From: "Dave Bradley" <
daveb@...>
Oh, you Youngster!
:Vox was English originally, later owned by Thomas
:and others. Farfisa was (and is )Italian.
:Vox Continentals and Super Continentals had
:drawbars, Jaguars had tabs. All Farfisas had tabs.
Well, most Farfisas had tabs. The VIP 345 that I used had no tabs at all,
but three sets of drawbars. I think each set had 16' 8' 5 1/3' and 4'.
The three sets were flute (sine like) clarinet (saw like) and percussion
(attack type). If you used much of the clarinet drawbars, it sounded too
buzzy. It had two 4 octave keyboards and was a but heavy but packed up in
a smallish case and was MUCH lighter than a Hammond.
:Voxes had a reedy sound, Farfisas had a mellow tab set
:and a shrill booster sound, plus reverb - more versatile overall.
Funny, that different models were as different as night and day. The Vox
Jaguar (I owned before the VIP) was rather dull and had no drawbars.
However, the continental and super continental with their drawbars were
about the coolest sound out at the time I thought (excluding Hammonds of
course).
:Voxes were WAY cooler to look at with their chrome Z legs
:and reverse colored keys. Early ones had wooden keys also.
:Farfisas were generally more sturdy and dependable.
Yes, the Vox did look cool. Although I always hated the reverse keys.
Actually, the Jag had one octave of non-reverse keys that signified a
special "bass" voice that could be used to simulate pedals. There were two
great features I liked about the Farfisa. Its stand (not as cool as the
Vox) allowed the keyboard to be tilted to any angle. And the volume pedal
was optical. No kidding, way back then. Never any noise.
Great thread Dave, thanks for getting it started.
Larry