via this auction
"Up for sale, a 1974 Moog/Cordovox "White Elephant" CDX-0652 vintage dual manual synth/combo organ, fully serviced and optimally functional. A truly one-of-a-kind circuit, the White Elephant is not only a very rare, sonically complex behemoth, it's also a circuit that very few techs will tackle. Thankfully we've wrangled the beast, and to the tune of $1500+ worth of thorough servicing, this Elephant delivers the goods.
A joint venture between Moog and Corodovox, the Moog Satellite synthesizer was licensed by Thomas Organ for a particularly hefty price tag, and Thomas designed a circuit that integrated Moog's synth technology with traditional combo organ features, offered via the Cordovox brand as the CDX-0652. The keyboard was produced in Italy by EME, the same factory responsible for most of Vox's Italian combo organs including the Jaguar and Continental.
The synthesizer voices play only on the upper manual, while the organ voices play on both, with organ and synth sections simultaneously available on the upper manual. The CDX-0652 also includes a batch of 9 preset synthesizer voices which don't appear on a Moog Satellite. The sonic options available are vast, with banks of switches, buttons, and sliders to shape both the combo organ and Moog circuitry. The Moog bass signal can also be accessed on the lower manual and blended with the organ, and the combo organ even has a full percussion bank.
Servicing included dozens of new caps, diodes and transistors, with two new 3080 op amps, a host of ARP2600 slider caps, and a fully rebuilt power supply. All functions work as intended, yet given the age and complexity of the organ, here are a few minor yet important caveats:
- There is a slight pop when pressing the bass keys when the percussion circuit is running
- The Reed function has a quiet, high pitch drone that follows the volume, consistent with the normal operation of this feature
- The pushbutton presets on the Satellite generate some noise when pressed, but are quite thereafter
- All of the faders have been cleaned, yet some can still be scratchy at the top and bottom of their travel
The white fiberglass enclosure would be right at home on the bridge of Kirk's Enterprise, and would be suitably space aged in any stage or studio environment. There is minor scuffing on the edges of the enclosure, but no serious wear of any kind. Key caps are bright white and level, and the black silkscreen text is bold and clean on all metal control plates."
Strange that the seven sliders associated with the Satellite have ARP 2600 knobs!
ReplyDeleteSo we've got a Bob Moog design, licensed to Thomas Organ, who sub-licensed it to Cordovox and used ARP slider knobs. That's rich..
Of course it's far more likely that the 2600 knobs were 'donated' at some time of this Cordovox's life. Which fits with the White Elephant theme!
The original Satellite-Minitmoog knobs are notorious for splitting.