psychonaut wrote:

tubesNtweed wrote:

Anyone ever play a Teisco organ? There's one for sale on my local craigslist for $400 obo (been on there for awhile, I wouldn't pay 400) and it's Teisco model "G" 61 key portable with the black bass keys, no expression pedal. I want to start learning 60s organ stuff and this looks pretty cool, but I wonder if it will sound too cheesy? The demos on youtube sound cool but that's youtube, everything sounds different in person. Just want to do some Doors, Animals, garage rock, and get a decent sound that isn't like a Toys R Us keyboard.

All combo organs sound cheesey to one degree or another. That's part of their charm. If you want the Doors or Animals sound, that's a Vox Continental, which I think is one of the best sounding combo organs. Teisco made a really good sounding Farfisa Duo knock-off called Nomad, but that was one of their high-end models, I don't know about the one you mention. Teisco is one of those companies that made really good quality high-end stuf and a lot of cheap crap as well, so you have to be careful - but generally Teisco's have a great sounding vibrato. You can hear Teisco organs on some Japanese Eleki stuff. The main problem with combo organs is that you have to live near a repair person that knows how to fix them because most repair guys don't have a clue.

Yea I've owned cheap Teisco guitars, and I know they have better ones but I never tried their organs since I'm not a keyboard player but am very interested in learning it. I guess it wouldn't hurt to just try the thing out, this might be a cool piece of history that could get close enough for now without having to buy a Vox. But I have heard that the old combo organs are a PITA to keep maintained. Looks cool as heck though! Any idea of what it's worth? He's asking $400 but that's from a month ago, his ad says it all works.

Here's a pic of it:

It's luck of the draw really. I've never seen a fully working Farfisa, as a matter of fact, the old joke goes: "Farfisa means broken in Italian". My Vox Super Continental has never given me a problem, but I've heard horror stories. Most combo organs are actually pretty simple electronically, yet somehow seem to baffle a lot of repair guys. I love combo organs, even the cheesiest sounding ones have some redeeming quality to them. I don't think $400 for a fully working one is too bad. You don't come across these every day, and they're not making anymore of 'em. Play it and see.
Here's an old flyer featuring the model G:

https://www.facebook.com/coffindagger
http://coffindaggers.com/
http://thecoffindaggers.bandcamp.com

I found a little Wurlitzer P-100 a a fleamkt last summer. 10 bucks. Cleaned the contacts and away she went! The thing is vintage 1982 so it is digital, but cheeze is in the vibe. has built in drum gizmo with disco beat.
Label has Honner listed on it and stated it was made in Japan.

Check the free section on craigslist. I have found a number of old tube type organs, Hammond M3, Baldwin, Thomas with Leslie speaker for just picking them up and hauling them away.

http://www.reverbnation.com/thegreasemonkeyz

Schematics are cheaper than the organ, but if you have the organ, you should throw down for the schematics! Good way to learn Italian if you are a farfisa aficianado

If you look inside a Farfisa, they are a complete mess and total rats nest,

Yep--certainly true about the early "compact" models; my old repair guy at Winston electronics in St. Louis called Farfisa innards "The grey wire lasagna". Later FAST and VIP models took a note from Vox, GEM, and the rest, and laid out their innards in a much more accessible fashion.

--Crispy

I looked for quite a while for a decent used analog synth without success (I'm cheap).

Found a Alesis Micron on cl and scored it for about $90 cash. It's advertised as a compact synth with the ION analog-modeling sound engine. I'm pretty impressed by it's overall capabilities and it's way smarter than me so I have no doubt that I'm under-utilizing it.

It has some really neato pre-sets imho. It also does 60s analog cheesy pretty good. It does feel a bit cheap though and doesn't appear to be built to last?

Disclaimer - I'm not a keyboard / synth player. Basically a guitar player that knows just enough to make some crazy sounds with a synth. Crazy sound is good though right...??

Alesis Micron

METEOR IV on reverbnation

Nice to see all the interest in keys here. Yes! Crazy Sound is good, been doing it on synths for 40 years and have no intention of stopping now. Much like a good teacher a good tech is hard to find, I'm still looking. As noted if your not a purist it's not hard to generate that "cheesy" sound on old and cheap keyboards as "cheese is where you find it".

Now there's this for $100Fender contempo organ

No stand though. Has a gazillion switches

Last edited: Jan 22, 2013 23:25:36

Get the Teisco. Better than Vox or Farfisa. SOunds as 'good', costs less and built better. So says my local used gear dealer. psychonaut wrote:

tubesNtweed wrote:

Anyone ever play a Teisco organ? There's one for sale on my local craigslist for $400 obo (been on there for awhile, I wouldn't pay 400) and it's Teisco model "G" 61 key portable with the black bass keys, no expression pedal. I want to start learning 60s organ stuff and this looks pretty cool, but I wonder if it will sound too cheesy? The demos on youtube sound cool but that's youtube, everything sounds different in person. Just want to do some Doors, Animals, garage rock, and get a decent sound that isn't like a Toys R Us keyboard.

All combo organs sound cheesey to one degree or another. That's part of their charm. If you want the Doors or Animals sound, that's a Vox Continental, which I think is one of the best sounding combo organs. Teisco made a really good sounding Farfisa Duo knock-off called Nomad, but that was one of their high-end models, I don't know about the one you mention. Teisco is one of those companies that made really good quality high-end stuf and a lot of cheap crap as well, so you have to be careful - but generally Teisco's have a great sounding vibrato. You can hear Teisco organs on some Japanese Eleki stuff. The main problem with combo organs is that you have to live near a repair person that knows how to fix them because most repair guys don't have a clue.

Squink Out!

psychonaut wrote:

If you want the Doors or Animals sound, that's a Vox Continental

Ray started out with the Continental for the first two albums. By the third he was using a Gibson G-101, claiming the Vox had key breakage issues.

The Gibson G-101 was made for Gibson by the Lowrey organ company.

It appears that The Door's organ tone shifted back and forth between brands hence it is important to take note of this inconsistency.

If you want to use synths, it would be a good idea to take a crash course in synthesis. Learn what oscillators are, what an ADSR and envelopes mean and what wave forms do as well as function of an LFO.

This way no matter if you use an analog or soft synths, you will have a grounded approach to make best use out of the instrument and won't be stuck with relying on presets.

An interesting cheap analog synth source is the Yamaha TX81Z. It was used on many hits in the 80's.

I think it natural to want to delve into synths with instrumentals as we were indoctrinated from the get-go with songs like Telstar using the Clavioline.

Above: Ray Manzarek playing a Gibson G-101 made by Lowrey

Yamaha TX81Z midi module. 1980's hit synth source.

The Tornados playing Telstar with a Clavioline

Gibson G-101

Below: Manzarek playing a Gibson G-101

Last edited: Apr 03, 2018 07:28:51