Guitorgan

[Big-Al]

The guy I bought my Larrivee from now has one of these 1980's beauties in the display case:

Guitorgan

I'd probably never even be able to play it, but it's soooooo cool!

[cc407]

I expected something funny - that is really good!

[Randy_R]

how much of that is in the guitar, and how much in an effects box, I wonder?

[teh]

Al:

Thanks for the trip down memory lane because I remember reading that guy's columns in my Guitar Player Magazine reading days 25 or 30 years ago. It's kind of reminiscent of some of the music from the same era of the album "Tubular Bells"  by Mike Oldfield (i.e. using the guitar and effects to achieve lots of different sounds).

[Big-Al]

how much of that is in the guitar, and how much in an effects box, I wonder?

The sound is onboard, except for the optional Leslie rotary speaker.  The guitar is a modded Japanese ES-335 copy, crammed full of analog electronics, and it has two standard 1/4" output jacks, one for the organ and one for the pickups.  There is an aluminum plate covering most of the back.  It's a heavy brute . . . . it feels almost as heavy as a real B3.

Some of the later models had an additional circuit board with a MIDI output, but not this one.  Each fret is divided into six segments attached to a bundle of fine wires running up along the truss rod.  Fretting a string completes the circuit and acts just like pressing an organ key.  It has six-note polyphony.  The original pickups are still active too, and it can also be played as a regular guitar.   How cool is that.

( . . . and I just LOVE those cheesy organ sounds!)