From the Pages of...

[CandidPicker]

Guitar Player magazine, circa 1977.

Just some useless trivia that was triggered by @Randy Malone's post regarding unusual noise from the frets. Please read before to learn about how I connected the "dots" in my reply to Randy.

An article featuring Frank Zappa described one of his guitars that was described as possessing the sound of a Farfisa organ (whatever the heck that is), which employed the use of Barcus-Berry microphone transducers as replacements for the dot inlay on the fretboard of Frank's guitar.

Although I don't personally quite recall how expensive the mod was, or who installed the transducers, Frank utilized his modded guitar on several of his albums, most notably, "One Size Fits All" / "Inca Roads" during the latter part of his solo where he was doing hammer-on-pull-offs. The transducer part was brief, but was utilized along with a wah effect that created the Farfisa-like sound. When Frank switched off the wah and subsequently the transducers, the guitar sound like a normal guitar again...

 

[László]

A Farfisa was a combo organ, very popular in the mid to late '60s. Its main competitor was the Vox combo organ. The Farfisa was less expensive, and was a staple of the '60s Garage Band sound. They had an incomparably cheesy tone that was actually quite wonderful in context.

The old Vox organs were also pretty cheesy sounding, but were associated with bands like The Animals, The Dave Clark Five, The Doors, and Iron Butterfly, so they were higher status items, and they had drawbars, where the Farfisa only had switches.

The Farfisa was famously featured on the intro to such nearly-forgotten hits as 'Woolly Bully', by the immortal (I use the term advisedly) Sam The Sham and the Pharaohs, '96 Tears', by ? and the Mysterians, even 'When a Man Loves a Woman', by Percy Sledge, but it was also used by later acts like Pink Floyd in several songs, and by Elton John in 'Crocodile Rock'.

I had a Hohner organ that I thought was not as cool as the Vox, but it sounded more like a real organ than the Farfisa. Led Zep toured with a Hohner, but by then I was playing a Hammond.

 

[CandidPicker]

A Farfisa was a combo organ, very popular in the mid to late '60s. Its main competitor was the Vox combo organ. The Farfisa was less expensive, and was a staple of the '60s Garage Band sound. They had an incomparably cheesy tone that was actually quite wonderful in context.

The old Vox organs were also pretty cheesy sounding, but were associated with bands like The Animals, The Dave Clark Five, The Doors, and Iron Butterfly, so they were higher status items, and they had drawbars, where the Farfisa only had switches.

The Farfisa was famously featured on the intro to such nearly-forgotten hits as 'Woolly Bully', by the immortal (I use the term advisedly) Sam The Sham and the Pharaohs, '96 Tears', by ? and the Mysterians, even 'When a Man Loves a Woman', by Percy Sledge, but it was also used by later acts like Pink Floyd in several songs, and by Elton John in 'Crocodile Rock'.

I had a Hohner organ that I thought was not as cool as the Vox, but it sounded more like a real organ than the Farfisa. Led Zep toured with a Hohner, but by then I was playing a Hammond.

Thank you for that info. I think I'll make a sandwich and drink some coconut water.

 

[markd21]

My favorite organ in the Arturia V Collectionbis the Farfisa. Very cheesy sound, but sits great in a mix.