Excelsior Concert Symphony vintage piano organ [eBay]

A rare find is this half-century old Excelsior Concert Symphony vintage piano organ from the 1950s/1960s. It even comes with a collection of music books which can be paired with the numbers above the keys, making it easier for beginners to play.

Available from this auction.

The Muson Synthesizer [Vintage]

Here’s a colourful keyboard find for you. Though you could argue it remains squarely in the ‘toy’ department, the concepts here are pretty cool.

OK, so you only have the C major scale to play with, but take a look at those coloured blocks above the keys. These make contact with circuitry inside the instrument and form a rudimentary sequencer. Check out the video below and you’ll see that placing the coloured blocks, each of which represents a different note of the scale, in different orders changes the melody played back.

Muson Synthesizer

What’s more, you can change the tempo and the pitch (to some degree) using the two sliders to left and right of the keyboard. We presume there’s at least two note polyphony as well, as it’s possible to play the keys while a predefined sequence plays back.

We get a strange sensation of being stuck in some late ’70s/early ’80s video game – probably of the space invaders ilk – and that’s no surprise given that it was created in 1978 by Mego Corp. Apparently it was even released in the UK, though I certainly don’t remember it.

What do you think?

1956 Blonde Cable-Nelson spinet piano [eBay]

A fantastic acoustic upright piano from the mid-1950s, this Cable-Nelson spinet piano is beautiful and available via this auction.

This is a beautiful piano that still looks and sounds great after 56 years! It belonged to my mother and she gave it to me a few years ago. We’re making a big move and I have to part with it.
It has received regular maintenance and tuning (my piano tuner will vouch for this!) and overall has no major issues.

Cable-Nelson was a name so well established that it was to become the first rank of the piano industry on the strength of the excellence of its product. You can read more about Cable-Nelson pianos here: http://www.bluebookofpianos.com/agesc.htm#CABLE-NELSON

This beauty boasts a metal-supported key bed, metal-reinforced legs, an Equi-Balanced scale, and was made from rich, blonde wood.

The only known flaws on this gorgeous piece are the following:

The pedals have lost most of their leather covering over the years. What remains is a brass metal pedal.

There is a water stain on the right top and a few along the underside of the lid.

There are some chips in the wood at the bottom of the piano from moving. Nothing very noticeable and certainly does not affect the overall appearance or sound.

Safety pads left some adhesive on the corners of the seat. This can be removed gently.

One or two of the keys are chipped. This nicks are small and do not affect overall appearance or playability.

Panasonic R-1088 AM Portable Radio / Mini Organ [Vintage]

We love digging up cool/bizarre little instruments and the Panasonic R-1088 is just such a find.

Sorry, Panasonic? Since when did they make musical instruments? Well, they may not be in the same league as Yamaha, Roland or Korg, but that doesn’t mean they can’t produce a product you only now realised you really wanted.

An AM radio and mini organ combined. Complete with the ability to mix the sound between the two.

You have to admit, for 1974 (almost four decades ago) this is a pretty cool little object. Though it’s notoriously difficult to get the exact specifications for this, it’s fairly obvious this is a very simple device.

There’s the AM radio, tuneable using the dial on the right hand side. There’s the slider on the left that balances the mix between organ sound and the radio. Then there’s a single “organ” sound emanating from the device whenever a key is pressed.

There’s a single speaker output. Probably no other outputs and presumably it simply runs off batteries. This video demos what it sounds like:

We’re not sure if this little beauty ever officially made it outside its home country of Japan. What do you reckon? I wonder if there’s any circuit-bending opportunities here?

Toy Piano H Jean Diestelhorst sheet music 1960 [eBay]

If you liked our ten toy pianos and want something in print to match the theme, check out this auction for the Toy Piano by H Jean Diestelhorst circa 1960.

It’s only four pages long but is a genuine piece of ’60s music. It’s published by Shattinger Publications Inc.

Toy Piano by H Jean Diestelhorst sheet music 1960 for the Piano

EMS VCS3 [Vintage]

ECS VCS3

Overview

One of the very first synths created, in the late 1960s, by England-based Electronic Music Studios.

The highly portable modular synth featured a three octave keyboard, monophonic sound, noise generator, two input amps, one ring mod, one voltage controlled low-pass filter and spring reverb unit, one trapezoid envelope generator, joystick controller, and two stereo output amps.

Artists to have used these synths include Brian Eno, Pink Floyd, Stereolab, Yes, Aphex Twins, Tangerine Dream, Jean-Michel Jarre, Astral Projection, Depeche Mode, The Who and Recoil.

Specifications

Company: Electronic Music Studios (EMS)
Year First Produced: 1969
Produced Until: 1994
Polyphony: Monophonic
Oscillators: 3 VCOs (subtractive/FM analog synthesis)
LFO: Yes
Filter: Low Pass VCF
VCA: Trapezoid waveshape Envelope generator
Keyboard: No
Memory: No
Control: CV/Gate

Links

• Vintage Synth Explorer
• EMS VCS 3 @ Wikipedia
• Synthtopia
• EMS VCS3 Videos @ YouTube
• Electronic Music Studios Home Page
• EMS Synth Range 1969-1979 @ EMS Home Page

EML ElectroComp 200 [Vintage]

EML ElectroComp 200

Overview

One of the very first synths created, in the late 1960s, by Electronic Music Laboratories. Similar to Moog and ARP synths, the company designed for the educational market.

The ElectroComp 200 included a number of features including stereophonic sound, a Wave Shaper. It has a great front panel and over 60 patch points. It can be used with other analog synths with the correct type of CV/Gate connections.

Specifications

Company: ElectroComp Labs (EML)
Year First Produced: 1969
Produced Until: 1980
Polyphony: Monophonic
Oscillators: 2 VCOs (sine/triangle/pulse/noise)
LFO: Yes
Filter: Low Pass, High Pass, 2 Ring Mods
VCA: ADS envelope generator
Keyboard: No
Memory: No
Control: CV/Gate

Links

• Synth Museum
• Vintage Synth Explorer
• 1973 Sales Booklet for EML ELECTROCOMP 200 Synthesizer @ Matrixsynth
• ELECTROCOMP EML-200 For Sale
• EML ElectroComp 200 Images @ PhotoBucket
• ElectroComp 200 YouTube Videos
• EML ElectroComp 200 @ Synthfind
• Electronic Music Laboratories Wikipedia entry

Yamaha MP-1 (1982) First and only keyboard with score plotter? [Vintage]

I was delving through some old keyboard manuals posted online and came across the Yamaha MP-1 manual from the early ’80s. This is not to be confused with the Yamaha MP1 upright piano. There’s a big difference!

Remember electronics manuals from that decade? They weren’t the slick affairs you get now. This one in particular was printed in four columns (English, German, French and Italian). I’m not sure if someone at Yamaha scanned it in or if some of the pages were always printed wonky…

Anyway, what first caught my eye was the huge roll of ticker-tape coming out of the right hand side of the keyboard, pictured on the front cover. Is this some kind of till or adding machine as well?

I must admit, it didn’t cross my mind (until I read the second opening paragraph) that it was a music score printer. To be more accurate, it’s a music score plotter. If I hadn’t seen the photos and heard people testify to its existence (and operability) I’d almost have thought it was an April Fool joke.

Printers may have been fairly rudimentary in the early ’80s, but you can forget a mini dot matrix or daisywheel printer (can you imagine?) – this one you had to fit your own biro in!

Yamaha must have been pretty proud of their MP-1, though, because they described it as “an epoch-making keyboard instrument”. I think Yamaha may have been thinking too much, for that “moment in time chosen as the origin of a particular era” never (as far as I know) saw any other keyboards with built in score plotters/printers emerge. Maybe that’s because there wasn’t the demand, until such a time as (by the early ’90s) you could connect keyboards up to a personal computer and then print out music scores.

Way before the days of MIDI, you had to “think of a tune you’d like to play”, set a rhythm going, and then play along to it. This would help the keyboard work out what notes you were playing and of what duration. You could also use the one-finger chord accompaniment to print out left hand chords and right hand melody.

Using the “flat” and “sharp” buttons you could set the printer to draw out a different key signature. However, you could only have three flats or sharps at once, so presumably the likes of F sharp major were out.

Let’s take a look at all those juicy specifications:

Keyboard: 44 keys (F1 – C5)
Music Printer: Micrographic printer
Melody Memory
Orchestra Section: 10 voices
Rhythm Section: 10 rhythms
Auto accompaniment
Speaker: 7.7cm (3″)
Amp: 1.4W

Not even a mention of polyphony, though I reckon it can’t have been much more than 8 simultaneous voices.

If you want to read a lot more about the MP-1:

• Warranty Void: Yamaha MP-1

Download the manual (two parts):

• Yamaha PortaSound MP-1 (Part 1)
• Yamaha PortaSound MP-1 (Part 2)

Moog intros Minimoog Voyager OS

Moog introduces the Minimoog Voyager OS, featuring the analog sound engine of the Voyager, but without the digital controls.

Moog says that it’s the perfect solution for players looking for a roadworthy replacement for their Minimoog Model D, as a full-featured centrepiece for a modular synth rig, or for those craving direct, hands-on connection to their creativity.

[Read more]

Fancy a vintage Quintron Drum Buddy analog synth drum machine?

Stumbled across from a series of links, I’ll be honest that I’m not sure what I’d do with this, but it looks amazing. It’s a truly unique object, and it’s up for auction on eBay — current bid is US$5,000 so you need to be fairly serious.

What does it do? Well, let the seller explain (because I sure can’t):

“Up for auction is a brand new Quintronics DRUM BUDDY, a one of a kind light activated analog synthesizer / rhythm machine hand crafted by New Orleans musician and inventor Quintron. The basic principal of operation is that there are cadmium sulfide light sensors hidden inside the colored tubes around the rotating black can and as the light holes pass them by, the various oscillator sounds are charged, filtered, bleeped and blooped in a variety of different ways.

Each of the 4 oscillators is represented by a different color and each has been designed to complete a total rhythm kit, much the same way that the different elements of an acoustic trap set go together. The Blue pipe is the “kick drumâ€?, the red is the “snare drumâ€?, and the green is the “organ oscillatorâ€?. This green oscillator is raw VCO melodic organ tone controlled by “generalâ€? and “fineâ€? tuning knobs for playing songs in a whole new way – no chromatic scales on this instrument. The yellow is the “spaceâ€? or “scratchâ€? oscillator which is plain un-effected, eerie sine wave tone which increases and decreases directly depending on the amount of light that is shed upon it.

[Read more]

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