I would guess many here know this site. The combo organ defined much garage music so with that in mind... Lots of info and cool pictures
btw; I'm in the market for a combo organ
Here we go... http://www.combo-organ.com/
Re: Combo Organ Heaven
Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 11:39 am
by jingle_jangle
Several of my own personal combos are shown on this site...
The first combo I bought this time around (in '04) was Brian's Teisco Nomad shown on COH. I was pretty stoked to unpack it and notice that the dents and scratches were identical to the one on the website.
Barry Carson sold me his Baldwin and Howard shown in this COH photo, along with the matching SS Baldwin "Willie Nelson" amp. Everything here is black and blue...the Howard is fairly common, was made in Italy by GEM alongside the VOX Jaguars, and the Howard and Jags are electronically identical. However, the Baldwin was made in North Carolina, USA, using home organ components, and is built like a rock and very heavy. Its sound is more mellow and grown-up than most Italian-made combos. Supposedly there were only 100 of these Baldwins made before Baldwin (literally) pulled the plug:
Re: Combo Organ Heaven
Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 1:43 pm
by kenposurf
Thanks for those pics Paul. What do you think of a the Whitehall 6640? I understand it's much like the Acetone organs?
Re: Combo Organ Heaven
Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 1:53 am
by jimk
Looking at those Farfisa combo organs brings back memories. I had a cousin who played a Compact for quite a few years before he upgraded to a Hammond B3.
JimK
Re: Combo Organ Heaven
Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 6:52 pm
by elreydlp
Cool site George.
I had to check out the Italian Dorics. The local uncool "Piano" store carried them, While the cool "Guitar" store had Vox and Farfisa. We referred to them as "Dorks". Our keyboard player almost bought one, but I talked him and his parents into "upgrading" to a Farfisa. They actually weren't bad and were a bit cheaper.
This Garage Classic features the mighty Farfisa. The Swingin' Medallions didn't have a bass player-the keyboard player played left-hand bass on the Farfisa and had a Wurlitzer piano on top of it. We shared a lot of stages with them back in SC in the 60's (we were from Charleston-they from Greenwood). Here they are in Greenville, SC at a more recent show sitting in with some up-and-comer. Quite a let-down for them after The Pendeltons.
