Whilst browsing in the locality near the fruit and veg market in Croydon, I decided to take a nosey-bastard's view in a shop called X-Electrical. It's a shop like Cash Converters but with decent (and sometimes new) gear for sale. Items typically include Hi-Fi components, electronic games consoles etc, but also musical instruments.*
Good job I did, as the sight that greeted my minces was truly a wonder to behold! There, stood in the middle of the shop, was a Gemini combo organ (the one at the front of the red one in the picture) in great condition. A sober wet dream incarnate! It's kinda like a poor man's Vox Jaguar (but with 3 octaves, although it has the same sound, same innards, different badge) and the thought of one of these appearing in Croydon seemed too good to be true. My wallet trembled with fear.
*
I've since found out the price of this item and have, for the time being at least, decided to give it a wide berth. For the price of 295 quid, I expect a real Vox organ and in good nick too. If a modern synth can replicate the sound of this particular lovely, then why should I worry over an antique that can be prone to unreliability and (potentially) huge repair costs? Vintage keyboards aren't as basic as vintage guitars - they're much more complicated beasts (electronically speaking, that is). Perhaps all these excuses I'm making for not buying it sound like sour grapes on my behalf - there may be some truth in this.
No doubt, this is something that won't sit in that shop for long, but in the meantime I've passed on this wonderful feat of transistorised engineering. Stay away from that shop, I keep telling myself.
I'll have more room in the home and the cats will eat well this Christmas.
36 comments:
Is it time for a whip round?
nothing to do with the keyboard -just want to say that it's rather impressive that you are a fan of the Rutles!! :).
I meant to say - I've taken to browsing vintage keybords/synthesizers on ebay of late. You might find a Gemini on there for less maybe if you are lucky?
Blimey, what's wrong with you mate? You'd never find me even considering paying through the nose for a piece of collectable instrumenture.
Well, there was that drumstick...
and the...
oh then there was the...
oh bugger.
no point in buying that piece of dubious vintage crap! a couple of months down the road and you'll be lashing out pennies to maintain it. unless of course you are an electronics whiz kid, in which case it wouldn't matter...buy it.
With all the digital keyboard patches/racks that are now available at the same price or less than that particular keyboard you photographed, not worth the dosh unless you are a collector.
That's what I think anyway.
Lee - I'm more impressed with the spoof nature of The Rutles than I am of The Beatles in general.
RoMo - A whip round you say? Not that I'm dropping any hints for Xmas presents or anything, but yes, it's very nice of you to start a "Gemini for Istvanski" fund. We'd be halfway there if Jif hadn't spunked a one-er on a bottle of port (nice to know how the well-heeled live, isn't it?).
I've tried looking through eBay, but it's still over-priced crap that people are trying to flog. Now, if you're after real organ porn for your own personal perusal, then perhaps you'd like to visit; www.combo-organ.com (however, it only specialises in Sixties cheesy organs and I'm not sure wether that's your 'bag' or not...).
Howesy - How much will it take for you to reveal the price you paid for that Midnight Oil drumstick you bought? (Probably the amount that you paid for it in the first place).
JDA - I think I'll have to settle for the 'sound-a-likes' that I've already got. Besides, I'm severely lacking storage space at Istvanski towers at the moment. Perhaps there'll come a time soon when Stac will collect his stuff. Only then can RoMo start having a whip round for the Gemini spending spree.
Oh god - Stac - any update?
Thank you - I shall certainly be visiting that organ porn website - it's only the cheesy 60's ones I'm interested in. Have been toying with buying a Hammond for some time. Yes - I know I'm deluded but it's nice looking and imagining.
RoMo - Stac is currently in a countryside area of the Netherlands with his new beau, taking time out in the quiet surroundings that his peace-searching mind has hungrily adopted. Yes, he's probably getting stoned on skunk.
Depending on your budget, I recomend you try a Roland VK-88 before parting cash for a Hammond. The Rolands are great sounding and more fun to play.
Ooh, I'm trying to save up for a digi-piano at the moment. I had to leave my piano at the last place I lived...it still sits on the landing...all sad and cold.
Just looking at keyboards brings a lump to my throat. I love them. I saw a Yamaha one at the weekend for 600 squiddlies, but I'm still paying off for the saxophone I bought Anthony (the one he is playing on his blog!) At 50p a month, I might get a keyboard by the Year 2100 do you reckon?
We should get together and have a jam with JDA! Yay! And RoMoster could play her new Hammond.
Molly - ...and Howesy will play bass, Stray Photon on guitar and JDA on didgeridoo, Swipe on vocals and me on the door selling tickets...
Have you ever been here? Good stuff-
http://www.rutles.org/
How about this, in an interconnected left-field kinda way...,
Get on Ebay, sell all Stac's gear as overpriced tat, learn to say "buggered if i know where it's gone Aust" in Dutch, take the profits and buy as much cheap looking plastice schmutters as you want!
I think the overall idea of forming Molly Bloom's backing band is a goer, bar one thing, we should NOT put the Ister on the door, if we did, he'd turn up with a couple more organs after...
hey, I was thinking, what band title would best describe us all collectively speaking? comments are open house....begin.
"Blog, Rattle & Roll".
"The Bloggy Blues Band"
The Bloggles
Yes - let's start a band - I love that idea.
Internet Killed The Radio Star by The Bloggles.
It'll go to No1 - and we can mix it at ruxley and do interviews on GMTV in disguise a la KLF. Perfect.
Re: Roland - I was looking on one at ebay the other day - it was gorgeous but the attack function didn't work which put me off somewhat.
Excellent idea RoMo, and with your connections we could do a promo video on glossy VHS - early eighties style.
If I was going to buy a Hammond soundalike with drawbars, I'd go for a Roland. I remember Hammond-Suzuki had a portable combo organ on the market around 10 years ago, but the Roland equivalent sounded more like a real Hammond.
better still, make it for 'you tube' available to the masses.
Ohhhhh - don't you mean a video on Betamax? Let's keep it really 80's - or we could do a limited release on laserdisc! What were those?
Ister - am I the only reader here?
I've tagged you - you need to go to mine. No pressure. :-)
He's already done it! been tagged that is.
Betamax it is then.
Right, I'm off to eBay to search for a Betamax camcorder (do you think they still make them nowadays but with USB sockets attached?)
Ooh look at that! A new band formed in my absence! Yay!
Then again I tried to record something today and it went completely wrong. You should hear RoMo singing as well - she is cool.
Can we have someone else on tambourine as well? Let's get lee to do it.
OK - I like the idea of The Bloggles - come on - it will be fun. We could be the first blog-founded band!
now that is an interesting concept...laced into a podcast! and played to the world....or...ermm... our two or three listeners? It could be the start of an alternative pop chart...'Blog Chart'.....'top of the blogs'...'the old grey bloggle test' the list and possibilities go on...
I once bought an old banjo in a second hand shop near East Croydon Station. I thought you might all like to know that.
dh......yeah, but do you still have it?
No jda. My Trad Jazz Period lasted about 2 weeks. I traded the banjo for a guitar and got into skiffle.
I suppose that's better than exchanging for a guitar and getting into a scuffle like dear old Keith.
Skiffle was the thing for a while rm. (If Istvanski will permit me to co-opt his comments section briefly). Lonnie Donegan showed everyone how easy it was to do and soon washboards and tea-chest basses were popping up in the back rooms of pubs all over England. I figured out roughly how to tune the guitar and soon me and the lads were banging out 3 chord versions of Midnight Special to the delight of the local maidens. Proto groupies you might say. And even the odd free pint if the landlord was happy with the turn out.
Yeah.....good old Lonnie!...."does your chewing gum lose it's flavour on the bed post over night"
DH - I knew of that second hand shop in East Croydon, I forget the name of it, but they had another branch in Tooting, where I bought truckloads of stuff from.
It was like an old curiosity shop for musos and gun-runners.
I knew I wasn't imagining that shop. It actually involved quite a long pilgrimmage for me and I bought a few things there apart from the banjo. That would have been about 1958.
Blimey - another small world revelation
That shop used to sell all manner of stuff. They'd give you a receipt which enabled you to sell it back to them within a space of time for half the price you bought it for. I bought my first bass guitar from there (a Kay) and then part exchanged it back at the same shop for a Squier Jazz bass.
Post a Comment