Jennings Univox - 50's Valve monophonic 'synthesizer'

via this auction

"This instrument was pretty much the first electronic venture for Tom Jennings who later went on to create Vox amplifiers AC15, AC30 etc. The Univox was used by the Beatles during their early Cavern days in Liverpool and can be heard on Telstar by the Tornados.

It's all valve, featuring a quartet of 12X7's for tone generation. Reed switches apply 'additive' filters, and octave effects. Separate power amp and speaker are housed in the case & amplification is via a 6L6. The keyboard packs away into the amplifier case, and the whole lot is portable as a single unit.

This example includes the rather hard to find knee volume lever.
It's in full working order with the exception of the vibrato which I just cannot fathom! Shouldn't pose a particular problem for a proper technician.
Don't expect it to play in tune, and be prepared for warm-up wailing!

The instrument is over 60 years old and is in pretty good cosmetic condition considering.

There's a lot of information about the Jennings Univox on with web, for example:
http://www.melbournemusiccentre.com.au/articles/univox.html"

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amPlug + monotribe X3 - NOBUSHI / BakaOscillator

Published on Nov 17, 2012 by BakaOscillator

"Composed by BakaOscillator
Use, KORG monotribe X3, VOX amplug (Bass,Lead,Night Train)

とにかく歪ませたかったのです。"

monotribes on eBay

RMI Electra Piano & Vox Super Continental

via Space Oddity Vintage Furniture Gallery Seattle where these are currently for sale. You might remember Space Oddity from this previous post on a CONN Electric Band.

VOX Apache Series Guitar with Built in Rhythm Drum Machine

【速報・2011楽器フェア】VOX「APACHEシリーズ」
Googlish: "Bulletin 2011 - Musical Instruments - Fair VOX 'APACHE Series'"

YouTube Uploaded by musicmasterjp on Nov 3, 2011

"2年に一度の楽器の祭典「2011楽器フェア」がパシフィコ横浜で開催中だ（11月3日～6日）。ここでは、特別速報として会場の各ブースの模様をお届けしていこう！（コ­ルグ編）"

Googlish: "Musical celebration of the biennial "Music Fair 2011" being held at Pacifico Yokohama's (November 3 - 6). Here, let it deliver a preliminary design for special venue booths! (Co - ed Rugu)"

ULTRA RARE! VOX JENNINGS UNIVOX 1954 VALVE SYNTH/ORGAN

via this auction

"VOX JENNINGS UNIVOX J-7 VALVE SYNTHESIZER, MADE BY THE JENNINGS ORGAN COMPANY IN WORKING CONDITION! BUILT IN 1954! THE FORE RUNNER TO TOM JENNINGS FAMOUS VOX CONTINENTAL AND JAGUAR COMBO ORGAN LINES! BUILT IN KENT ENGLAND, SERIAL NUMBER 669! WOODEN KEYS, (12) ROCKER TAB CONTROLLERS, VOLUME CONTROL, 3 POSITION VIBRATO CONTROLLER, INCLUDING OFF, (3) POSITION OCTAVE TRANSPOSE CONTOLLER, AND, 6 WATT VOX AMPLIFIER! VOLTAGE SWITCH FOR DIFFERENT COUNTRIES, WE HAVE ADAPTED TO USA CURRENT WITH 3-PRONG POWER SWITCH. KEYBOARD CAN BE ATTACHED TO UNDERSIDE OF A PIANO OR ORGAN, AND USED AS A MONO SOLO VOICE! OF COURSE, IT IS A VERY RARE, A COLLECTOR'S HISTORIC KEYBOARD INSTRUMENT, IT IS COMPLETE, AND IS IN REALLY GOOD COSMETIC CONDITION CONSIDERING ITS AGE, AND OF COURSE, IT SOUNDS ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL!! IT NEEDS TLC, AS IT IS A VINTAGE, TUBE DRIVEN INSTRUMENT. THE TONALITY IS AKIN TO THE HUMAN VOICE, AND IT MADE THE 60'S INSTRUMENTAL GROUP, "THE TORNADOS" VERY FAMOUS INDEED, AS THE SOLO SYNTH INSTRUMENTAL VOICE THAT DROVE THE MONSTER 60'S HIT: "TELSTAR" INTO INTERNATIONAL ORBIT! THE CROCKADILE SKIN TOLEX IS IN GOOD CONDITION, A BIT OF SCUFFING AT SOME CORNERS. BRASS LOCKS AND INTACT HANDLE. VOX HISTORIANS AND COLLECTORS WILL BE VERY INTERESTED IN THIS IMPORTANT HISTORICAL FIND. I IMPORTED THIS SPECIMEN FROM ENGLAND MANY YEARS AGO, AND REGRETFULLY MUST SELL IT NOW. THANKS, PAUL"

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KORG/KID 2011 W.NAMM SHOW NEW PRODUCTS DIGEST MOVIE

YouTube via KORGINC | January 27, 2011 |

"2011年のWinter NAMM SHOWにて発表されたKORG/KID取り扱い新製品を一挙ご紹介。

PRS
・SE TRERO (NEW COLOR)
・SE Paul Allender (NEW COLOR)
・SE 245
・SE Tim Mahoney
・McCarty 58
・DC3
・ME Quatro
・JA-15
・NF3
・SC58

aguilar
・SL Series
・TONE HAMMER500

nord
・nord stage2

VOX
・Dynamic Looper
・NightTrain50/V212NT
・TB35C1/C2
・AC30C2-RD
・SDC-22
・APACHE(参考出品)

KORG
・KRONOS
・nanoKEY2/nanoPAD2/nanoKONTROL2
・KAOSS PAD QUAD
・WAVEDRUM ORIENTAL
・PANDORA mini

各製品の詳細な情報はホームページをご覧下さい。
■ KORG：http://www.korg.co.jp/
■ VOX：http://www.voxamps.jp/"

Inside a GEM

via this auction

Anyone know what model this is and what sounds it can produce? The auction claims it's modeled on the VOX Jaguar along with "Synth has a 1/4 inch output as well as a 1/4 Bass Output."

Update via Dave: "It's not a synthesizer - it is just a combo organ. There are 12 separate oscillators and then a bunch of divide down circuitry. In the pic you can see there are 12 cards in a row. The silver can at the back of each card is a tunable inductor, which allows each note in the top octave to be tuned."

Update via mewrth in the comments: "This is a GEM model P. It has identical electronics to a Vox Jaguar V304, also made by GEM :)"

1967 Vox Percussion King - Kraftwerk

via this auction
"Up for auction one very rare and fully functioning Vox Percussion King. Famed to be one of the drum machines Kraftwerk used on Autobahn!! These do not come up often. Great for a collector, but works great too. Drums are triggered using buttons or foot pedals (included, permanently attached), and the drums can be assigned to upbeat/downbeat. This is a very unique setup for a drum box, but heck it was 1967. The available drum sounds are crash cymbal, brush cymbal, bass drum, snare drum, drum roll, bongo I, bongo II, block, clave, and castanet. 1/4" audio output and volume and tone controls."

Rare Vintage Vox JMI GEM String Thing Synthesizer Piano

via this auction

"Controls:

Sliders: Tune, Vib. Intens. Vib. Speed, Piano, Bass, Harpsichord
Switches: Power, Piano/Bass"

Vox Percussion King - RARE analog drum machine 1967

via this auction

"very rare and fully functioning Vox Percussion King. Famed to be one of the drum machines kraftwerk used on autobahn these do not come up often. great for a collector, but works great too!

Drums are triggered using buttons, can be assigned to upbeat/downbeat. very unique setup for a drum box, but heck it was 1967. available drum sounds are crash cymbal, brush cymbal, bass drum, snare drum, drum roll, bongo I, bongo II, block, clave, and castanet. 1/4" audio output and volume and tone controls."

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Keytar Wank Pt 1

YouTube via ThePurityControl
"A bit of Saturday afternoon messing around with the Roland AX Synth. Sound is run through a Vox tube overdrive for added bite and Lexicon MX300 for reverb."

Cantos

flickr set by jeff pineau
(click for more)

shots of the Cantos synth museum

prior posts here

Note the EMS Synthi 100

Update via pineau in the comments: "Pictures taken by Stephanie D'Entremont."

Vox Continental V302E

flickr set by Vintage Vibe
(click for more)

"Vintage Vox Organs in our shop for repair and restoration.
www.vintagevibe.com"

inside a Vox Continental

Ibanez AD80 repair. Documenting a ghost in the machine.

YouTube via sounddoctorin. vox continental
"Bob Weigel of Sound Doctorin' ( http://www.sounddoctorin.com ) shows some of the interesting effects attainable from a classic digital delay unit, the AD80 by Ibanez, during a repair attempt. To clarify what I'm saying about the circuitry in the video, this pedal uses two FET's as alternating switches for the bypass or effect signals. A flip flop circuit turns on one of them at a time and toggles of course when the switch is depressed. I've never seen my breath have quite so much conductivity. I must be eating metal flakes in my diet. Because there are 1M resistors coming from the flip flop voltages (which were quite steady at about 10V on the FET that is supposed to be turned on during the cutting out effect you witness in the video) and attaching to .047uF filter capacitors (grounded on the other side) and to the cathode of a diode, the anode of which attaches to the gate of the FET switch. The voltage at the point where the filter cap is is what was collapsing to a few volts. Even at 8.some volts though there is enough current drain from the gate to shut off the FET switch. But I saw the voltage fall to just a volt or two when I was breathing on it. Well the clear cote (a super low conductive paint basically) seems to have done the job at protecting it from ...conductive air :-). If anyone has studied more into this effect let me know."

The Animals - House of the Rising Sun (1964)

YouTube via magusmagic. Vox Continental.
"The Animals - House of the Rising Sun (1964)
So gifted and ahead of the times! In my humble opinion, Newcastle's Animals circa 1964 were vastly superior to their chart contemporaries, the Beatles and the Stones. The Beatles were loveable moptops then, and the Stones were still a few years away from their songwriting peak, but The Animals were raw, gritty and, in Eric Burdon, they had one of the all-time great blues/rock voices.

The Animals' take on "House of the Rising Sun" sounded wholly new, if you weren't there in 1964 it's hard to imagine today how big a deal this new and gritty sound was, "House of the Rising Sun", was dark, brooding and very, very cool, it had an edge that was lacking from the other Brit-Beat groups and it broke new ground. American music critic and writer Dave Marsh described it as: "the first folk-rock hit," sounding "as if they'd connected the ancient tune to a live wire," while writer Ralph McLean of the BBC agreed that: "it was arguably the first folk rock tune," calling it "a revolutionary single" after which "the face of modern music was changed forever."

Viva The Animals for the fantastic sound they had!

Eric Burdon - vocals
Alan Price - keyboards
Hilton Valentine - guitar
Chas Chandler - bass
John Steel - drums"
Just put this one up on Sparkle Train and figured the Vox justified a post here. The Vox is the lead.

No synths in the following but related:
The Ventures Live 1966 4/4

YouTube via nokie0064
"Wipe Out
House of The Rising Sun
Telstar"

Paul's Farfisa keyboards and Vox organ project machines

YouTube via sounddoctorin
"We took a video of the Farfisa stuff that Paul Haugen and I loaded into storage from Tucson. The store down there had accumulated quite a bit of stuff over the years. Many of these machines have great parts and some will be restored probably. Let us know if you are interested and check http://sounddoctorin.com as always for information on repairing synthesizers and a host of great links."

Paul's Vox organ project machines

"And here we are on the same windy day laying out all the Vox organs that came from our Tucson trip. Some of these will be restored we hope by yours truly. Some are obviously not going to be more than parts machines but quite a layout of rare stuff in one place. http://sounddoctorin.com as always for a lot of help on repairing synthesizers in the global synth page but also a tour of my own studio and some songs of mine, as well as some items I have fixed up for new owners. Enjoy."

Vox | Continental / Jaguar / Corinthian / 300 / Jennings J70

YouTube via serenities. via kidtesla.
"Finally a free day (Queensday) and some time too make a (very) short impression about the differences of sound in the Vox organ family.

Unfortunately the Super Continental couldn't be part of the video, it's still on the working table.

Ofcourse there is so much to show / hear in the differences, the effects, the individual drawbar changes, the presets, percussions, vibrato, reverb, bass, sustain etc. But this is to much to put in a video of max. 10 min.

I might do some documentary thing in the future that will contain much more information. In meanwhile, enjoy these sounds!" Combo Organ

The Blodwyn P. Teabag Guide to Combo Organs

YouTube via cordeliarecords. via Analog Suicide where you'll find a write-up.
"A guide to combo organs with Blodwyn P. Teabag of The Thurston Lava Tube."
"Blodwyn Teabag Thurston Lava Tube combo organ hammond vox continental farfisa compact elka X-705 leicester surf instro "

The Official Organ Blue Book

Another great resource via Loscha.

"Heya Matrix;

[Update: scans moved here]
One of my proudest scans, ever. I bring you the Organ Blue Book from 1986. The "Update" was originally in the front of the book I had, but, I've put it into the back in Pt3, I felt the book had better flow. The update was sort of glued into the front, anyways.

Part One: 168 Pages; 12mb
Introduction, and everything up to, but not including, Hammond (ends in Gulbransen).
Used Organ Resale Values; Serves as a master index for the organs contained therein.

Part Two: 136 Pages 11mb
Opening page are some rough handwritten notes on a Hammond Timeline.
Starts with Hammond. Contains Leslie, ends with Technics.

Part Three: 150 pages; 9mb
Yamaha starts page 60. The EX1 and EX2 are listed. GX didn't rate a mention!
Starting Page 86 is the 'Valuation Guide for Used Organs'.

Page 120: The Update. This includes Lowery (some of which are Re-Badged JVC home keyboards).

This book is for "Serious Organs" Vox, do not rate a mention. Bontempi are in there, but, only their Spinet cabinet organs are in here. No cheap crappy combo organs. Farfisa misses out it's bravo and superbravo.

It's a good resource, but, looking through it is a bittersweet affair. The brands you love have all the pizzaz taken out of them. It's like that movie, The Straight Story. Sure, it's made by David Lynch, it has elements of his quirk sense of the absurd, but, it's still a Disney movie."

Baldwin Syntha Sound

images via this auction

"SYNTHA SOUND analog mono synth from the 1970s. I know BALDWIN made these but someone has put a VOX badge on the front. Hmmm? I don't know about a VOX version, but maybe? This one (last I heard) was not functioning. I don't know how much or how little - but not right. So understand and bid accordingly. This is fairly heavy but will be packed well. It has a nice sturdy wood outside, so it is strong. Some slider tips missing - see photos for details. These are great COOL synths very few people have ever seen!"

If anyone knows more about these, feel free to comment.

Update via an anonymous reader:
"The Baldwin Syntha Sound:
Yes, although limited in function, these are cool, and generally pretty good/unique sounding monosynths. Most definately Baldwin - the Vox badge on this particular unit was probably stuck on later on. I really don't think Vox had anything to do with these.
Baldwin's schematics for these units are dated April 1973. This is the model they called the portable syntha sound, and this version does seem to be quite rare. I have seen only two of these in person - one of which I own and another which was in my shop for repairs. They were purchased in two different parts of the country, yet had sequential serial numbers (very low). However, the same basic unit was included in some of their mid-70's home organ models and these are slightly more common.
The portable model SS has a built in 12 watt amp (common to many other Baldwin products), speakers, and a great sounding reverb. It has preset sections (Trumpet, Trombone, Saxophone, Cello)- labled "pre-set" and "Flutes" of various footages, and then also the synth section: which they labled: "spectrum shaper" - with 8', 16', and 32' octaves- producing square, pulse or sawtooth (either alone or in combo). Other functions include a noise generator, high, mid, and low pass filters (used either,alone, in pairs, or "all-pass") - the filter can feedback and squeal. There is portamento too.... Modulation, however, is a bit limited: vibrato "standard" or adjustable with "rate" and "extent" sliders (sine or repeat).
The two big chunks of wood on the control panel are unusual - they are temporary switches. One shuts off the tremelo (which feels counter-intuitive) and the other triggers the "spectrum shaper" CV (which is only slightly more useful). The thing that the owner of this unit should know, is that the slider pots are of pretty poor quality and are easily broken - and also, that they used two different versions of these - which mount differently, of course - and the earlier versions are hard to find - a partial 3rd unit was used to restore the two I have had here. -Hope that clears up some of your questions.

I forgot to mention that it has an external input jack which goes though the filter.
You might want to ad a link to this older post"