down-scale, you can even buy a new Stylophone for a fraction of the price of the ’70s version and incorporating a volume control and three different sounds!

In future instalments I’ll be looking at the past, present and future of vintage keyboards and how they have helped to shape popular music. Look out for interviews, reviews and a lot more.