Gibson Clavioline France Selmer ondioline synthesizer

via this auction

"1950's Made in France Clavioline. I suspect this was a Gibson model since the 6 pin plug on it matches the Gibson schematic. These were made under license by many companies in many countries. Probably most famous for that 'Telstar' lead sound, also used on the Beatles 'Baby you're a rich man' (that weird Indian sounding oboe sound) and in modified form on 'Runaway'. I don't know that anyone is using one of these today in music outside of tribute/cover bands. Who knows, one of these may end up on an upcoming Daft Punk or Air record.

Physical condition: paint has lots of little scratches and dings as can be seen in the pictures but nothing is broken, all keys are in good shape -no cracks -just some scratches that will polish out, all toggles are in good shape and toggle, volume lever is present and its guts look clean, tuning knobs on either side are present and turn easily and all the hardware holding it together looks like the original hand made French Cad or Nick plated stuff. All in all a nice unit to restore or just clean up and use.

Functional condition: All the cloth bound wiring looks to be original without any cut wires. All capacitors are the original 'Tiny Chief' items and will likely require replacement. All tubes are in good shape -though untested. All the keys feel like they're doing what their supposed to. As far as using this, these were designed to be mated to an amplifier that provided power. I don't have the amp. I was going to build a break-out box that powered the unit, conditioned the signal coming out, had a regular volume pot and a 1/4" instrument jack. Not a big job for a competent DIY tube electronics type.

Box will be 26" x 18" x 8" and weight about 18 pounds."

Pics of the inside at the auction and below.