Entertainment For Lively Minds
the Vox Organ Guitar
Posted by Ricardo on 21 October 2011 - 3:22pm.
This has to be one of the coolest things I've ever seen - a demonstration of the Vox Organ Guitar on the 1967 US game show I've Got A Secret:
How the hell were getting a guitar to make sounds like this back then? And I wonder why more guitarists didn't use these? I guess the $3000 price tag back then was rather prohibitive. I'd have loved to have heard what noises someone like Syd Barrett could've got out of this guitar
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hmm..
Thought this post might've generated more interest with all the other guitar obssesives on here. Guess you never can tell
I don't know much about guitars...
...but I gather that, apart from the price, one reason they're weren't more popular is that they were really heavy, owing to all the organ mechanics inside.
They weren't getting a guitar to sound like an organ,
there was a Vox combo organ built into the body and a 'guitar/organ' switch. In organ mode, the fretboard was used to play the organ.
but how the hell...
... does he get that percussive/ delay pedal effect at 07.45?
And all without strumming?!
It was somewhat
of a Heath Robinson affair. Ahead of its time, overly complicated to use, unreliable and awkward to play.
It didn't appeal to guitarists because the neck wasn't really the same as a standard guitar neck, being wider at the nut than at the body. The frets were different, too, although I can't remember exactly how. Anyhow, guitarists didn't take to it and like most of the later guitar synths it never caught on.