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Electone is the trademark used for electronic organs produced by Yamaha. With the exception of the top end performance models, most Electones are based on the design of the spinet electronic organ. Current models are completely digital and contain a variety of sounds, effects, and accompaniments, on top of the ability to store programming data onto memory devices. History After Hammond pioneered the electronic organ in the 1930s, other manufacturers began to market their own versions of the instrument. By the end of the 1950s, familiar brand names of home organs in addition to Hammond included Conn, Kimball, Lowrey, and others, while companies such as Allen and Rodgers manufactured large electronic organs designed for church and other public settings. What would later become the Yamaha Electone emerged as a prototype concept in 1958, then named "E-T". The Electone series finally made its commercial debut in 1959 with the D-1, a home instrument. By 1980, with the market waning sharply, and some manufacturers ceasing production, the Electone line embraced digital technology. This allowed Electone's survival as the traditional home electronic organ market dried up. The product name "Electone", coined from the word "Electronic" and "Tone", would become so popular in Japan that in later years, it would become a way to refer to electronic organs in general in the country. Electones built until 1983 were often similar in specifications to a small theatre organ, with a main flute group analogous to the Tibia Clausa, strings (usually at 8' and 4'), and multiple reeds at 16' and 8' pitches. Starting with the D-3, Electones featured theatre organ-style color coding for the tone levers, which followed as: white for flutes and diapasons, red for reeds (brass and woodwinds), yellow for string voices (including piano and guitar), and green for percussion voices. Unlike theatre organs however, the tone levers could be individually made louder, similar to a drawbar organ, and had 3 click positions, although they could be adjusted between them. By the 1980s, many of the most famous names had ceased home production, but the Electone had successfully transitioned into the modern world of digital synthesizers . The FE, and FX lines introduced in 1983, marked a transition from Theater organ styled instruments, with push buttons being used for selecting sounds, instead of tone levers, which would be carried over to future models and lines afterwards. It would come to compete with new products from Moog Music, Wersi, and later Kurzweil. Electones were to be found not only in homes, especially in Japan and elsewhere in the East Asia, but also in bands and other solo and group public performances. Notable former models Yamaha began exporting Electones to the United States starting with the D-2B in 1967. 1958 — E-T Prototype The E-T was a prototype concept by Nippon Gakki (known today as Yamaha). It consisted of one console, four oscillators, a tone-forming part widening device, and three speakers. The consoles consisted of a three-stage keyboard, a 32-key pedal keyboard, and 171 switches of sounds and other functions. 1959 — Prototype ET-5 and EM-6 In May 1959, the prototype ET-5 was manufactured, along with the prototype EM-6, a single-stage keyboard utilizing transistor technology. 1959 — D-1 The first model of Electone that was launched by Yamaha, starting with the price around ¥350.000 at that time. 1960 — A-2 The first Electone model with a single keyboard and a single octave pedal. With the price of ¥128.000, it was mostly used for students. Discontinued in 1963. 1962 — E-1 The highest-end Electone model at that time, with a starting price of ¥647.000 in 1962. 1964 — F-1 Electone's first "pipe organ" model. It was built for 15 years, from 1964 to 1979, despite this it has remained in relative obscurity. With a launch price of around ¥2,200,000, it was the most expensive Electone model of its era. 1966 — A-3 Electone's first combo organ, it was only equipped with a single keyboard and an expression pedal. 1966 — F-2 Another "pipe organ" model similar to the F-1, released with an initial price of around ¥1,350,000. It was discontinued in 1975. 1967 — D-2B The first Electone Model that was imported by Nippon Gakki to the United States. 1968 — E-3 Yamaha's top model at that time, commonly used for stage purposes. Its original price tag was ¥800,000. 1968 — EX-21 Prototype The EX-21 was a prototype intended to illustrate the upcoming futuristic, space-age style stage organ models of the future. Unlike prior Electones, it was expressly designed for stage performances. Named for "21st century" technology, it can be heard on the "Electone Fantastic!" album. 1970 — EX-42 Yamaha's first commercially available stage model Electone, and the commercial successor to the EX-21. It was the first Electone to use integrated circuits, although it was still based on analogue technology. Famous Electone players such as Shigeo Sekito used this instrument to make the "Special Sound Series", known as "華麗なるエレクトーン" (1975-1977). It was built from 1970 until 1977, launching in 1970 in Japan for ¥2,800,000. In the US, the EX-42 had a $32,000 price tag or $200,000 when adjusted for inflation. It is likely that less than 200 of these were built. 1972 — D-3R Another top model of Electone, mostly used for homes. 1974 — Designing of Electones around synthesisers, instead of organs 1974 — CSY-1 Based on the SY-1 synthesizer. 1975 — GX-1 (a.k.a. GX-707) The first polyphonic synthesizer in Electone form, bridging the gap between synthesizer and organ. It used velocity-sensitive keyboards and the solo keyboard was even after-touch sensitive. The original price tag at that time was around ¥7,000,000. Some notable users of the GX-1 include Richard D. James,. Stevie Wonder, Keith Emerson, John Paul Jones, and Benny Andersson of ABBA. 1977 — EX-1, EX-2 The third generation of space-age stage Electone models. The EX-1 and EX-2 sold for ¥3,600,000 and ¥2,600,000, respectively. 1977 — E-70 One of the first home-based organs to feature Yamaha's PASS (Pulse Analog Synthesis System) in a console cabinet. The E-70's architecture resembles the famous CS-80 synthesizer, though it lacked analog VCOs. Its original price tag was ¥1,800,000. 1979 — CN-70 A single-keyboard model marketed to music schools. 1980 — D-700 A more advanced and upgraded version of its predecessor models. 1983 — FS and FX series (FC/FE/FS/FX) It featured frequency modulation tone generators, with the FX series featuring the company's first digitally sampled sounds for the onboard percussion/rhythm units. The F series Electones were the first to allow users to digitally save registrations via pistons and then save them to RAM packs or an external disk drive unit with the MDR-1. It is also known as the fourth generation of the space-age stage models, costing around ¥4,500,000. While the lower version of the FX-1, the FX-3, cost around ¥2,000,000. Along with .... Discover the Phillip Keveren popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Phillip Keveren books.