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What's this keyboard instrument?

Ben Esparza

Ben Esparza

Apr 30, 2004
738
683
66
Pico Rivera, CA
#1
I've been wondering about the keyboard instrument used on a few rock tunes in the 60's and early 70's. It has a unique sound and I know it's not a Mellotron. Here are the specific tunes I'm talking about:
  • Baby You're a Rich Man - Beatles
  • Tuesday Afternoon - Moody Blues (plays along with the Mellotron violin notes)
  • Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys - Traffic
  • Black and White - Three Dog Night
Just curious. Have not heard it on anything from the mid-70's on, but I'm sure it's been used since then.

Any idea?




 
#6
Ben Esparza said:
I've been wondering about the keyboard instrument used on a few rock tunes in the 60's and early 70's. It has a unique sound and I know it's not a Mellotron. Here are the specific tunes I'm talking about:
  • Baby You're a Rich Man - Beatles
  • Tuesday Afternoon - Moody Blues (plays along with the Mellotron violin notes)
  • Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys - Traffic
  • Black and White - Three Dog Night
Just curious. Have not heard it on anything from the mid-70's on, but I'm sure it's been used since then.

Any idea?




Click to expand...

“BYARM” is a clavioline, an early electronic keyboard, also heard here…

here…

…and here…


There was a similar keyboard, the Ondioline, that was showcased here…
 
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#7
Wikipedia says the Beatles tune is one of these

ClaviolineAdGibson1953 (1).jpg


Baby, You're a Rich Man - Wikipedia
 
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#9
LUpton said:
Moody Blues “Days of Future Past’ album was done with a real orchestra…
Click to expand...

There’s also a lot of mellotron used on that album. On “Tuesday Afternoon" it’s all mellotron.

While the later M400 model from 1970 tended to just have violin, cello, brass and choir tapes, the MkII model (few MkIs were made) that was used on records until 1970 had 18 sounds available on each manual (playable instruments on the right manual, rhythm accompaniments on the left). That’s what you're hearing on "Days Of Future Past". You can see the MkII in the photos on the back cover of "In Search Of The Lost Chord”

Mike_Pinder_The_Moody_Blues_Mellotron_Mk_II.jpeg
 
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#11
brianrost said:
There’s also a lot of mellotron used on that album. On “Tuesday Afternoon" it’s all mellotron at first.

While the later M400 model from 1970 tended to just have violin, cello, brass and choir tapes, the MkII model (few MkIs were made) that was used on records until 1970 had 18 sounds available on each manual (playable instruments on the right manual, rhythm accompaniments on the left). That’s what you're hearing on "Days Of Future Past". You can see the MkII in the photos on the back cover of "In Search Of The Lost Chord”

View attachment 5289910
Click to expand...
Here is a timeline/overview of the Mellotron, straight from Pinder’s website…

The Mellotron | Mike Pinder

What often is not discussed is his relationship
as an employee of the company, and his introducing the instrument in late 1966 to The Beatles, inspiring “Strawberry Fields Forever”. Also used on “Flying”, the Fabs’ second instrumental.
Here’s a newsreel, from 1965, taking notice of this new(and threatening)technology…



What is conspicuous in its absence in that website history piece is any mention of King Crimson’s use of it. Hmm…
 
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#12
Keyboards in those days were so iffy, that's why I turned my back on 12 years of piano lessons and learned to play electric bass, which was my real passion anyway. Had I come along after the advent of the DX's, Junos, and the like in the 80's post-MIDI, who knows? But in the 60's and early 70's, you were flying Jennys and SPADs instead of Spitfires and Lightnings. As an 18-year old kid, I'd have had to buy a B3 and at least one Leslie, then tote a Rhodes or Wurlitzer just to get started. Oh, and have a van and four big guys to move all that.

Wasn't gonna happen . . . I WILL admit I did have dreams of a DX1 and a Jupiter 8.
 
#13
Not sure if you mean the staccato piano that's all over the Traffic track? That's a plain old upright piano, possibly with some metal added to the tips of the felt on the hammers to get that honky-tonk sound. Agreed it went out of fashion after the 1970s.
 
#14
J Wilson said:
Keyboards in those days were so iffy, that's why I turned my back on 12 years of piano lessons and learned to play electric bass, which was my real passion anyway. Had I come along after the advent of the DX's, Junos, and the like in the 80's post-MIDI, who knows? But in the 60's and early 70's, you were flying Jennys and SPADs instead of Spitfires and Lightnings. As an 18-year old kid, I'd have had to buy a B3 and at least one Leslie, then tote a Rhodes or Wurlitzer just to get started. Oh, and have a van and four big guys to move all that.

Wasn't gonna happen . . . I WILL admit I did have dreams of a DX1 and a Jupiter 8.
Click to expand...
When I was about 14 I was in a band where we schlepped a C3 to gigs in my Mom's station wagon. Good times:roflmao:. Later on I did get a Juno 60, SH101, Taurus pedals and a couple other bits..the pre-midi versions. Always fun showing up to some dive bar for a 1/2 hour set opening for a punk band with all that. What a relief to go back to "just bass" even with the hefty rigs of the day!
 
#16
Michedelic said:
The Traffic track sounded like Winwood was imitating what Mike Ratledge had already done with distorted/fuzzed Hammond organs…
Click to expand...


I thought that Mike used Wurlitzer organs because Hammonds were too expensive and that was the genesis of his trying distortion on them to create a new unique voice.
 
#17
brianrost said:
What about all the bands that were using Vox and Farfisa organs?



Click to expand...

That’s what was made available, with the explosion of transistor technology at the time, to offer a smaller, lighter, and relatively cheaper alternatives to Hammonds, Wurlutzers, etc. They were, after all, referred to as combo organs.
In the wake of the British Invasion, with the DC5, Animals, Manfred Mann and the like(as well as the Beatles on “I’m Down”), plenty of American garage bands jumped on the Vox Continental, as well as the main competitor, the Italian made Farfisa. There was a Gibson combo organ, as used by The Doors’ Ray Manzarek, and even Fender had one, the Contempo…
IMG_8771.jpeg

...but they were a little too late with that, as by the time that was introduced, the tide was turning toward the thicker Hammond sound.
Then the tide turned again in the new wave era, when the 60’s combo sound came back with The Modern Lovers, Blondie, Costello, and early XTC and Talking Heads.

A few more for the combo organ hall of fame:


And of course…


Then, even in the post-Monterey era, the Iron Butterfly was still all about the Vox, until the Metamorphosis album.
 
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#20
brianrost said:
The picture on the inner cover of “Third” shows a Lowrey organ of all things in whoever’s flat they were in for the photo. Also a Danelectro bass.
Click to expand...

He did use a Lowrey on most of the Soft Machine stuff. They had a lever to the side of the swell pedal that bent the pitch by slightly less than a semitone, and you hear his use that in a few places.
 

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