Hillwood Blue Comets 73

flickr set by transanalog (click for more including shots of the inside)

"WWW.TRANSANALOG.COM This is one of the rarest and most unique vintage synthesizers I own. It's one of those rare finds in that it broke back when it was new then put in storage for 30 years until it finally changed hands. it is in excellent condition, not only for it's age but also considering how awful Hillwood products were made. The Blue Comets is a single oscillator monosynth with a 12db filter. The osc has both sawtooth and square wave that can be selected individually or combined with the four rocker switches simply labeled "Wave 1", "Wave 2", "Wave 3" or "Wave 4". It can be modified with 7 presets assignable with rocker tabs labeled "Effect 1", "Effect 2", etc. There are no descriptions to the tabs as to what they actually sound like. Luckily there is a tab labeled "Control" that allow you to tweak the sounds with the control panel to the left of the keyboard. Not that any of this helps. This synth sounds aweful. The keyboard tracking is so bad that Hillwood included a knob labeled "Slope" so you can almost keep the keyboard in tune as you play. The filter only has decay, and the AR VCA is very limited. But it does have some charm. Select all four "Wave" tabs and it will randomly distort. Add in noise and "Growl" and it can get downright nasty.

The circuitry of the synth is definitely amusing! The circuit boards look hand made and the components look cheap, even by 1970 Japan standards. Each board is held by only two screws so I can't imagine any of these staying functional or in tune very long in a gigging environment. Still, if you want something very unique for ambient lo-fi bleeps and bloops, you can't go wrong with one of these."