Don't know where else to post this...sorry....

[Eric Barbour]

I tried putting it on rec.music.marketplace and a couple
other newsgroups, and got absolutely NO response. Is anyone
the slightest bit interested?

For Sale:

Hammond Solovox. Complete, very good condition, known to
be working as of last year. Includes the main electronics
box (a large, flat curved cabinet that is intended to sit flat
against a wall--it contains 14 tubes and the unit's speaker)
plus the keyboard with attachment cables.

Made in 1940.

This keyboard has very small keys and is designed to
attach under a piano keyboard--it is NOT meant to be
used as a standalone instrument.

This whole package is very heavy (I estimate 60+ pounds)
and may have to be shipped by truck, unless you come to 
the SF Bay area to pick it up.

Is $250 a reasonable price for one of the world's first
monophonic electronic keyboards? This will increase a lot
if shipping is required.
-------------- next part --------------
>From majortom at muc.deSat Apr 15 13:28:10 1995
Date: Sat, 15 Apr 1995 19:12:56 +0200
From: mw <majortom at muc.de>
To: analogue at hyperreal.com
Subject: Re: Baby You're a Rich Man

Don Tillman <don at till.com> writes:
>Okay historians, I got one for you...

>Lewisohn (in _The Beatles Recording Sessions_) says that it's Lennon
>playing a "Clavioline", but I've never heard of such a beast.

In the book "Synthesizer von Gestern Vol. II" it says (translated):


The Clavioline was designed in the forties by the frenchman M. Constant 
Martin. Improvements were added in the sixties by Rene Seybold and Harald 
Bode. It is very simular to Laurens Hammonds's Solovox which also appeared in 
the forties.

The Solovox is a monophonic instrument with a Tube oscillator as sound source. 
The Tube oscillator has a frequency band of one octave. Higher and lower 
octaves were derived via (Tube-) frequency deviders. On the front of the 
instrument there were controls for osc. range, attack time and timbre.

The Clavioline - like the Solovox - consisted of two units: the keyboard with 
the actual sound producing unit and controls and a box with amplifier and 
speaker. The keyboard unit had 18 switches for controlling timbre, octave 
range and percussion plus two pots for vibrato speed and intensity. Later 
models had a frequency shifter designed by Bode.  The timbre was varied with 
HPF + LPF.

The Clavioline made brass and string sounds which were considered very 
natural at the time and it can do some interesting sawtooth-like sounds as 
well.

In 1965 it reappeared manufacutered by a company called "Jorgensen".


Hope that helps.

(mw)

>From atomic at netcom.comSat Apr 15 13:29:02 1995
Date: Sat, 15 Apr 1995 10:42:43 -0700 (PDT)
From: atomic city <atomic at netcom.com>
To: mw <majortom at muc.de>
Cc: analogue at hyperreal.com
Subject: Re: Baby You're a Rich Man

mw writes--
>
>The Solovox is a monophonic instrument with a Tube oscillator as sound source.
>The Tube oscillator has a frequency band of one octave. Higher and lower 
>octaves were derived via (Tube-) frequency deviders. On the front of the 
>instrument there were controls for osc. range, attack time and timbre.

What was left out here was the marvelous design of the UI; the Solovox was
literally that, a solo voice to do leads over organ comping. It was designed
to bolt under the lowest manual of a Hammond organ and project toward the
player as an extra manual. The keys were short and slightly narrow, had a
two-to-three-octave range (can't remember), and the relevant controls were
huge, easy to use switches that were mounted UNDER the keys and pressed with
the thumbs, i.e. thumb pistons. I found a Solovox in the basement of the
husband of one of my wife's fellow _Santa Barbara_ aficionados. The guy was
a HAM radio and homebuilt electronics nut, and had found it in a junk yard.
He gave it to me for a very low price, and after contemplating whether I had
the money or resources to fix it and decidin I didn't, I sold it to Eirikur
Hallgrimsson for what I paid for it. I wonder if he ever got it up and running?
The keyboard connected to the guts/amp/speaker box via a long multipin cable
that was rotted away; getting it replaced would be a real chore.

mike
-- 
Dave Olson and Chris Sattinger on mixer preamp overload:
DO: do those little red lights mean that satan is coming to fry my channels? 
CS: That depends what drove you to distort your sound in the first place.  :)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
mike metlay *  atomic city  * p. o. box 81175 * pittsburgh, pa 15217-0675 usa
atomic at netcom.com   *   atomic-city at netcom.com   *  http://pd.net/atomic-city