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Gerinski Topic: An Illustrated Guide to Prog Rock Instruments (new

Prog Reviewer Posted: June 29 2014 at 16:06
AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO PROG ROCK INSTRUMENTS
In this article I am reviewing some of the most relevant instruments frequently used in Prog
Rock from an historical point of view, especially focusing in those more widely used in the
classic Prog Rock period of the 1970’s, although I have also included some more modern
interesting instruments.
For sure a more precise title for this article should be something like “An illustrated guide to
Joined: February 10 2010
some of the instruments frequently used in classic Prog Rock”, since the list does not
Location: Barcelona Spain
Status: Offline intend to be comprehensive and all these instruments were of course not “Prog Rock
Points: 4087 instruments”, they were simply instruments of their period, used in Prog as well as in many
other genres during that period, but the title is intended as a practical shortcut.
Most references are made generically (e.g. ‘the Hammond Organ’) but I have also included
some particular instrument pieces owned and played by famous Prog musicians (e.g. ‘Chris
Squire’s Wal Triple-Neck Bass’).
Traditional instruments like guitars, basses, drums or flutes were nothing new when Prog
flourished and have seen limited innovation right up to the present. The development of the
synthesizer on the other hand went very much in parallel with the development of Prog
Rock itself, for this reason the keyboards and synths are covered with greater historical
detail, while entries for traditional instruments such as guitars, basses, flutes etc are limited
to a few general comments.
The history of synths is only covered until the rise of digital synths in the early 1980’s, after
that the number of different manufacturers and models would become prohibitively long.
Moreover, in modern times (since the advent of MIDI in 1983) the keyboard model we see
being played by a certain musician does not always tell much, frequently they are used only
as controllers and the actual synthesizers or sound patches are located in racks or audio
workstations.
THE CHAMBERLIN
When asked about quintessential Prog Rock instruments many will think of the Mellotron,
but no reference to the ‘Tron’ would be fair without mentioning its direct precursor the
Chamberlin, since the Mellotron was born essentially as an illegal copy of the Chamberlin.
Developed from 1948 onwards by Henry Chamberlin in the US, this keyboard was the first
sampler (more precisely the first Rompler since it could only play back sounds, not record
them): pressing the keys triggered playback of pre-recorded tapes with recordings of real
instruments. The sounds included assorted keyboards, bowed and plucked strings, winds,
voices etc (and in some models rhythms loops). For the first time it allowed producing
realistic orchestral and vocal sounds from a keyboard. On the model 600, the blueprint for
the first Mellotron, each note tape had a maximum duration of 8 seconds and returned to its
starting position when the key was released or when reaching the end.
It was originally designed as a home instrument, not portable (until the release of the M1
model in 1970) which made them delicate and not suitable for Rock bands outside of the
studio. The M1 model released in 1970 was compact and portable (even more than the
Mellotron M400) but by then the Mellotron had taken over (see the Mellotron entry) and the
Chamberlin has unfairly remained rather obscure and unrecognised compared to the
Mellotron. Many consider the sound samples of the Chamberlin to be of superior quality
than those of the Mellotron.
The 1951 model 200 was the first melodic Chamberlin (the first model 100 from 1948
played only rhythm loops)
Chamberlin 600 1962, the blueprint for the first Mellotron

Chamberlin M1
THE MELLOTRON
In 1962 a sales employee of Chamberlin Bill Fransen fled to Europe with two Chamberlin
600’s and without Henry Chamberlin’s knowledge he claimed that the instrument was his
invention and made a deal with the Bradley brothers from the UK to build upon the design
and manufacture the machines. So although the Bradleys introduced some modifications,
the Mellotron Mark I was born in 1963 essentially as an illegal copy of the Chamberlin 600,
the 3 violin samples were even the same from the Chamberlin (the other instruments were
newly recorded).
Mellotron Mark I
When Henry Chamberlin and the Bradleys realised the situation they discussed and
eventually reached an agreement by which Chamberlin would receive some royalties for
the original design and for some period Chamberlins would be sold in the US and
Mellotrons would be sold in Europe. In retrospect Mr. Chamberlin probably regretted this
point, the Pop and Progressive music scene during the 2nd half of the 1960’s was more
innovative in Europe than in the US so by the time the instrument really kicked in during the
late 1960’s it was the Mellotron and not the Chamberlin which got the limelight, and by its
heyday in the 1970’s few people remembered the Chamberlin at all.
Already in 1964 the Mk II was released which was nearly the same as the Mark I just with a
few improvements. In fact most Mark I's were upgraded to Mk II specs.
There is a bit of a mess with the different companies involved in producing and selling
Mellotrons so to clarify things a bit let's start by saying that the Bradleys original company
was called Bradmatic but for the Mellotron business they soon established 2 new
companies, the sales and distribution arm was called Mellotronics and the manufacturing
arm was called Streetly Electronics.
Around 1965 Mike Pinder from The Moody Blues worked at Streetly for 18 months as a
quality controller and test-player, and he fell in love with the instrument and eventually got
himself a Mk II. He introduced the Mellotron to The Beatles who quickly purchased two of
them. They used it in Strawberry Fields Forever released in February 1967 and Pinder
himself used it extensively in Days Of Future Past released later the same year, and this
launched the popularity of the Mellotron in the Pop-Rock music scene. Around one year
and a half later the use of the Mellotron by King Crimson in their seminal In The Court Of
The Crimson King situated the Tron as a paradigm for the Symphonic Prog sound of the
1970's..
Mike Pinder with The Moody Blues playing his Mk II in 1967

As with the Chamberlin, the first Mellotrons were not designed to be portable (although the
1968 M300 was more compact than the Mk II), but this changed with the release of the
M400 model in 1970, by far the most popular and widely used in Prog Rock. Due to its
smaller size it could only use 3 different instrument tape sets at a time but it compensated
by having the tapes in cartridges (referred to as 'tape frames') which could be replaced
rather quickly. EMI also produced 100 units of the M400 under license, named M400S,
reportedly of lower quality.
Mellotron M300
Mellotron M400, the archetypal Prog Rock Tron
Due to the tapes playback system (of 8 seconds duration like the Chamberlin) which had to
return to their starting position before being able to be played again, they had a slow action
not making them suitable for fast playing and the notes did not decay naturally when the
key was released, but they were great for slow passages of sustained sounds such as
strings, choirs, brass or flutes which were difficult to mimic by synthesizers of the time
(besides their big advantage of being polyphonic versus their contemporary synthesizers).
Mellotrons are infamous for being very sensitive and unreliable, the tapes often jammed,
the motors and mechanics did not work properly etc. Musicians on tour frequently decided
to take two of them in order to have a backup and they had to be repaired in between
gigs. Rick Wakeman was so pissed off with their unreliability that when he could start using
more advanced instruments such as the RMI Keyboard Computer and the Birotron
prototype, he took two of his Mellotrons to a field and set them on fire.
A picture of one of the very few occasions in which ELP used a Mellotron live (an M400,
here topped by a Minimoog). It was played by Greg Lake in the Trilogy tour for Abaddon’s
Bolero but they used also some pre-recorded tapes and a click-track for Palmer on his
headphones, and they had many problems with the synchronisation and reliability of the
whole set-up and after a couple of gigs they decided to drop the song from the set list.
Emerson never liked the Mellotron, because of its unreliability and because you could not
play fast with it.
In 1975 the Mk V was released which was basically two M400's put together in a single
cabinet. The development of the Mk V was possibly inspired by the custom instrument
assembled by Rick Wakeman, who had put two M400’s together in a single cabinet in order
to have 6 different sounds available at once. Wakeman's double M400 got stolen but it was
recently recovered by a guy in the US who plans to restore it, Wakeman told him that he
could keep it.
Mellotron Mk V
Rick Wakeman circa 1974. On his left we can see his custom double Mellotron M400
topped by two Minimoogs.
Notice that this instrument had the knobs on the top like the M400 while the genuine Mk V
had them below the manuals. In front of Rick the Hammond C-3 organ topped by an RMI
Electra-Piano and a Hohner Clavinet C6. On his right a piano topped by an Elka ElkaPiano
88 and a third Minimoog. Behind him stands the keyboard of his portable Mander pipe
organ (see the Pipe Organ entry).
Around 1976 there were some legal disputes regarding the name Mellotron, which had
been licensed to the US distributor DMI (Dallas Musical Instruments) which went quickly
bankrupt and was then re-established as Sound Sales (retaining the Mellotron name
licence and also referred to as “Mellotron USA”) to continue producing and selling
Mellotrons.
Streetly continued also producing Mellotrons but had to sell them under the name
Novatron. In 1981 Streetly released the rare Novatron T550 which was packed in a flight
case for touring convenience, but only 4 of them were made.
Novatron T550
From their side Sound Sales developed the also very rare Mellotron 4-Track which could
play the 4 tracks simultaneously (each track with independent EQ, panning and mix
volume), of which only 4 units were produced in 1981 (to add to the names mess, the
manufacturing company of the 4-Track was Bomar Fabricators).
Sound Sales Mellotron 4-Track

In the mid-late 1970’s the development of more advanced instruments such as the
polyphonic string machines, the RMI Keyboard Computer and the polyphonic synthesizers
(see the Polyphonic Synthesizers entry), and the development of digital technology
including sampling with the Synclavier and Fairlight caused a quick fade out of the
mechanical Mellotron, which suddenly felt like an ancient machine. The revival of Prog in
the 1990’s renewed the interest in the Mellotron but before that, in the late 1980's the rights
for the name Mellotron were acquired by an American guy called Dave Kean.
A Swedish guy called Marcus Resch who was repairing Mellotrons for bands like Anglagard
and Anekdoten teamed with Dave Kean in the 1990's to start producing Mellotron service
parts, and as from 2001 with the benefit of owning the name Mellotron they released new
and improved analog replicas of the M400 (which they called Mk VI) and of the Mk V (which
they called Mk VII). From 2010 they also produce a digital model the Mellotron M4000D.
The German Manikin’s Memotron is another popular digital replica and of course sample
patches are available in other keyboards or for uploading to workstations.
Mellotron M4000D
Memotron (by Manikin)
A son of one of the original Bradley brothers from his side restarted Streetly in the 1990's to
repair and restore Mellotrons, and in 2007 Streetly released a completely new model, the
M4000, analog but with a completely redesigned tapes system which allows 24 sounds in
the machine at once, eliminating the need for removable cartridges. This was not marketed
as Novatron but simply as 'M4000 by Streetly Electronics'.
Streetly M4000
Some archetypal uses of the Mellotron (aka ‘the Tron’) can be heard in the intro to Genesis
Watcher Of The Skies, the choirs in King Crimson’s Epitaph or In The Court Of The Crimson
King, or the flute in Led Zeppelin’s Stairway To Heaven.
THE BIROTRON
The brief existence of the Birotron is anecdotical but worth mentioning due to the
involvement of Rick Wakeman and to its extreme rarity. It was developed by Dave Biro in
late 1974 as an attempt to solve the Mellotron’s weak points, and on paper it delivered.
Instead of tapes of 8 seconds duration the Birotron used closed tape loops which could
hold the sound indefinitely, this gave it also a much quicker action allowing playing of faster
phrases (according to Wakeman you could play it “as fast as you like” which coming from
him is quite something), it had note attack and decay settings (basically a must requirement
when operating with closed tape loops without any attack or decay by themselves) and a
pitch shifter knob. Regarding reliability nobody knows, it disappeared before anyone could
tell.
Rick Wakeman was so impressed by the concept that he decided to co-fund the project,
some prototype machines were built and advertisement started in 1976, and the company
Birotronics received over 1000 orders from customers like Keith Emerson, Elton John, John
Paul Jones or Patrick Moraz. Unfortunately issues during late pre-mass-production
development to ensure high quality and reliability, plus the need to record all the samples
with real musicians resulted in increasingly high costs and Rick Wakeman’s finances were
going through a deep period, and at the same time advanced polyphonic synthesizers and
digital technology were progressing fast, leaving a mechanical tapes machine outdated,
and the project was finally aborted.
It is unknown how many were built precisely, according to some accounts only 17 complete
machines were built and only 2 survive today, which has earned the Birotron the title of
rarest modern musical instrument.
It was used by Wakeman in the album ‘Tormato’ and the YesShows tour, and although he
owned up to 4 of them he does not have one anymore.
Birotron B90
Rick Wakeman live with Yes in 1978. The two devices on the right top of the picture are two
Birotron B90's (atop an RMI Keyboard Computer). On the left of the picture we see a
Minimoog atop a Yamaha CP30 electric piano and in front of Rick a Polymoog atop the
Hammond.
Tangerine Dream, who were known for modifying or custom-building much of their
equipment, were one of the very few to get their ordered Birotron, although before that
Chris Franke had already modified one of his Mellotrons to have it work with loop tapes
(credited as “Loop Mellotron” in their 1976 album Stratosfear).
Tangerine Dream’s Edgar Froese in his home studio in 1979: at the bottom left of the
picture we see the Birotron, topped by a Korg PE-2000 string machine (itself topped by a
Roland Micro-Composer MC-8 sequencer) and on their top an Oberheim 4-voice synth.
Behind Froese a custom modular Moog with a Korg Vocoder on top of the modules cabinet.
On top of the Moog controller keyboard there is an ARP Pro/DGX (an evolution of the Pro-
Soloist). At the right of the picture a Fender Rhodes topped by a Solina String Ensemble, a
Hohner Clavinet and an Elka Rhapsody 610. On the stool a Gibson Les Paul guitar.
THE HAMMOND ORGAN
An iconic keyboard like few others, the Hammond Organ was invented by Laurens
Hammond in 1934 as an affordable alternative to pipe organs in churches and upright
pianos in middle class family homes. As such it is not just a prominent instrument in Rock
music, it has had massive presence in nearly every style of popular music since the late
1930’s, gospel, blues, jazz, soul, pop, prog or hard rock. It generated the notes by
mechanical tonewheels rotating in front of an electromagnetic pickup. The mix of the
different harmonic components could be altered in real time by its famous drawbars
providing a very rich range of possible organ timbres, from soft church-like sounds to
aggressive and fierce Hard Rock tones. This versatility surely contributed to its huge
success in such a wide range of music styles (mathematically the drawbars provide around
235,000,000 possible different sound combinations). The Percussion function provided a
very distinctive percussive attack to the sound, which can be clearly noticed for example in
many parts of ELP's Tarkus.
A very frequent companion to the Hammond was the Leslie Speaker cabinet, which
amplified and released the sound via two rotating speakers. The rotation produces an
oscilating doppler effect which creates a very unique sound, like a combination of vibrato,
tremolo and phaser effects all in one.
In the times when bands still had to play without PA systems, the Hammond with Leslie was
the first organ powerful enough to allow keyboardists to play live alongside rock electric
guitarists without having to feel ‘in the background’.
Many different models have been built but from a Prog Rock perspective the console B-3
and C-3 and the simpler spinet L-100 were probably the most widely used (Tony Banks
used a T-102 which was a model very similar to the L-100 but working with transistors
instead of vacuum tubes). Technically the B-3 and C-3 were basically the same, the B-3
had an open lower section with 4 legs while the C-3’s cabinet was closed at the front and
sides.
Virtually every respectable keyboardist in the 1970’s Prog Rock scene had a Hammond,
but we may mention Jon Lord and Keith Emerson as particularly notable users. Keith
Emerson’s live performances stabbing knives on his L-100 to hold the sustain or playing it
upside-down from the floor became iconic (although his regular playing was done on a C-3
placed below the Modular Moog).
Hammond B-3 and Leslie Cabinet

Uriah Heep’s Ken Hensley playing a B-3 (topped by Moog keyboard and ribbon controllers)
Deep Purple’s Jon Lord playing a C-3 topped by a Hohner Clavinet (with Glenn Hughes on
the bass)
Hammond L-100
Keith Emerson abusing his L-100

Pink Floyd's Rick Wright playing his Hammond RT-3 (although he was not an archetypal
Hammond player, since he used also extensively the Farfisa organ)
A variation are the custom Hammonds by Goff (a renowned US Hammond distributor),
frequently with the lower part of the organ chopped in order to make them more portable.
Keith Emerson with a chopped Goff Hammond (topped by a Korg Oasys)
THE MOOG MODULAR SYNTHESIZER

Robert (Bob) Moog was the most prominent pioneer in the development of the modern
analog synthesizers utilized in Rock music.
The precise division between ‘Electric or Electronic Organ’ and ‘Synthesizer’ (if there should
be any at all) is controversial with early devices such as the Telharmonium, the Trautonium
or the Ondes Martenot dividing opinions, but often the first really fully-functional musical
synthesizer is considered to be the vacuum-tube Hammond Novachord from 1939 (which
incidentally was fully polyphonic!) but it was way too ahead of its time, very complex and
costly, and WW2 quickly interrupted its production before people could really understand it,
and it remained mostly used to generate eerie sounds for movies and TV shows rather than
actual music. If you have watched classic sci-fi movies from the 1940's and 1950's,
chances are you have listened to a Novachord generating the sounds of flying saucers or
energy rays.
Hammond Novachord
The Buchla synthesizers from the early 1960’s also predated the Moogs but they were also
oriented to universities or the cinema, TV and electronic music industry rather than to live
performing musicians (one of their characteristic features was a touch-plate keyboard
instead of a real musical keyboard).
Buchla 100 1963

Touch-Plate Keyboard in a Buchla
Robert Moog on the other hand set out to develop the synthesizer for actual performing
musicians. Based on ideas first proposed by Harold Bode and the work of Buchla, in the
mid 1960’s he further developed the technology of voltage-controlled sound synthesis
based on transistors (compared to previous vacuum-tube technologies like in the
Novachord) and a sort of road-map for standardising sound electric signals manipulation
using voltage changes as the controlling mechanism. So for example, he devised how to
generate a basic sound wave from a voltage-controlled oscillator, but also a systematic
method for modifying that original signal through subsequent ‘modules’ before releasing it
to the amp and speakers. So the original signal could be processed through different
modules such as signal amplifiers, envelope generator, filters, modulators etc until it got the
final shape. The modern musical analog modular synthesizer was born, with his first
complete operating machine being ready in 1964.
The instrument received a lot of exposure when Wendy Carlos recorded the album
Switched On Bach in 1968, a selection of JS Bach pieces played entirely on Moog synth
(which considering that the synth was monophonic represented an impressive work of
overdubbing).
Keith Emerson had also been closely following the Moog development and cooperated with
Robert Moog in improving the instrument and popularized the new synth from his band The
Nice and later on ELP, being the first to take one in live rock concerts.
The Modular Moog was not a definite machine but rather a flexible concept, frequently
custom assembled with different modules according to each musician’s desires so each
unit might look bigger or smaller or slightly different. Originally there were two main choices
for the cabinet structure, the C series cabinets were more horizontally laid and intended
more for static operation such as in studios, while the P series were based on more rather
squared cabinets more suited to portable use. Keith Emerson's famous rig was based on a
3C unit while other performers such as Tangerine Dream or Klaus Schulze opted for the P
units. It’s also important to realise that the Moog Modular was not ‘a keyboard’ but rather a
sound generator-processor system. The musical keyboard was the most convenient user
interface to provide input to the system, but other interfaces could be used such as the
ribbon controller famously used by Keith Emerson and first seen by many of us in the video
of Pictures At An Exhibition (these considerations apply to many other synthesizers as
well).
Early Moog with keyboard and ribbon controllers
Keith Emerson playing his customised ribbon controller which released fireworks.
Moog System 55, a configuration derived from and very similar to the earlier 3C originally
used by Keith Emerson
The different modules had to be connected with patch cables which provided a powerful
visual sense of huge complexity. Keith Emerson’s Moog array even included a CRT
oscilloscope.
Keith Emerson’s Modular Moog 3C array (on top of his Hammond C-3 organ)
Even in more modern times the paraphernalia of the patch cables continues providing
visual effect, even if possibly his patches are now programmed.
The Moog Modular was monophonic, in 1975 Moog released the Polymoog as their
polyphonic synth alternative.
Moog also conceived a 3-piece Synth Ensemble which they called “The Constellation”
consisting of a polyphonic synth called Apollo (which would become the Polymoog), a
monophonic solo synth called Lyra (basically a bigger and upgraded Minimoog, some of
which technology would be used in the 1978 Multimoog) and a foot pedals bass synth
called Taurus (which would become the famous Taurus bass pedals). The Apollo and Lyra
prototypes were played by Keith Emerson in the Brain Salad Surgery album and the 1973-
1974 ELP tour including the famous California Jam gig but the Constellation Ensemble was
never actually marketed, yet it paved the way to two important new instruments the
Polymoog and the Taurus bass pedals.
The Moog Constellation Ensemble concept
The Lyra prototype

The Apollo prototype
The ensemble of Apollo plus Lyra
Keith Emerson playing the Apollo and Lyra at the 1974 California Jam
Other notable users of the Modular Moog were Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze or Tomita,
and more recently Erik Norlander (Rocket Scientists, Lana Lane, Asia featuring John Payne
and solo) has also regularly used a Moog Modular.
Tangerine Dream's Chris Franke in 1975. Behind him the modular Moog (P series
cabinets), in front of him an Elka Rhapsody 610 on top of a Mellotron M400, and on the top
right of the picture we see (not completely) an EMS Synthi A.
Perhaps ironically, in some sense the bold Constellation Ensemble concept foreshadowed
the demise of the original Moog Music Company, since what it proposed was actually never
delivered by them but by another manufacturer. By that time Bob Moog was getting himself
distanced from the company’s product development, the Constellation was not brought into
production and instead it was Yamaha who released a similar instrument, the GX-1 in 1975
(see the polyphonic synthesizers entry), which while having limited polyphony, not having
the modular structure of the Constellation and being very expensive produced a great, very
fat and full synth sound.
On the other hand the Apollo / Polymoog, the polyphonic synth module which had to be
the true technological innovation of the Constellation Ensemble leading to high
expectations (with most people expecting some sort of polyphonic Minimoog) failed to
deliver in many aspects. Its development was not led by Bob Moog but by David Luce, and
in seeking for full polyphony he opted for the divide-down technology associated with
string machines (see the ARP Synthesizers entry), which could not produce the fat sounds
of the Modular Moog or the Minimoog. The resulting Polymoog (see the polyphonic synths
entry), while having many good features had rather thin sounds and limited
programmability, it suffered from disastrous unreliability (a 200% failure rate) and it
frustrated many musicians who had been expecting the usual Moog sounds in polyphonic
mode.
Yamaha on the other hand quickly adapted the technology of the very expensive GX-1 into
a more affordable polysynth, the 1976 CS-80 (see the Polyphonic Synthesizers entry),
which while again being only 8-voice polyphonic had a great full sound and was reliable.
And soon after in 1978 Sequential Circuits released their iconic 5-voice polyphonic Prophet
5 which besides great sound and programmability also included good memory storage for
user-programmed sounds. In comparison Moog remained rather still, in 1978 they released
a stripped-down, mostly-preset version called the Polymoog Keyboard (280a model) which
did not add anything in terms of performance, so again it was actually Yamaha and
Sequential Circuits who delivered what people had expected from the Moog Apollo /
Polymoog, a high performance and reliable polyphonic synthesizer.
In the meantime Bob Moog had left his company in 1977 (which was acquired by Norlin)
and it took them until 1982 to release a proper rival to the CS-80 and Prophet 5, the
Memorymoog, which by limiting polyphony to 6 voices achieved finally a nice full synth
sound with good programmability (although puzzlingly for its time it still lacked a velocity-
sensitive keyboard, which the Polymoog did have). Much too late with the digital Yamaha
DX-7 about to hit the streets. Moog had fallen very far behind the competition, they still
presented the SL-8 digital-analogue hybrid prototype in 1983 which looked quite promising,
but the iconic DX-7 and its followers quickly sent analogue synths to oblivion for the next
decade. The SL-8 never reached production and Moog Music finally closed by bankruptcy in
1993, but Bob Moog eventually recovered the rights for the Moog name and re-launched
the company in 2002 (see the Minimoog entry).
Edited by Gerinski - June 10 2017 at 05:52
Gerinski Posted: June 29 2014 at 17:00

Prog Reviewer
THE MINIMOOG
The Moog Modular synths were big, expensive and cumbersome with all their patch cables,
so in 1970 Moog released a compact monophonic synth which was affordable and could be
used for great soloing, the Minimoog D (the models A to C were pre-production prototypes).
It was a revolution and it became a paradigm for Prog Rock, allowing keyboard players to
rival guitar solos from a compact device. It was small enough that it could be conveniently
placed on top of other larger flat-top keyboards (it fitted nicely on top of a Mellotron or a
piano), and it offered amazing crisp tones suitable for aggressive soloing. Many of the synth
Status: Offline solo lines heard in quintessential 1970’s Prog Rock albums were played on a Minimoog,
Points: 4087 Rick Wakeman and Keith Emerson being archetypal Minimoog users.
The Minimoog was also the first synth to include the two wheels at the left for pitch bend
and modulation which became an industry standard since, and indeed synth solos with
pitch bend became a landmark novelty of the early 1970's rock. They had some reputation
for getting out of tune though (a problem referred to as ‘pitch drift’, occurring especially with
temperature changes and typical of many early analog synthesizers).
In 2002 a modern version was released, the Minimoog Voyager, still analog and
monophonic but with many improvements and MIDI interface. An XL version with extended
keyboard was also produced.
Minimoog D
Minimoog Voyager XL
Robert Moog with his 'creatures' in 1974: a System 55 Modular, a Minimoog, a Sonic Six
with a Ribbon Controller on top and a Percussion Controller
THE ARP SYNTHESIZERS
ARP (standing for the initials of founder Alan Robert Pearlman) was the main competitor to
Moog in the 1970’s. Their first product was the ARP 2500, a big modular synth released in
1970 which anecdotically appeared in the movie Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
playing the famous 5 notes phrase to communicate with the aliens. It was also the machine
used by The Who’s Pete Townshend for the famous intros to Won’t Get Fooled Again and
Baba O'Riley. Unlike the Moog Modular the different modules did not need to be connected
by patch cables, instead patching was done by its characteristic Matrix sliding switches
which although less intuitive and probably not simpler gave it a much cleaner look.
ARP 2500 in 'full option' mode
Jimmy Page endorsing the ARP 2500
Pete Townshend with his ARP 2500

ARP’s smaller synths were direct rivals of the Minimoog, mostly the monophonic Soloist /
Pro-Soloist (a favourite of Tony Banks) and the duophonic Odyssey.
ARP Pro-Soloist
Tony Banks rig in 1974: In front the ARP Pro-Soloist on top of the Hammond T-102 organ,
on the left an RMI Electra-Piano on top of the Mellotron M400. Notice that the original bass
pedals from the Hammond organ had been replaced by a Dewtron Mister Bassman
pedalboard (see the Moog Taurus entry).
ARP Odyssey
Jon Lord playing an ARP Odyssey

The ARP 2600 was another great synth sitting in between the big modular systems and the
compact ones.
ARP 2600
Joe Zawinul endorsing the ARP 2600

Tony Banks with an ARP 2600 on top of a Yamaha CP70 Electric Grand Piano
Another very popular product was the ARP-Solina String Ensemble, a compact polyphonic
electronic keyboard belonging more to the family of 'string machines' rather than actual
synthesizers (see the Polyphonic Synthesizers entry) focused on a few strings and wind
sounds and addressed to rival the Mellotron without its mechanical problems. In 1975 a
rare synth version called ARP String Synthesizer was released.
ARP-Solina String Ensemble

String Machines were arguably the first Preset Synthesizers although they are usually not
formally considered as ‘synthesizers’ (see the Polyphonic Synthesizers entry). They were
invented in parallel and independently by three different people. From one side there was
the British Ken Freeman, a private amateur musician with some knowledge of electronics,
not working for any instruments company. Based on some insight gained from the Selmer
Clavioline from the late 1940’s, he built his first prototype in 1969 and spent the following
years refining it and showing it at fairs looking for investors, but it took him until 1974 to
reach an agreement with CMI-Lowrey to produce his machine, which was called the
Freeman String Symphonizer.
Parallely, the Dutch organ manufacturer Eminent-Solina came also with their version of a
string machine (with different technology, using only one master oscillator as sound source
while Freeman’s instrument used a bank of multiple oscillators) and integrated it in their
1972 console organ Eminent 310 Unique, becoming the first string machine commercially
available. However the 310 organ was not a ‘rock musician’s pro’ instrument and went
largely unnoticed (except by Jean Michel Jarre who used it extensively in his 'Oxygene'
album), until in 1974 they detached the string ensemble module from the organ and
released it as a stand-alone compact string machine, the Solina String Ensemble. The
Americans ARP were also at the time experimenting with a string synthesizer but they were
facing quite some problems, and upon seeing Eminent’s instrument they made a deal to
sell it rebadged as ARP-Solina String Ensemble, and this instrument was a big success.
Finally, the Italian Logan Electronics released their own version of a string synthesizer in
1973, the Logan String Melody, which would be also commercialized outside Italy with
Hohner badge.
The Elka Rhapsody and the Roland RS202 were also popular early string machines.
ARP produced very good analog electronics, their oscillators were more stable against
pitch drift than Moog’s, but ARP tended to reuse existing components in their new products
instead of really advancing the technology, the company management was not strong and
they had a stubborn culture of having to do things differently from their archrival Moog
which led them to reject some good ideas appreciated by the musicians, most notably the
pitch-bend wheel, ARP’s alternative being either a pitch knob or the weird
PPC (Proportional Pitch Control) buttons which never enjoyed much success.
ARP’s PPC pressure sensitive buttons in an ARP Axxe. The left button for pitch-down, the
right one for pitch-up and the middle button to produce vibrato.
The 1978 Quadra was another ARP synth widely used by Tony Banks in the period from
And Then There Were Three to “Shapes” (Mama).
Tony Banks playing an ARP Quadra in the 1980 Duke tour, on top of the Hammond T-102.
This would be the last tour where Banks used the Hammond T-102 organ.
In the mid 1970’s ARP invested many resources in developing a guitar-controlled
synthesizer, the Avatar, but it was a commercial failure and sadly ARP finally went bankrupt
in 1981. CBS-Fender acquired the remainings of the company including the design of the
last ARP product, the Chroma synthesizer which was in prototype stage and was
subsequently launched as the Rhodes Chroma.
Notable ARP users include Tony Banks, Jean Michel Jarre, Kansas, Pete Townshend or
Stevie Wonder
THE EMS VCS3 AND SYNTHI
EMS (Electronic Music Studios) from the UK did not get quite as big as the Americans
Moog and ARP but they released some remarkable products. While most people were
focusing on big modular synths costing several thousands of dollars or pounds, EMS
launched in 1969 (1 year before Moog released the Minimoog) an extremely affordable little
synth, the VCS3, which retailed at just UK£ 330, by comparison the Minimoog would retail
at US$ 1,500 which was something like around UK£ 600. Admittedly the VCS3 did not
include the external keyboard which needed to be purchased separately if one wanted to
use the instrument melodically (the DK1 or DK2 keyboards costing around another UK£
150) although you could also plug in the signal from some other organ or keyboard, and
even without a keyboard it could be used to generate sound effects using its knobs and
innovative joystick.
Many of Pink Floyd’s sound effects were produced with a VCS3.
The EMS VCS3 Mark I

Brian Eno with Roxy Music playing a VCS3
Pete Townshend with his VCS3
But besides the price tag, the other remarkable characteristic of the VCS3 was that unlike
the Minimoog, ARP Pro-Soloist or other small synths which were pre-wired, the VCS3 was
a real modular synth with full patching possibilities, just reduced to the basics and a very
small size. It had a 16x16 matrix grid where patching was done by inserting colour-coded
conductive pins, quite neat. These two features meant that the VCS3 made the world of
modular synthesizers accessible to the large public (a specific educational version the
Synthi E was eventually produced).
In 1971 EMS released the Synthi A and in 1972 the Synthi AKS, which were both based on
the VCS3 but even more portable, contained in a plastic briefcase, with the AKS including a
touch-plate keyboard (K) and a sequencer (S).
The EMS Synthi AKS
Shifting from one extreme to the other, in 1971 EMS released also a huge modular synth,
the Synthi 100, oriented to studios (the BBC used one frequently for sci-fi and horror sound
effects such as for Doctor Who), costing around UK£ 10,000 (depending on the precise
specs) and featuring two huge 60x60 matrix patching grids, two duophonic keyboards,
sequencer and optionally a vocoder.
The EMS Synthi 100

One of the two 60x60 matrix patching grids on the Synthi 100
In 1972 EMS released what they advertised as a Guitar Synthesizer, the Synthi Hi-Fli,
although it was actually a multi-effects processor, albeit a rather sophisticated one for its
time, including octave shifting, ring modulator, fuzz and several modulation effects options.
It had a waist-height control panel and two pedals which could be assigned to control
different parameters.
Pink Floyd's David Gilmour bought one of the prototypes and supposedly he used it in Dark
Side Of The Moon and possibly on later albums as well. Steve Hackett also got one.
David Gilmour with his Synthi Hi-Fli prototype and the final production instrument. Notice
that the knobs and switches arrangement are slightly different.
THE FENDER RHODES
The archetypal electric piano, the Rhodes was developed by Harold Rhodes in the 1950’s.
It generates sound by a sort of tuning forks which vibrations are picked up by
electromagnetic pickups. It has a characteristic bright bell-like ethereal sound and was
widely used in Jazz-Rock / Fusion and Prog. There have been several versions.
Fender Rhodes Mk I Stage 88
A variation was the Rhodes Piano Bass, a short version with the pitch range of an electric
bass, most famously played by The Doors' Ray Manzarek.
A Rhodes Piano Bass on top of a Gibson G101 organ, the setup frequently used by Ray
Manzarek with The Doors
THE WURLITZER ELECTRONIC PIANO
The Wurlitzer electric piano (trademarked 'electronic piano' and informally known as 'Wurly')
and the RMI Electra-Piano were the biggest rivals to the Rhodes. The Wurlitzer electric
pianos were originally released in 1954 but the really successful model for the Prog
generation was the model 200 released in 1968. The sound was generated by steel reeds
whose vibrations were picked up by an electromagnetic pickup and it was not too different
from the Rhodes. The most recognizable and popular use of the Wurly in Prog is the typical
Supertramp e-piano sound (they frequently passed it through a chorus or flanger effect).
Pink Floyd's Rick Wright used both Rhodes and Wurly, and the electric piano in Queen's
'You're My Best Friend' was also a Wurly.
Wurlitzer 200A 1972

Supertramp's Roger Hodgson playing a white-cream Wurly 200A. Behind him Rick Davies
with an Elka Rhapsody 610 on top of the Hammond (both also painted in white) and a
Minimoog at his left.
THE RMI ELECTRA-PIANO AND KEYBOARDS
The RMI (Rocky Mount Instruments) Electra-Piano was the other most popular electric
piano next to the Rhodes and the Wurly. But unlike them or other electric pianos which
produced the sound by mechanical / acoustic means and then collected them via
electromagnetic pickups, the RMI produced its sound completely electronically from
transistors, giving it a rather unique sound quite different from a real electric piano or
harpsichord. This allowed also a wider palette of sounds, it had piano, harpsichord and lute
stops, but also an Accenter which produced a more percussive attack and an Organ Mode
which extended the sustain. Rick Wakeman, Jon Lord and Tony Banks were frequent users
and the RMI Electra-Piano was the instrument used by Banks for those sweeping
arpeggios in the background of 'The Carpet Crawlers'. It's biggest weak point was the lack
of a velocity-sensitive keyboard.
RMI Electra-Piano 300
In 1974 RMI released two revolutionary instruments: The Keyboard Computer was the first
portable digital sampler (precisely Rompler), it included 29 fixed sounds but also a punch-
card reader where additional cards with other sounds could be inserted. In a sense it was
also a bit like a synth in that musicians understanding the principles of the coding of the
punch-cards could just experiment by creating their own punch-cards and seeing what
sound was coming out from the machine. To top it off, it was 12-note polyphonic. Rick
Wakeman became an early fan. Two models were produced the KC-I and the 1975 KC-II.
It is hard to overemphasize how innovative this instrument was for its time, just consider
that the painfully long development of the mechanical tapes-based sampler Birotron was
just starting by the time the digital KC-I sampler was already on the shops shelves! No
other digital sampler would be commercialized until the Fairlight in 1980 (although that was
a real sampler not just a rompler like the RMI KC's).
The RMI Keyboard Computer KC-I

A shot of the Yes Going For The One sessions showing Wakeman’s KC-I
The RMI Keyboard Computer KC-II

The other revolutionary instrument was the 1974 RMI Harmonic Synthesizer, the first
commercial digital synth which was way too ahead of its time and remained rather obscure.
It used additive synthesis (opposite to the substractive method usually used in analog
synths) and although the technology was monophonic it employed a trick for pseudo-
polyphonic results: it had 2 monophonic harmonic sound generators each routed to one of
the stereo audio channels. The generator used for accompanying chords had an
arpeggiator, so you could play a chord and the instrument would play its notes repeatedly in
arpeggio generating a chord effect even if playing just one note at a time, and on the other
channel you could play the melody or solo on top (in genuinely monophonic way).
The RMI Harmonic Synthesizer

Jean-Michel Jarre. Behind him we see a Keyboard Computer KC-I and at his left an
Harmonic Synthesizer
The Keyboard Computer and the Harmonic Synthesizer were designed so that they could
be installed as a combo
THE HOHNER CLAVINET AND PIANET
The Hohner Clavinet was a bit like an electrified harpsichord, producing bright staccato
sounds. In some sense it was like an electric guitar triggered by keys. Many Prog Rock
keyboardists used them, one notable user being Kerry Minnear from Gentle Giant.
Hohner Clavinet D6
Le Orme’s Tony Pagliuca in 1972: a Hammond organ topped by a Hohner Clavinet C

(characteristic for its white top compared to the wooden finish of the more common D6
model) and on top of them a Minimoog
Another Hohner keyboard featured in some early Prog was the Pianet, an electric piano
more humble than the Rhodes or Wurly and which had some popularity in the 1960's and
early 1970's.
Robert Fripp with a Hohner Pianet N on top of the Mellotron M400

Van Der Graaf Generator's Peter Hammill playing a Pianet N during the performance of 'A
Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers' at the Belgian TV in 1972
In 1979 Hohner released the Duo which combined the sound of their two most popular rock
keyboards the Pianet and the Clavinet in a single instrument.
Chick Corea endorsing the Hohner Duo

Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones with a Hohner Symphonic 30-N organ on top of the Fender
Rhodes. At his left the Mellotron M400.
FARFISA ORGANS
Farfisa from Italy produced organs of nice warm sounds, more atmospheric and quite
different from the sound of tonewheel organs like the Hammond. The Professional Duo was
a very appreciated model. Notable users include Pink Floyd’s Rick Wright, Van Der Graaf
Generator’s Hugh Banton or Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones.
Farfisa organs were frequently recognised by their big rocker-switches arranged in colour-
coded groups, although they were by no means the only ones to use them (this being a
reason why The Doors Ray Manzarek’s Gibson G101 organ pictured in the entry for the
Rhodes was frequently mistaken to be a Farfisa).
Pink Floyd Rick Wright’s Farfisa Compact Duo Organ

Van Der Graaf Generator’s Hugh Banton playing a Farfisa Professional with its
characteristic grey keys for the natural notes and white keys for the sharps. In front of him a
Hammond E112 organ.
Farfisa also produced some synths such as the analog 1975 Synthorchestra (polyphonic on
4 preset sounds and monophonic for the rest) or the 1979 digital Soundmaker.
Farfisa Synthorchestra
Farfisa Soundmaker
PATRICK MORAZ’s ONE-OFF VAKO ORCHESTRON
The Orchestron was not a prominent instrument in Prog Rock but it deserves mentioning by
the fact that Patrick Moraz commissioned a one-off instrument which he used in the late
legs of the Yes ‘Relayer’ tour and in his solo album ‘I’. It evolved from an early 1970’s Mattel
toy-home keyboard called the Optigan which was actually a sampler (rompler), not too
different in concept from the Mellotron except that it had the sounds stored in optical discs
instead of magnetic tapes. The home keyboard was not successful and the idea was sold
to a company called Vako who presumably saw in it a big potential in the professional
music sector as an alternative to the successful but unreliable Mellotron.
The commercial Orchestron was a rather small unit with just one 36-keys manual, but
Patrick Moraz liked the concept and commissioned a one-off instrument with 3 keyboard
manuals, a bit similar in looks to the Yamaha GX-1, which he used in the later dates of the
Yes’ ‘Relayer’ tour and in his solo album ‘The Story Of I’. This 3-manual and also 2-manual
versions were planned for mass production but never reached the actual market. Moraz’s
unique instrument didn’t last for long as it was damaged beyond repair during some
maintenance work.
At any rate, Vako was probably not an experienced enough company in the music
instruments business, the quality of the sound samples in the commercial unit was not so
good, and the price was high, and the Orchestron was a commercial failure. Only around
50 units of the commercial single-keyboard model were produced and besides Moraz only
a few relevant musicians used it, among them Kraftwerk or Rainbow's Don Airey.
Patrick Moraz’s 3-Manual Custom Vako Orchestron-X
Rainbow’s Don Airey gear in 1981, from left to right: Hohner Clavinet D6 atop Vako
Orchestron, Minimoog and ARP Odyssey atop chopped Hammond B-3, another Minimoog
atop Yamaha CS-80 synth, and below the Hammond a Moog Taurus I bass pedals synth.
Edited by Gerinski - June 10 2017 at 05:50

Prog Reviewer
POLYPHONIC ANALOG SYNTHESIZERS
All the early 1970’s synths were monophonic (they could only play one note at a time, not
chords). In most monophonic synths, if more than one note was played only the last one
sounded. Some exceptions like the ARP Odyssey, the EMS Synthi 100 or E-mu Modular
achieved duophonic polyphony by actually combining two synths one for each note played,
and some complex setups could achieve higher polyphony (for example with the E-mu one
Location: Barcelona Spain could in principle combine up to 10 synths to obtain 10-voice polyphony) but early
Status: Offline polyphony methods were not practical and musicians wanted to be able to play chords with
Points: 4087 their synths.
E-mu Modular 1973

Although not used in classic Prog strictly speaking, when talking about early polyphonic
synths it is probably worth mentioning TONTO (standing for The Original New Timbral
Orchestra, I don’t know if any pun was intended or not but ‘tonto’ in Spanish means
‘dumb’), the mega-synthesizer assembled and handled by engineers / producers /
electronic musicians Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff and used most famously in the
four Stevie Wonder albums from 1971 to 1974 (from Music Of My Mind to Fulfillingness’
First Finale) producing many of the sounds featured in hits such as Superstition or Living
For The City. Its main configuration was gradually assembled between 1968 and 1972 and
it consisted of 3 controller stations surrounded by a hemicycle of modules panels including
components from Moog, ARP, Serge, Oberheim, EMS, Roland, Yamaha, and purpose-built
ones. It is still considered the biggest analog musical synthesizer ever assembled (it still
exists). TONTO was not only polyphonic but also multitimbral, meaning that not only
multiple notes but also multiple patch sounds could be played simultaneously from its
controller keyboard stations. Cecil and Margouleff released also 2 albums of electronic
music with it under the name Tonto’s Expanding Head Band, in 1971 and 1974.
Panoramic view of TONTO

Malcolm Cecil handling his creature
In proper Prog, the first appearance of a polysynth in a studio album was in ELP’s Brain
Salad Surgery, with Emerson playing the prototype of the Polymoog, still called Apollo by
then and credited in the album as the "Moog Polyphonic Synth Ensemble" since it included
also the monophonic solo synth Lyra. Patrick Moraz was another one whom Bob Moog
gave the privilege of having a Polymoog prototype.
At any rate the first commercial polyphonic analog synths were Moog’s Polymoog and the
huge 3-manual Yamaha GX-1 (evolved from the Yamaha Electone EX-42 organ and the
Yamaha CSY-1 combo of organ plus monophonic synth), both released in 1975. The GX-1
was adopted by Keith Emerson producing a significant change of sound for the band (and
divided reactions to it) and seen by many of us in the Works Live tour video, and John Paul
Jones and Stevie Wonder were other notable users.
Moog Polymoog 203a

Yamaha GX-1
Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones playing the GX-1 at Knebworth in 1979
The ARP Omni (1975) was polyphonic but only on two preset sounds Violin and Viola
(similar case with the Farfisa Synthorchestra). Other competitors soon followed, the
Oberheim 4-Voice (1975), the Korg PE-1000 / 2000 (1976), Yamaha CS-80 (1976), Korg
PS-3100 (1977) and notably the hugely successful Prophet-5 by Sequential Circuits (1978,
for which Rick Wakeman actively participated in the design of the user interface).
Here it is convenient to point out that in the mid 1970's a particular family of instruments
was developed which blurred the until-then generally accepted concept of the difference
between an Electronic Organ or Keyboard and a Synthesizer: the Preset Synthesizers, and
particularly the sub-set which became known as 'String Machines'. Up to that point the
general wisdom said that an instrument providing only preset sounds without any
possibilities for editing them and with fixed pitch generation was 'an electronic organ or
keyboard', while synthesizers allowed the musician to build the sound from scratch and
control every parameter, from the basic sound wave shape (traditionally organs could only
produce square waves while synths could also produce sine, sawtooth and triangle) to the
envelope and filters, and their tone generators could produce any pitch not just the fixed
tone pitches of the chromatic scale keys of the keyboard.
Preset Synthesizers were a sort of hybrid, they generated and shaped the sounds as a
synth but the patching and settings determining a sound were pre-programmed, and some
of them allowed editing of some parameters, some more than others. Moreover traditional
Organ-like instruments started to have variable pitch tools such as portamento and pitch-
bend and increasingly advanced features, further blurring the previous concepts. The ARP
Soloist / Pro-Soloist were actually preset synths with a few possibilities for editing the
sound. Focusing on preset sounds and sacrificing editing possibilities made it easier for the
manufacturer to make them polyphonic. Many of these instruments focused on strings
sounds and therefore became known as 'String Machines', or as 'Poly Ensembles' when
they included other sounds such as brass, winds, pianos, percussions etc. The ARP Omni
mentioned above was such an instrument, as well as the Korgs PE-1000 and PE-2000 (PE
standing for Poly Ensemble, the PE-1000 dedicated to percussive sounds and the PE-2000
to strings and sustained sounds, while the true variable Korg synths were the PS family).
The Roland RS202 was one of the String Machines in the mid 1970’s, here in Camel's Pete
Bardens rig in 1977, on top of a Honher Clavinet D6 and a Fender Rhodes. At his right a
Minimoog which was placed on a (not visible) Hammond.
To distinguish them from Preset Synths, 'true' synths with advanced synthesis and editing
capabilities were called 'Variable' or 'Programmable' Synthesizers, although there is no
precise dividing line between them.
Until the arrival of digital synths polyphony for variable synths was still limited, for example
the iconic Prophet-5 had just 5-voice polyphony, in comparison modern upper-level digital
synths have 128-voice polyphony (note that polyphony does not only allow playing ‘with
more than one finger’, if that was the case 10-voice polyphony would be the maximum
needed for any player with two hands. Extended polyphony allows different sounds to be
played simultaneously from a set of notes, for example playing 6 fingers with 3 different
simultaneous patches will use 18 voices, or it allows maintaining sustain of sounds even
after you have already started playing something else etc).
Understanding that there was no definite dividing line between Preset Synths and Variable
Synths, one might say that the only fully polyphonic analog variable synths ever made
(besides the Hammond Novachord) were the Polymoog (with 71-voice polyphony for 71
keys) and the Korg PS-3100 / 3200 / 3300 (with 48-voice polyphony for their 48 keys).
Incidentally, the Yamaha GX-1 had 8-voice polyphony in its 2 lower manuals and the upper
solo manual was monophonic. The Yamaha CS-80 was also 8-voice polyphonic.
Kansas’ Kerry Livgren endorsing the ARP Omni-2

Oberheim 4-Voice
Korg PS-3100
Yamaha CS-80
Sequential Circuits Prophet-5
Rush's Geddy Lee used to play a custom console keyboard which combined an Oberheim
8-voice synth and a Minimoog. This monster was built for him by his technician Tony
Geranios in late 1978, who also built an interface by which Geddy could trigger the
Oberheim sounds from his Moog Taurus pedals. As from 1982 Geddy's favourite synth
became the PPG Wave 2.2 which he combined with an Oberheim OB-Xa and a Roland
Jupiter-8.
Geddy Lee with his 'mashup' of Oberheim 8-voice and Minimoog

Another limitation of the 1970’s analog synths was the lack of memory, which was still a
very expensive resource. As mentioned before, some models in the mid 1970’s offered
some factory presets which the user could take as a starting point and then modify, but the
modified patch could not be stored again, the musician had to reprogram the sound every
time and for every song. When the musician or engineer found a sound patch he liked he
had to write all the settings down in a so-called patch-sheet so he could recover the very
same sound at a later moment. Even a monster like the Yamaha GX-1 or the 1977 Korg
PS-3100 did not have any memory, and by as late as 1978 even a top-level synth such as
the Korg PS-3200 had only 16 user-storable patches. One of the reasons for the Prophet-5
huge success was that it had 40 patches memory (even more in later versions). Synths
produced as from the mid 1980’s (both analog or digital) started to have some decent
storage memory, for example the successful 1984 Roland Juno 106 had 128 memory
patches.
Korg PS-3200
Example of a Patch-Sheet
THE SYNCLAVIER
Besides the obscure RMI Harmonic Synthesizer (which actually combined digital and
analog technology), the Synclavier by NED (New England Digital) was the first commercial
fully digital music synth, and one of the first digital samplers. It was essentially a computer
rather than a musical instrument in the traditional sense, the first version released in 1977
did not even have a musical keyboard controller but only a computer-like alphanumeric
keyboard. Off-the-shelf personal computer components did not exist yet so the company
had to produce all the hardware and software in-house. It allowed both digital sound
synthesis and (as from 1982) also digital sampling. It pioneered the FM synthesis method
later popularized by the Yamaha DX-7.
A musical keyboard interface was eventually offered in 1979, but the sounds could be
triggered from other devices, Pat Metheny used the Synclavier extensively controlling it
from his Roland controller guitar.
They were expensive machines and as such many were owned by music studios and
producers rather than individual musicians, although some notable owners included Pat
Metheny, Tony Banks or Frank Zappa.
Synclavier I
Frank Zappa with a Synclavier II
THE FAIRLIGHT
The Australian Fairlight CMI (Computer Musical Instrument) was very much a product of
the 1980’s and therefore not prominent in classic Prog Rock but it is relevant from an
historical perspective as the device, together with the Synclavier, which made the bridge
from analog synthesizers and analog samplers like the Mellotron to digital synthesizers and
samplers.
Launched in 1979 (same timing as the second generation Synclavier) it was also
essentially a computer designed to generate or sample sounds digitally. A characteristic
feature was the CRT monochrome screen displaying the sound waveform and patterns,
and as from 1982 the 'R page', a primitive graphical multi-track sequencer precursor to
modern DAW (Digital Audio Workstations) user interfaces, and including a light pen for
selecting and editing the items on display (the Synclavier had also a CRT monitor but with
simpler display features).
It is fair to say that the Fairlight was a major revolution in the music scene (the Musicians
Union tried to get it banned because of fear that it would put many musicians out of job!),
and many artists used the Fairlight in the 1980’s including Peter Gabriel, Stevie Wonder,
Geoff Downes, Klaus Schulze, Kate Bush or Queen, but the fast development of digital
sound technology caused the expensive Synclavier and Fairlight to gradually decline in
favour of more affordable and compact digital synth keyboards such as the Yamaha DX
series (1983’s DX-7 was hugely popular and the top-line DX-1, altough expensive was
highly regarded), the Roland D-50 or the Korg M1. The Synclavier and Fairlight remained
used mainly in studios and also for their sampling capability until more advanced samplers
were developed in the mid-late 1980’s.
Another manufacturer deserving mention in that transition period is the German PPG,
which achieved significant success in the early 1980’s with their Wave series which
introduced the wavetable synthesis method. They were used by many German-school
musicians and bands but also many others such as David Bowie, Jean Michel Jarre, Geddy
Lee or Geoff Downes as well as many New-Wave bands.
Fairlight CMI
Klaus Schulze's gear in the mid 1980's
Geoff Downes was one of the first to tour with a Fairlight in the 1982-1983 tour for Asia's
debut album. His rig then was impressive, mounted on a scaffolding above the other 3 band
members. At a 1983 gig in Japan for an MTV event his rig won an entry to the Guinness
Book of Records for being the largest ever played live by a rock keyboardist, with 28
different keyboards (although I suspect, not with absolute certainty, that instruments with 2
manuals were counted as 2 keyboards).
Asia live 1982

Geoff Downes 1982 rig in a bit more detail (this is not exactly the Guinness winning version
but close to it). Honestly I can not tell them all, but I see, from the left: Yamaha CS-80. Next
row (which he is playing on), Yamaha CP70 Electric Grand topped by Hammond J-122 and
SC Prophet-5. Next row to the right, Mellotron M400 topped by Polymoog, the Fairlight
keyboards, 2 Minimoogs and the Fairlight monitor. Next row to the right, Fender Rhodes
topped by Hohner Clavinet C6, Solina String Ensemble (with the Fairlight alphanumeric
keyboard at its left), and SC Prophet-10. Still further to the right a Hammond B-3 topped by
what I think is another Minimoog (but not sure). I know he had somewhere also a Moog
Liberation keytar and almost invisible below the CP70 there was also a Moog Taurus.
Anecdotically, the arrow shows the hand of some technician adjusting the settings on the
Prophet-10.
THE E-MU EMULATOR SAMPLERS
If the release of affordable digital synth keyboards led by the Yamaha DX-7 provided half of
the nails for the Fairlight and Synclavier coffins, the other half came from the first affordable
samplers, of which the E-mu Emulator series were perhaps the most relevant. The first
version was released in 1982 and it was very basic, but the Emulator-II released in 1984
was significantly improved and even with a price tag of around US$ 9,000 it was quite
successful (the Fairlight and Synclavier II costed around US$ 25,000). It used 5 ¼ floppy
diskettes as memory media. It was used among others by Genesis Tony Banks, Yes Tony
Kaye, Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream and a lot of the 1980’s main New Wave bands.
Tony Banks rig circa 1986: at the bottom an ARP Quadra atop (not visible) Sequential
Circuits Prophet-10 (which was basically two Prophet-5’s put together in a dual manual
instrument), left: a NED Synclavier II atop Yamaha DX-7, top: an E-mu Emulator II sampler
atop Yamaha CP70 Electric Grand
MIDI
MIDI is not an instrument but it’s a technology which radically changed the way music is
created and played, and having reached in our journey the point of the development of the
first digital synth keyboards it seems appropriate to dedicate some comment to it.
At the end of the 1970’s some manufacturers started to develop ways to connect different
devices from their product line-up, so for example playing from one keyboard you could use
also a sound patch from another one, but it became quickly evident that if each
manufacturer started developing his own non-compatible technology this would give little
benefit for the musicians, who commonly used instruments from different manufacturers.
Dave Smith from Sequential Circuits was the main developer of a proposal for a universal
interface between electronic music devices, which he introduced at the Audio Engineering
Society show in 1981. The proposal was discussed and fine-tuned between several
manufacturers and completed in 1983 with the name MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital
Interface).
MIDI messages tell the receiving device information about when and how to trigger a sound
(for example bank and program number to trigger, pitch, velocity or vibrato parameters,
duration, panning setting etc) but nothing about the sound itself, which is up to the receiving
device to generate. However MIDI has enabled much more than simply playing one
instrument's sound from another one, it has effectively converted music from an audio
product into a 'computer commodity', triggering a whole new world of possibilities including
the use of sequencers, exchange of modifiable music files, remote programming and many
others.
MIDI has revolutionized the way many musicians create and play music and it fueled the
development of numerous new devices such as sequencers and workstations, samplers,
drum machines, multitude of non-keyboard controller instruments such as the Synthaxe,
the Yamaha G10 MIDI Guitar, the Haken Continuum or the more recent Eigenharp, or even
the possibility to control the show lights from the controller instrument.
Many of the important pre-MIDI analog synths can be retrofitted with MIDI interface ports.
Scheme of MIDI connected devices: When switched on the same channel, playing the
keyboard will produce its piano sound and also the strings and brass sounds from the
sound modules.
THE PIANO
It may seem unnecessary and trivial to include such an ubiquotous instrument as the piano
in this list, but it would be unfair not to mention it either. The acoustic piano has played a big
role in Prog Rock so at least a brief mention is deserved. Many Prog masterpieces owe
their magnificence to the delicate yet powerful sound of the acoustic piano, Keith Emerson
and Rick Wakeman being prime examples. Obviously there are many brands and each
keyboardist had his own preferences but pianos by Steinway & Sons seem to have enjoyed
much support from the 1970’s Prog keyboard gurus.
Grand pianos undoubtedly deliver the richest and most refined sound but Keith Emerson
gave also some relevance to the humble upright piano with his honky-tonk / ragtime tunes
such as Jeremy Bender, The Sheriff or Benny The Bouncer.
If one particular piano deserves mentioning it's Keith Emerson's 1973's spinning piano. He
used it very few times due to the complexity of installing its mechanism and because once
the keyboard lid closed on his fingers while spinning
Keith Emerson at the Steinway Grand Piano
Keith Emerson's spinning piano

In the mid 1970’s some manufacturers, most notably Yamaha, started to produce electric
pianos targeted at reproducing the sound of acoustic pianos as closely as possible, rather
than producing the typical electric piano sound of the Fender Rhodes, Wurly etc. The
Yamaha CP series was very successful in replacing acoustic pianos in live performances
thanks to their convenience and convincing sound, with the CP30 being a very successful
compact model (used by Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman among many others) and the
CP70 (“Electric Grand Piano”) being a hybrid using actual strings but shorter and with an
electric pickup system providing a very convincing reproduction of the sound of a grand
piano in a more compact and convenient instrument. The CP70 was part of Tony Banks rig
for several years.
Keith Emerson at the Elite Studios in Nassau, The Bahamas, where he recorded ‘Honky’,
sitting in front of a Yamaha CP30 electronic piano. At his right a Hammond B-3 topped by a
Hohner Clavinet.
The Yamaha CP70 “Electric Grand Piano”
The Dixie Dregs T. Lavitz gear in 1980, left to right: Oberheim OB-X atop Fender Rhodes,
Prophet-5 atop Yamaha CP70 Electric Grand, Oberheim OB-1 atop Crumar T1B organ
THE PIPE ORGAN
Some of the keyboard gurus wanting the top in bombastic and majestic sounds thought that
the sound of electric organs was not enough and they wanted to incorporate the sound of
the real classical thing, church pipe organs. The first Prog musician to record with a real
pipe organ was probably Keith Emerson, playing the Royal Festival Hall organ for 'The
Three Fates' (ELP debut album) and later the Flentrop Organ at St. Mark’s Church for ‘The
Only Way’ (Tarkus album).
Rick Wakeman followed playing the Mander Pipe Organ at the Church of St. Gilles,
Cripplegate, for ‘Close To The Edge’ and later also for ‘Jane Seymour’ (from The Six Wives
Of Henry VIII album). This is actually an 18th century organ originally made by Jordan and
Bridge in 1733 but completely reworked and maintained by Mander in the 20thcentury.
Rick Wakeman also recorded pipe organ parts for ‘Parallels’ (Yes Going For The One
album) and ‘Judas Iscariot’ (from his solo album Criminal Record) using the organ at St.
Martin's church in Vevey, Switzerland. Curiously, Rick played the organ in Switzerland and
the sound was transmitted in real time to the studio in the UK via a leased telephone line
and recorded there in the UK.
Wakeman even used a portable Mander pipe organ in the Going For The One tour.
Pipe Organ at St. Gilles, Cripplegate

Rick Wakeman playing the St. Martin’s Church organ in Vevey during the Going For The
One sessions, with Jon Anderson playing the harp
THE HAKEN CONTINUUM FINGERBOARD

The Continuum was made popular by Dream Theater’s Jordan Rudess.
Developed by Lippold Haken and marketed as from 2002 the Continuum is a MIDI
controller which enables playing continuously changing sounds by sliding one’s fingers
through its surface, in some sense it can be considered a descendant of the Trautonium
from the 1930’s and the ribbon controller of the Moogs. The interface is a key-less and fret-
less neoprene surface with sensors which provide 3-D sensitivity, the position on the X
horizontal axis determines pitch and the position on the vertical Y axis and the pressure
applied (Z axis) can be programmed to determine for example timbre and amplitude
variation. The pitch variation can be programmed to be either really continuum or following
the tempered chromatic scale to limit portamento effect. It is 16-voice polyphonic.
Haken Continuum Fingerboard
THE MARCODI HARPEJJI
The Harpejji is another recent instrument embraced by Dream Theater’s Jordan Ruddess,
consisting of a stringed flat platform on which the musician can tap with both hands.
Marcodi Harpejji
THE THEREMIN
The Theremin is unique enough to deserve some mentioning. Originally invented in 1928
by the Russian Leon Theremin, it produces sounds without actually touching the
instrument. Typically it has two antennas and the performer moves his hands around them,
the instrument senses the distance and movement of the hands from the antennas and
converts them into sound, one antenna determines pitch and the other determines
amplitude (volume).
Robert Moog produced Theremins before his breakthrough work in developing the
synthesizer. The Theremin produces eerie sounds and has been used by Jimmy Page,
Jean Michel Jarre, Keith Emerson, the Spanish Los Canarios in their album Ciclos and
other experimental and electronic music.
Some modern Roland keyboards have a so-called D-Beam Controller which uses the
movement of the hand in front of a beam of infrared light to control certain parameters or
effects, looking similar to controlling a Theremin, you may see it in modern-era Geoff
Downes playing.
Jimmy Page and the Theremin

D-Beam controller in a 2004 Roland Juno-D synth (the infrared beam is actually invisible)
Edited by Gerinski - January 18 2015 at 06:19

Prog Reviewer
KEYTARS
Keytar is a generic term referring to any keyboard which is operated hung with a strap from
the musician’s shoulders in a similar way as a guitar is. In terms of shape, the origins of the
keytars can be linked to instruments like the Swiss Weltmeister Basset or the Swedish Joh
Mustad Tubon from the 1960’s, but functionally these instruments were oriented to playing
accompanying lines in popular music rather than taking the role of an electronic keyboard in
rock music.
Status: Offline
Points: 4087
The 1963 Weltmeister Basset
Paul McCartney toying with a Tubon in 1966

In the early 1970’s some musicians attempted to play regular keyboards strapping them
and hanging them from the shoulders, most notably Billy Preston and Edgar Winter who
strapped the keyboard section of his ARP 2600 synth. This led to some keyboards
specifically designed to be strapped, such as the Univox/Crumar Compac-Piano or the
Hillwood Rockeyboard RB-1, but these were literally strappable keyboards to be played
placing the two hands on the keyboard from the top, rather than actual keytars which
concept was adopting a guitar-style neck where the left hand was placed from below like in
a guitar and was dedicated basically to operate the expression controls such as pitch-bend
and modulation or to change the program or parameters, and not for playing on the
keyboard which was basically done only with the right hand.
Edgar Winter in 1973 playing the strapped keyboard of his ARP 2600
The Univox Compac-Piano
The Hillwood Rockeyboard RB-1

The first commercial mass-produced keytar was the 1980 Moog Liberation although the
1979 Performance Music Systems Syntar should be considered as well, even if its
commercial attempts were a failure. The Davis Clavitar was also released in 1980, being
just a controller keyboard for monophonic synths while the Moog Liberation and the Syntar
were self-contained synths.
The PMS Syntar

Commercial Ad of the Syntar
The 1980 Moog Liberation and the instrument being played by Jean-Michel Jarre
Davis Clavitar ad and Patrick Moraz with the instrument
However there are two earlier instruments which can be considered as the first genuine
rock keytars. The first is the 1977 Probe designed by Utopia’s Roger Powell (Powell had
been an engineer at ARP) and built by Royalex. Jan Hammer also helped developing it and
he got a slightly different version, Powell’s had a hole for the left hand while Hammer’s had
a mini-neck with more traditional thumb-operated expression controls. MIDI did not exist yet
and the Probe was a controller keyboard linked by cable to an Oberheim synthesizer.
Roger Powell with his version of the Probe

Jan Hammer playing his version of the Probe at the ARTS concert in 1983 (with Jimmy
Page on the guitar)
The other early keytar is rarely mentioned in information sources but it is particularly
relevant for the Prog scene since it was played by Rick Wakeman, and importantly it was
formally called “The Keytar”. It was built in 1978 by KMI (Keynote Musical Instruments) from
the UK and KMI even registered the name “Keytar” so this term could not be officially used
by other manufacturers until the registration expired in the 1990’s. Rick Wakeman played
the prototype in the 1979 Yes tour (mostly in the solo duel with Steve Howe during Starship
Trooper) and also in his solo work, it can be seen for example in the video of Wakeman’s
1979 solo performance of Animal Showdown captured from the German TV show Rock
Pop. KMI could not compete with the big companies like Moog or Korg and their instrument
never reached commercial production, but it is unfair that they are usually omitted from
most historical accounts of the keytar.
Rick Wakeman playing The Keytar during the Yes 1979 concert in Philadelphia (in duel with
Steve Howe)
Detail of the instrument’s ‘headstock’ where the logo ‘The Keytar’ can be clearly seen,
captured from Wakeman’s 1979 solo performance of Animal Showdown in the Rock Pop
TV show
So, perhaps ironically, while many Prog purists despise keytars, their early origins were led
by progressive musicians like Utopia's Roger Powell, Jan Hammer and Rick Wakeman.
In 1982 Sequential Circuits released the Remote Prophet, a keytar which (as the name
obviously suggests) remotely controlled the Prophet-5 via a propietary cable (no MIDI yet).
Asia Geoff Downes with a Remote Prophet and some of his other gear in 1984
Keytars became popular in the 1980’s with main manufacturers including Moog, Roland,
Korg and Yamaha. Some models were synths on their own but with the development of
MIDI many later keytars tended to be just controller keyboards, allowing them to be lighter
and cheaper. Although they were mainly used for Synth Pop some Prog and Jazz-Rock /
Fusion musicians embraced them such as Rick Wakeman, Geoff Downes or Herbie
Hancock.
Geoff Downes playing a modern Roland Keytar

Muse’s Matt Bellamy has a curious instrument built by Hugh Manson called the
‘Keytarcaster’ featuring a 4-string neck for playing bass notes by tapping with the left hand
and a keyboard for the right hand, which he uses for performing Undisclosed Desires.
Matt Bellamy playing the Hugh Manson Keytarcaster
THE SYNTHAXE
The Synthaxe became known thanks to Allan Holdsworth, its most fervent supporter and
virtuoso player. Released in 1984 it was a MIDI controller combining guitar and keyboard
features. The left hand controlled a guitar-like neck, with sensors determining the fingers
position and the string bend. The right hand could be used on either a separate set of 6
short strings as in a guitar or on a 6-keys keyboard (or on keys triggering the 3 bass strings,
the 3 trebble strings or the 6 strings at once). The neck was in an upwards angle for easier
left hand operation. A tremolo bar was also included which could be programmed to control
different MIDI parameters.
Despite Holdsworth’s excellent work with it in albums such as Atavachron or Secrets, the
Synthaxe was very expensive and required a re-training of playing technique which few
musicians were willing to undertake (among all other obvious things, the width of the frets
was constant all along the neck, unlike in a normal guitar where the frets become narrower
the more you move towards the body, this was supposed to make it easier for the performer
but it is unclear whether this was the case or it made it even harder for musicians trained in
standard guitars), and sadly it was a commercial failure with less than 100 made.
The Synthaxe
Allan Holdsworth playing the Synthaxe

THE FENDER STRATOCASTER
Obviously there have been plenty of electric guitars around, but in terms of electric rock
guitars in the 1970’s there were two major camps, the Fender Stratocaster players and the
Gibson Les Paul players.
The Fender Stratocaster, aka the ‘Strat’, was first released in 1954 as one of the first solid-
body Rock & Roll guitars, it had great looks with its revolutionary double-cutaway design
and the neck headstock with all 6 strings tuning machines together on the top side, and
quickly became an icon. Many versions have been produced and many if not most
guitarists have customised them or got signature versions so generalizing about it is tricky.
It had 3 single-coil pickups and a trademark pick-up selection switch, originally of 3
positions which eventually became 5 providing a very nice range of different tonalities.
Another important feature was a standard tremolo-bar bridge in many versions.
Some players found the sound a bit too thin and added humbucker pickups for a thicker
sound, mainly on the bridge pickup, which became informally known as ‘Fat-Strats’.
Users are countless including Jimmy Hendrix, Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour, Mike Oldfield or
Ritchie Blackmore.
David Gilmour playing a Fender Stratocaster

THE FENDER TELECASTER
The single-cutaway Telecaster (aka ‘the Tele’) was not much used in Prog Rock, its sound
was thin and bright, more adapted to country, blues, jazz and standard Rock & Roll, but it’s
an historically important guitar anyway and has been used also by Prog guitarists with
certain frequency.
Anecdotically Steve Morse in his early Dixie Dregs days played a customized guitar
referred to as ‘The Frankenstein’ with Telecaster body and Stratocaster neck (other heavily
customized guitars have been called Frankenstein for example Eddie Van Halen’s most
famous instrument).
Steve Howe playing a Fender Telecaster

Steve Morse’s ‘Frankenstein’ hybrid of Tele and Strat
THE GIBSON LES PAUL

Next to the Fender supporters there was the Gibson supporters camp and Gibson’s most
succesful model was the Les Paul, a guitar originally launched in 1952 which became the
other solid-body iconic rock guitar together with the Fender Strat. Same as with the Strat it
has received continuous upgrades and received countless customisations by its owners so
only some generic statements can be made. A characteristic feature was the 3-position
pick-up selection switch on top of the strings.
Although the very first Les Paul had single-coil pickups, Les Pauls in the late 1960’s and
1970’s had 2 humbuckers, making it one of the main differences with the Stratocaster. They
also had (in the typical configuration) individual volume and tone knobs for each pickup,
effectively offering a mixer for the two pickups, while the Strat (again in its typical
configuration) had only one master volume knob, and two tone knobs usually assigned to
the neck and middle pickups, the bridge pickup not having tone adjustment. Les Pauls
typically did not have a tremolo bar bridge although several guitarists such as Steve
Hackett eventually had versions with one.
Users are again countless including Jimmy Page, Robert Fripp, Steve Hackett, Andy
Latimer or Pete Townshend.
Steve Hackett playing a Gibson Les Paul
Pete Townshend with a Les Paul. In this period he used to tour with 9 Les Pauls set up
differently and numbered. Here we see him with #2.
Although 2 humbucker pickups is the archetypal configuration for the Les Paul, there have
been versions with 3 pickups, the most famous in the Prog world being Robert Fripp’s 1959
Les Paul Custom ‘Black Beauty’ which he used extensively during the 1970’s. Phil
Manzanera, Pete Townshend or Jimmy Page also used 3 pickup Les Pauls and other
players such as Focus’ Jan Akkerman added a 3rd pickup themselves.
Robert Fripp and his 3 pickup Les Paul Custom ‘Black Beauty’
The Les Paul Junior was launched as a more affordable version, with simpler construction
and just 1 pickup, and it produced a crunchier, less refined sound yet loved by many
guitarists, while the Les Paul Special was something in between, also simpler than the
Standard LP but still with 2 pickups. Both were also released in double-cutaway body
versions. Another model, the Les Paul Recording featuring 2 low impedance pickups and
more elaborate electronics was a favourite of Les Paul himself and it was played
occasionally by Jimmy Page or Steve Howe.
Steve Howe playing a Les Paul Junior
The guitars used in The Steve Howe Album, among them a Les Paul Recording (third from
the left in the bottom row)
THE GIBSON ES SERIES
The hollow or semi-hollow body Gibsons ES-175, ES-335 and other ES series models were
favourite guitars of Steve Howe, Alex Lifeson or Pat Metheny.
Steve Howe with a Gibson ES-175

Alex Lifeson playing a Gibson ES-335
THE GIBSON SG
Not very prominent in Prog but also an important guitar in the 1970’s Rock scene, Gibson’s
double-cutaway model was made famous by guitarists like Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi or
AC/DC’s Angus Young, but it was also used by some Prog artists such as Frank Zappa,
Kansas Kerry Livgren or The Who's Pete Townshend.
It was meant as an evolution of the Les Paul and from its introduction in 1961 until 1963 it
was sold as the ‘Les Paul SG’, but the Les Paul name was removed since Les Paul himself
was not fully satisfied with some of its characteristics.
Frank Zappa with a Gibson SG
IBANEZ GUITARS
Next to Fender and Gibson, Ibanez from Japan was the next major player in the electric
guitar business. They were not too prominent in the 1970’s Rock scene but they were very
appreciated in the Jazz-Rock / Fusion scene, and the brand sky-rocketed in the 1980’s with
their immensely successful line of metal-oriented guitars.
Pat Metheny with his signature Ibanez PM200

ACOUSTIC GUITARS
Nylon and 6 or 12-string acoustic guitars were fundamental to classic Prog, from the
gorgeous trio playing of Steve Hackett, Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks in the beginning of
Supper’s Ready to Greg Lake’s ballads, Steve Howe’s The Clap or Alex Lifeson intro to A
Farewell To Kings, nylon and acoustic guitars have provided some of Prog history’s most
magical moments.
Obviously countless brands and models were used, Ovation, Martin, Gretsch, Gibson or
Zemaitis being popular.
Steve Hackett with his Yairi nylon guitar

An acoustic guitar familiar to classic Prog fans is the one Greg Lake shows in the ELP
Works I album inner sleeve, with a heart-shaped sound hole and pearl-inlayed body. This
guitar was custom made for Lake by Zemaitis in 1975 but Lake did not really like its sound
and one day he lost his temper and smashed it. His favourite acoustic guitar was always
the Gibson J-200. Many years later people still kept asking him about the heart guitar and
he finally got Gibson to build him a custom J-200 recreating the look of the Zemaitis, which
he played with the Ringo Starr & His All Starr Band in 2001.
Greg Lake with the original ‘Heart’ Zemaitis and the Gibson J-200 recreation
Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson used to play a small-bodied Martin 0-16NY (small-bodied
acoustic guitars are known as 'parlour guitars'), a guitar which Joan Baez had popularized
in the 1960's and which could be fitted with either nylon or light-tension steel strings.
Recently he plays an even smaller-bodied parlour built for him by luthier Andy Manson
following the design of a traditional French guitar from the 19th century.
Ian Anderson playing his Martin 0-16NY (New Yorker)

Ian Anderson playing the Andy Manson parlour
Mandolins have also been featured in Prog, and more rarely also banjos or ukuleles.
Alex Lifeson playing a mandolin
Pink Floyd's David Gilmour playing an electric mandolin in the The Wall tour
Brian May with an ukulele and a banjo-ukulele
Steve Howe with an ancient-style acoustic guitar
7 AND 8 STRING GUITARS
Guitars are 6 string instruments, aren’t they?
Well it seemed so until the late 1980’s when Frank Zappa’s disciple Steve Vai thought that
6 was not enough, and he got Ibanez to build him a 7-string guitar. Originally he tried
having the 7th string to be a higher note (a high A compared to the standard 1st string E)
but the string had to be so thin that it broke frequently so he changed to the opposite,
having the extra string as a super-low B (compared to the standard 6th string E). The result
was very powerful power-chord sounds and extended ultra-low soloing range, very effective
for music based on these two techniques rather than full chords, and after Vai’s seminal
album Passion And Warfare Ibanez 7-string guitars have been quite successful.
With one more string the traditional chord and scale forms were no longer the rule,
eventually people started to experiment with alternate tunings which opened new
possibilities, explored mostly in the Metal genre for example by Steve Vai’s disciple Devin
Townsend.
Since then many metal guitarists have embraced 7-string and even 8-string guitars, Tosin
Abasi from Animals As Leaders or Meshuggah’s Fredrick Thordendal and Marten Hagstrom
being notable 8-string guitar players.
Ibanez M8M 8-string guitar (Meshuggah)
Not relevant for classic Prog but now that we mention multi-stringed guitars, a short
digression about the curious BC Rich 10-string configuration. Normal guitars are 6-stringed,
or 12-stringed where each string is doubled in unison or with one octave shift producing a
richer, natural chorus-like sound.
BC Rich guitars were popular in the late 1970's and 1980's among hard-rock and metal
guitarists for their unusual aggressive shapes and excellent sound. The model Bich 10 had
a 10-string layout where the first 4 strings were doubled and the last 2 were not, providing a
hybrid sound with rich trebbles and powerful dryer basses (this is something some players
did on 12-string guitars, just not installing the double string on the bass notes). The
standard 6 strings had the tuning machines on the neck headstock as usual, while the 4
double strings (which could be installed or not, so it could be also a regular 6-string guitar)
were installed in the opposite direction with the tuning machines in the body.
The string configuration of the BC Rich Bich 10
A curious and failed instrument was the 1995 9Stein invented by Michael Reizenstein,
which claimed to be equivalent to a bass and a guitar combined in continuous pitch
progression, with all 9 strings tuned in consecutive fourths. However this concept more or
less resurrected in the year 2000 with the NS/Stick which combined these principles with
the Chapman Stick ones (see the Warr Guitar entry).
The unsuccessful 9Stein

BRIAN MAY’s ‘RED SPECIAL’ GUITAR
Queen’s Brian May handcrafted his own guitar together with his father in the mid-late
1960’s and for sure they succeded, giving it not only a very unique and recognisable shape
but also getting one the most unique tones in the history of rock guitars. They built the
guitar with very limited economical resources, using wood from an old fireplace, the tremolo
arm being made from a bicycle saddlebag holder or the tremolo itself using springs taken
from a motorcycle engine valves. However they were extremely thoughtful in seeking
design excellence and their guitar included many features which were much ahead of its
time, such as the zero fret, the fact that the pickguard and all the other hardware could be
removed in order to service the guitar without removing the strings, and especially the
design of the bridge-tremolo set, including string rollers in the bridge, its famous knife-edge
tremolo design, or the careful straight alignment of the strings in the headstock to minimise
friction ensuring that the strings would get back in tune after tremolo operation.
The Mays also re-coiled the pickups and designed the wiring and there probably lies the
secret of its personal sound. Brian’s habit of using a sixpence coin as plectrum probably
contributed as well.
Another distinctive feature is the individual on/off switches and phase shifters for each
pickup, possibly more difficult to manage quickly but enabling more possible combinations
than traditional 3 or 5 position switches.
As far as I know it was also the first electric guitar to feature a full two-octave (24 frets)
fretboard.
It's a telling fact that even after Brian becoming a wealthy star able to afford any instrument
he wants or making a new and better version of it, it's still his original guitar which he plays
the most (although he has a couple of newer replicas), and when it received a thorough
maintenance in 1998, the neck didn't need any adjustment at all, it was still perfect from its
first day.
Endorsed replicas of the Red Special have been marketed by Guild and Burns, and as of
2004 by his own company Brian May Guitars.
Brian May and his Red Special
THE ROLAND GR GUITAR SYNTH AND CONTROLLER GUITARS
While the costly development and unsuccessful sales of the Avatar guitar-controlled synth
was largely responsible for the sad demise of ARP, Roland was the manufacturer which did
not give up and eventually achieved success in this field. The ARP Avatar received input
from a special hexaphonic pickup which could be installed on any guitar (the term
'hexaphonic' here applied to the pickup only, meaning that it could pickup signals from any
of the six strings, the synth itself was monophonic), but Roland thought that it would be
better to offer a complete package of synth plus guitar in order to be sure that the
instrument would have a consistent performance and a recognizable sound. However
Roland was not a guitar maker so they collaborated with Ibanez for building the guitars.
Roland’s first commercial guitar synth was the 1977 GR-500 with GS-500 guitar controller
but it was not successful, it required a change in playing style (for example it was important
to dampen any strings not being played to avoid unwanted noises) and although it included
some clever polyphonic operation in some of its sections like the 'Polyensemble', the true
synth section ('Solo Melody') was monophonic.
The turning point came with the release of the truly polyphonic GR-300 in 1980 with the G-
303 controller guitar (or the more expensive G-808 which was not so succesful). This synth
was a big success thanks to being polyphonic and to the fact that the G-303 was an
excellent guitar in itself, and many important players embraced it, Pat Metheny, Robert
Fripp, Andy Summers and Adrian Belew among others.
The Roland GR-300 Guitar Synth with the G-303 Guitar
Developing a 6-voice polyphonic synth (one for each string) was not so much of a problem
by 1979, but another issue was developing a suitable pickup. Traditional pickups merge the
sound of the 6 strings into a single signal but the synth needed to receive each string as an
isolated signal one for each voice. Besides 2 traditional humbucker pickups to produce
normal guitar sounds, the G-303 / 808 had a special pickup next to the bridge which was in
fact 6 tiny pickups, one for each string to feed the synth. A feature of these pickups was that
they could feedback vibration back to the strings achieving infinite sustain.
Detail of the synth pickup in the G-303

Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew with their G-303's
Robert Fripp noted that the guitar-synth had some limitations which required approaching it
as a new instrument with its own playing technique and not simply utilizing standard guitar
playing techniques with it. The limitations he was referring to were mainly some delay from
the moment of picking until the sound was produced, which prevented fast picking phrases
with good tempo accuracy, and a tendency to pickup sympathetic vibrations from the
strings adjacent to the one you were playing.
The G-303 could also be made to control other synths and from 1983 it was offered in
package with the Synclavier II.
The Synclavier II with Roland G-303 Guitar Package

Pat Metheny with his Synclavier II-controller G-303 which integrated the synth remote
control panel in the guitar body
A next generation came with the GR-700 synth and its very 1980’s shaped G-707 controller
in 1984. Nowadays Roland continues producing guitar synths but no guitars anymore, the
special pickups can be easily installed on any guitar.
Jimmy Page with the GR-700 synth and the G-707 controller guitar
THE E-BOW
The E-Bow is not an instrument in itself but a battery-powered device which is held with the
picking hand and placed in front of the guitar (or other steel-string instrument) strings and
emits a magnetic field causing the strings to vibrate, producing a smooth and infinitely
sustained sound. Pitch is controled with the fretboard hand as usual. Slowly approaching
the E-Bow to the strings creates a slow-attack sound which can be then sustained for long,
mimicking the sound of violins, flutes etc.
Advertisement of the first E-Bow from 1977

Paul Bielatowicz from Neal Morse’s European band playing with an E-Bow on his PRS
guitar
Jimmy Page did not need an E-Bow

Edited by Gerinski - March 12 2015 at 16:39

Prog Reviewer
LAP STEEL GUITARS
The Lap Guitar is an evolution of the Steel / Slide playing technique on regular steel-
stringed guitars, where a tube of metal or glass (usually put on one’s finger) is slid along the
fretboard producing a portamento effect (continuous pitch change opposite to to the
quantized chromatic pitch shift of the frets). The tube is called a Steel and the technique
uses Slide, thereby the two names are interchangeably used (sometimes it is also called
Location: Barcelona Spain Bottleneck Guitar playing). Steel playing probably started in Hawaii in the 19th century. One
Status: Offline can play with a Steel with the guitar hung in normal position, but players realised that
Points: 4087
placing the guitar horizontally on one’s lap gave them more control on the fretboard hand
movement, placing it from above the neck instead of from below. From there it was only a
matter of time that specialized horizontal instruments would be developed, the Lap Steel
Guitars. They exist since the early 20th century and were commonly used in country and
bluegrass, and eventually they got electrified same as regular steel-string guitars.
Steve Howe and Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour are notable players.
A variation of the Lap Steel Guitar is the Pedal Steel Guitar, which additionally has some
pedals and rods which the musician can operate with his feet and knees to produce pitch
bend, volume control or other effects.
David Gilmour playing a lap steel guitar
Steve Howe playing a lap steel guitar

John Paul Jones had a curious 8-string steel bass/guitar manufactured by Hugh Manson,
the Lapaphone, which is a hybrid between a traditional strapped instrument and a
horizontal Lap one, the strings plane is tilted 45 degrees so the performer can play over the
top of the neck as in a real Lap but still enjoying the mobility of a strapped instrument (this
design is based on the Melobar from the late 1960’s). The squared screen below the strings
is a Kaoss 2-D MIDI controller (also included in some guitars Manson has built for Muse’s
Matt Bellamy).
John Paul Jones playing the Hugh Manson Lapaphone
THE CORAL ELECTRIC SITAR
The hippie and psychedelic movement in the 1960’s sparked an interest in Eastern
mysticism and culture, and notably The Beatles’ George Harrison became a follower of
Indian / Buddhist music and fueled an interest in the sitar. Danelectro saw the opportunity
and developed the Coral Electric Sitar, released in 1967, which mimicked the peculiar
sound of the Indian instrument but was easy for western guitarists to play with its familiar 6
string neck and standard guitar tuning. The sitar-like sound was achieved thanks to a
special ‘buzz-bridge’ and 13 sympathetic ‘drone’ strings (all of 0.10 gauge but different
lenght) located on top of the regular 6 strings. Danelectro stopped business in 1969 so
these instruments became quite sought after in the 2nd hand market until Jerry Jones
Guitars restarted its production in the 1990’s, respecting the Danelectro design but
improving a couple of points, mainly the stability of the buzz-effect adjustment and tuning.
Advertisement of the Coral Electric Sitar
Steve Howe playing the Coral Electric Sitar
A very similar concept was used in the custom Gibson acoustic J-200 built for John
McLaughlin in 1975 and which he used with the Indian-oriented band Shakti. It had 7 drone
strings which could be either strummed or simply allowed to sympathetically vibrate,
producing a buzzy sitar-like sound. He had 2 versions, one with body cutaway and one
without.
John McLaughlin with his drone-stringed Custom Gibson J-200 (version with cutaway)
THE FENDER PRECISION & JAZZ BASSES
If on the electric guitar camp the main rivalry was between Fender and Gibson, in the camp
of bass guitars Gibson was not so strong (although they produced some fine basses such
as the Ripper, the Grabber, the Les Paul or the SG / EB series).
In bass guitars the main rivalry was between Fender and Rickenbacker.
Fender’s most popular bass was the Precision Bass (aka P-bass), following the
Stratocaster guitar design. They often featured a single-coil split pickup.
Another very successful model was the Fender Jazz Bass (aka J-bass), recognizable
because the volume and tone knobs are mounted on a separate guard (usually chromed).
Fender bassists are also countless, Greg Lake, John Wetton or Roger Waters among them.
Roger Waters playing a Fender Precision Bass

Geddy Lee playing a Fender Jazz Bass
THE RICKENBACKER BASSES
The Fender bass sound was smooth, deep and warm. By contrast the Rickenbacker
(commonly referred to as 'Ric') was crisper, with powerful trebble notes great for soloing or
lead phrases but also a devastatingly fat bass tone. The most famous models are the 4000
series, mainly the 4001 and 4003. Yes’ Chris Squire, Rush Geddy Lee or Genesis Mike
Rutherford played Rickenbackers frequently.
Chris Squire with a Rickenbacker 4001
Rickenbacker 4005 belonging to The Who’s John Entwistle

Several Rickenbacker 4000 basses: a 4003S/8 (8-string), a 4005, a 4004, a 4003S and a
4001 (S standed for Short Scale, a shorter neck)
Rickebacker produced also guitars and they were very popular in the 1960's (not least
because The Beatles or The Byrds used them) but they rather fell out of fashion in the
1970's, although some guitarists still used them such as Steve Howe, Mike Rutherford or
Phil Manzanera.
The Who's Pete Townshend playing a Rickenbacker model 1993 guitar in the 1960's
Roxy Music Phil Manzanera playing a Rickenbacker 360/12 guitar

FRETLESS BASSES
Some players explored fretless instruments which provided a smoother, portamento-

oriented sound probably coming from traditional jazz contrabass influences. Fretless
technique is quite demanding on the fretboard hand, not only regarding the accurate fingers
position for precise pitch but also the way the finger needs to be pressed against the
fretboard for good sustain, legatto's etc.
Jaco Pastorius modified one of his Fender Jazz basses to make it fretless and was one of
the first modern bassists to promote it. Fretless bass was mostly used in Jazz-Rock /
Fusion but also several more traditional Prog Rock bassists have used it including Geddy
Lee or Roger Waters.
Some instruments are 'lined fretless basses' where the frets are replaced by lines on the
fretboard, others may have dot markers on the fretboard although this is unusual
(frequently this betrays a bass which has been defretted), usually they have markers only
on the top side of the neck.
Jaco Pastorius playing a fretless Ibanez

Tony Franklin playing a fretless Fender Precision bass
Chris Squire played occasionally a fretless Guild JSII held on a stand

Incidentally, fretless guitars exist as well although they are rare, their sound is damped and
technique is very demanding, but some Prog and experimental artists have used them such
as Frank Zappa, Adrian Belew, Steve Vai or Andy Summers.
Andy Summers with a Custom Fretless Hamer

Terry Atkins from Parker Guitars proudly showing the Custom Dragonfly Fretless they built
for Adrian Belew
5 AND MORE STRING BASSES
Although basses were traditionally 4-string instruments, following the same trend as electric
guitars several musicians and manufacturers started experimenting with more strings, and
nowadays 5 and 6 string basses are quite common (even some with more strings,
whose practical playability is questionable).
Dream Theater's John Myung playing an Earnie Ball Music Man Bongo 6 6-string bass
Rob Van Der Loo (Sun Caged, Epica) with his custom Conklin 9-string bass
A different variation of multi-string basses are the 8-string basses consisting of 4 doubled
strings, following the same principle as 12-string guitars, such as the Alembic played by
Greg Lake around 1977 or the Rickenbacker played by Chris Squire.
Greg Lake playing his 8-string Alembic bass
Rickenbacker made two prototypes in the early 1970’s for an 8-string 4000 series bass, one
for The Who’s John Entwistle and one for Yes' Chris Squire, both with the rare ‘potato’
headstock shape, and the model was eventually produced as the 4008 (also available were
the 4001-4003 / 8 which were an adaptation of the standard 4001-4003 to 8 strings, while
the 4008 was designed on purpose to be an 8-string). After the Going For The One tour
Squire’s 4008 prototype got damaged and he replaced it by an 8-string Ranney, and gave
the damaged Ric to Vincent Gallo (who incidentally is godfather to Chris’ son Cameron).
A curiosity for those who like details: Chris Squire wanted the string pattern opposite to
Entwistle, that is, in each pair of strings he wanted the fundamental (thick) string below and
the octave (thin) string on top, while Entwistle used the standard layout found in 12-string
guitars with the fundamental thick string on top and the octave thin string below. The
reversed layout favoured by Squire was better for playing bass without a pick, which is
usually done with fingertip strokes from below upwards, rather than guitar strumming which
is mostly from top downwards, so the first string to be touched and therefore dominant in
the sound is in both cases the fundamental. The ‘potato’ headstock of the prototypes had
normal bass tuning machines for the fundamentals and smaller guitar-like tuning machines
for the octaves. This meant that the headstock tuners layout had to follow the strings order,
so Squire’s bass had the opposite tuners layout (starting from top thin-thick-thin-thick etc)
compared to Entwistle’s (thick-thin-thick-thin etc). After some production units still with
‘potato’ headstock (but ‘upside-down’ shape compared to the prototypes) and still
asymmetric tuners layout, 8-string Rics were fitted with the standard ‘cresting wave’
headstock shape and 8 tuners of the same size which allowed to easily apply any of the
two string layouts. Squire’s layout with the fundamental string below is the most common
for doubled-string basses.
Chris Squire playing his 4008 prototype. Although the picture is not very clear you may
notice the tuners layout in the headstock, clockwise: small-big-small-big-small-big-small-
big. The 'bulge' of the 'potato' is at the lower part of the headstock.
A production replica of Squire’s 4008, with his tuners layout order but notice that the ‘potato’
shape is opposite to the prototype, with the longer ‘bulge’ at the top side of the headstock
John Entwistle’s prototype, with the same ‘potato’ shape as Squire’s (longer bulge below)
but opposite tuners layout, clockwise: big-small-big-small-big-small-big-small
Later production 4008 with the standard ‘cresting wave’ headstock and 8 equal tuners
Chris Squire with the 8-string Ranney which replaced the Ric 4008 prototype (with Trevor
Rabin on guitar)
There are also 12-string basses, either with the 4 standard strings tripled or with 6 doubled
strings, and even 18 string basses.
Hamer Quad 12-string bass with 4 triple strings, belonging to Cheap Trick’s Tom Petersson
Modulus 18-string bass (6 triple strings), also built for Tom Petersson and subsequently
acquired by The Allman Brothers’ Allen Woody
THE MOOG TAURUS BASS PEDALS SYNTH
Evolved from the prototype Taurus from the Constellation Ensemble (see the Moog Modular
Synth entry), the Taurus pedals were yet another innovation by Moog. Most organs had
always had bass pedals but they got somehow lost with the advent of the electronic
keyboards and synthesizers. Moog thought that this needed not be the case and conceived
the Taurus, but perhaps it was a bit surprising that after having conceived it as a bass
pedals synth module for keyboardists it was actually bassists who enthusiastically
embraced it. Most Rock keyboardists played standing up and they frequently moved around
different keyboards, and this made it impractical for them to operate pedals. Bassists on the
other hand were more free, it was already a standard practice for guitarists to operate
multiple effects pedals while the availability of pedals for bassists was more limited, so they
had still room to take in some more work, and it was about bass lines anyway.
In any case the Taurus was not really the first instrument of its kind but it was a big step
forward compared to previous similar devices. In the late 1960’s a company called Dewtron
was producing the Mister Bassman pedals, used by Genesis Mike Rutherford / Tony Banks
and Yes Chris Squire / Jon Anderson, but this was more like the detached bass pedalboard
from a traditional electric organ, not really a bass synth, and its sound was rather simple
and soft. The MusiConics BassMate from the early 1970’s was more advanced but its
capabilities were also rather basic compared to what the Taurus would offer.
The Dewtron Mister Bassman pedals
Genesis live in 1975, we see a Mister Bassman in front of Mike Rutherford

Yes Jon Anderson playing a Mister Bassman with his hands in the video performance of
Yours Is No Disgrace
The MusiConics BassMate and BassMate II

The Moog Taurus was released in 1975 and many Prog bassists embraced the instrument
to complement their sound, as it offered an unbelievably powerful and sustained super-
bass tone, unheard of at the time, especially in live playing where it provided a kind of early
surround, you felt it more than you heard it.
The Taurus I had 13 pedals, 3 preset sounds and one user programmable sound (without
storage memory). In 1981 the Taurus II was launched with 18 pedals and a control panel
which could be placed on a stand at waist height for easier programming, but it did not
enjoy the success of the Taurus I.
In 2010 Moog released the Taurus 3, again with 13 pedals and attempting to recover the
genuine Taurus I sound in an updated machine.
Notable users include Genesis Mike Rutherford, Rush’s Geddy Lee, Yes Chris Squire or
Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones.
The Moog Taurus I

Led Zeppelin in 1977, with a Taurus I in front of John Paul Jones

Prog Reviewer
OTHER GUITARS AND BASSES
In this entry I am putting together some other guitars and basses played by great Prog
musicians or important enough in the classic Prog period to deserve mentioning (multi-neck
instruments are mentioned in a separate entry below).

Location: Barcelona Spain Paul Reed Smith (PRS) guitars are highly appreciated and have been the choice of
Status: Offline numerous top-level guitarists including Santana, Opeth Mikael Akerfeldt, Steven Wilson, Al
Points: 4087
Di Meola and many others.
Steven Wilson with a PRS SingleCut. Other PRS models he plays include the double-
cutaways Custom 22/24, Modern Eagle and P22
Another special guitar played by Steven Wilson is the AlumiSonic 1100 made of aluminum
alloy. At any rate this was nothing really new, Veleno had been building aluminium-body
guitars since the early 1970’s.
Steven Wilson with the aluminum AlumiSonic 1100

The Earnie Ball - Music Man guitars are also excellent, played by guitarist such as John
Petrucci, Steve Morse or Steve Lukather.
Steve Morse playing his signature Music Man
John Petrucci with his signature Music Man JP13
Music Man basses have also an excellent reputation, played by top-level musicians such as
Tony Levin or John Myung.
Queen’s John Deacon playing an early Music Man Stingray bass
Tony Levin playing a Music Man Stingray 5 5-string bass
The Gibson Flying-V and Explorer:

These guitars were not common among Prog guitarists but they achieved quite an iconic
status among Metal bands in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Seeing the huge success of the
Fender Stratocaster, Gibson felt that they needed also some really modern-looking solid-
body guitars, and in 1957 they came up with 3 bold ‘Modernistic’ designs: The Flying-V and
Explorer came into production in 1958 but ironically they were too futuristic for their time
and remained unsuccessful until the Heavy Metal wave of the 1970’s. The 3rd design was
the Moderne which did not see mass-production until a ‘reissue’ version was finally
produced in 1982.
The 3 original Gibson ‘Modernistic’ designs, Flying-V, Explorer and Moderne
Jimmy Hendrix with one of his three Flying-V’s

Brian May in a rather uncommon shot playing a Flying-V in 1984
A famous bass inspired by the Gibson Explorer shape was John Entwistle’s Alembic
‘Spider’ (sometimes also referred to as Exploiter or Explorer).
John Entwistle playing his Alembic 'Spider' or ‘Exploiter’ 4-string. He had also a version with
a V-shape headstock and also an 8-string version.
John Entwistle with his 8-string version of the Alembic Spider in 1977
Another bass which has become familiar to Prog fans is Chris Squire’s Mouradian featuring
his initials CS in the body design.
Chris Squire playing his green Mouradian, with the black lines in the body representing his
initials CS
As mentioned earlier, Gibson’s basses were not as successful as their guitars, but some
players chose them too.
Greg Lake playing a Gibson The Ripper bass in 1974
John Entwistle with a Gibson Thunderbird IV bass (with his son Christopher holding a mini
replica)
Entwistle also played a custom bass with Gibson Thunderbird body and Fender Precision
neck, nicknamed the ‘Fenderbird’
John Entwistle with the ‘Fenderbird’ during the recording sessions for Quadrophenia in
1973
Another custom bass characteristic of Entwistle in his early years was the ‘Axe’ built by
luthier Peter Cook, based on the components of a Fender Jazz bass.
John Entwistle with the Axe bass

Billy Sheehan is undoubtedly another rock bass maestro, and observant people may have
noticed a peculiarity in his signature Yamaha Attitude II bass, the scalloped frets (precisely
the frets 17 to 21 are scalloped for the first two strings G and D). The scalloped frets
facilitate string bending-up, since besides the bend produced by pushing the finger
upwards, applying extra pressure on the string pushes the string into the extra fret depth
providing additional note sharpening. This is especially helpful in a bass guitar where the
strings are not as easy to bend up as in a guitar, and thanks to this Billy can for example
get a high G by bending from the 21st fret on the G string (which would naturally play on the
24th fret).
Scalloped frets also help getting more sustain. A less radical alternative are the so-called
jumbo frets, where the fret metal wire profile height is bigger than in standard fret wire.
Another feature in Sheehan’s Attitude II bass is the ‘Hipshot D-tuner’ which downtunes the
low E string to D with the flick of a small lever in the tuning machine. These 2 features
extend the practical range of the bass and they are partly responsible for Sheehan’s
notorious loyalty to 4-string basses.
Scalloped frets 17 to 21 in Billy Sheehan’s Yamaha Attitude II bass

A player pioneering the use of scalloped frets in his Fender Strat guitar was Richie
Blackmore, and Yngwie Malmsteen also uses them, but scalloped frets in a guitar have a
wider purpose than just helping sustain or facilitating bending-up. Scalloped frets are
sometimes used for educational and training purposes as they force the player to develop a
light touch technique, since if you press the string too hard it will bend up and sharpen the
note audibly (too light and it will produce fret buzz). When the correct pressure is applied
the finger and the string do not touch the fretboard wood, the string touches only the metal
fret wire, and the precise amount of pressure is required to produce the correct pitch, so
scalloped frets help the player learning to apply as little pressure as possible, just enough
to avoid fret buzz but not any more than that. Frequently only the higher frets are scalloped,
which is the area where very fast soloing is more frequently performed. Besides speed with
less effort, a player who has mastered the scalloped neck technique can also take
advantage of it to produce vibrato and subtle variations of pitch by controlling the pressure
applied with the fingers on the strings, without resorting to string bending.
Scalloped fretboard in Richie Blackmore’s Fender Stratocaster

Alembic built high-end instruments, their basses being particularly appreciated and played
by people like John Entwistle, Greg Lake, John Paul Jones, Stanley Clarke or (out of the
Prog world) Level 42’s Mark King. Alembic was halfway between a craftsman luthier and a
small standard builder, although they had some standard catalog models their instruments
were basically built by hand and they always put much focus on custom instruments (which
among other things meant that they were expensive). It is said that the body tail shapes
featured on many of their instruments (the several ‘sting point’ or ‘omega’ variants) were
designed to force the musicians to always leave their instrument on a stand, since most of
the repairs they faced were damages caused by the instrument being left standing on its
body tail and falling down. Another reason why Alembic never became too widespread was
their strict ‘no endorsements’ policy, every musician had to pay for his instrument.
Regarding guitars, Alembic is most known for having built some for The Grateful Dead’s
Jerry Garcia, although Garcia’s most famous guitars such as the ‘Tiger’ were actually built
by ex-Alembic employee Doug Irwin following a construction and style very similar to actual
Alembics.
John Paul Jones playing a custom Alembic Series II bass

“Sting Point” and “Omega” body tails in Alembic basses (a Mark King Signature Deluxe and
a Series I respectively)
Zemaitis was also a craftsman who gained a respected status with his spectacular guitars
and basses adorned with elaborate engravings and inlays. He introduced the ‘Metal Front’
and ‘Pearl Front’ concepts alleging some presumed sound quality arguments but mostly
attractive for their aesthetic appeal. Zemaitis built some guitars for Greg Lake, including his
double-neck, for Jimi Hendrix (his 12-string acoustic) and also for customers such as Ron
Wood or more recently Richie Sambora.
Greg Lake playing a Zemaitis GZ Mono-Cut guitar
Adrian Belew used to play a Fender Mustang significantly modified, with electronics derived
from the Roland G303 to control the GR300 synth, and in recent years he plays mostly
Parker guitars.
Adrian Belew with his modified Fender Mustang in 1984
Adrian Belew playing a Parker Fly

Utopia’s Todd Rundgren Veleno Ankh guitar used in the ‘Ra’ tour possibly inspired Prince’s
‘Love Symbol’ guitar from the 1990’s
Todd Rundgren playing the Ankh guitar in 1977

Phil Manzanera in the 1970’s played frequently a red Gibson Firebird V11. This kind of
headstock with all tuning machines on the same side but upside down compared to the
typical Fender Strat layout (on the lower side of the headstock instead of on the upper side)
is usually referred to as ‘reverse headstock’.
Phil Manzanera playing his Gibson Firebird V11
Charvel / Jackson guitars were mostly adopted by Metal players, since Charvel made its
reputation with their guitars inspired in Eddie Van Halen’s Frankenstein (informally known
as ‘Superstrats’ since they were meant to be more modern interpretations of the Fender
Strat concept) and Charvel’s spin-off Jackson was created after having built the signature
instrument for Randy Rhoads with the Jackson name for fear of it being unsuccessful and
harming the Charvel name, but they were also played by more progressive musicians such
as Jeff Beck, Allan Holdsworth or Shawn Lane.
Jeff Beck with a Charvel Spectrum

A similar comment can be made regarding Hamer guitars, they were mostly popular among
Metal musicians but several Progressive guitarists have played them such as Jethro Tull’s
Martin Barre, Dweezil Zappa or Andy Summers.
Hamer ad featuring Martin Barre

A special mention must be made for the Steinberger headless basses and guitars which
became quite popular in the 1980’s. The industrial designer Ned Steinberger was
requested by luthier Stuart Spector to develop a new bass design, which became the
appreciated NS Spector bass of 1975. During this assignment Steinberger started
questioning all the basic features of the traditional electric bass design and in 1979 he
came up with a revolutionary alternative proposal: by removing the headstock the
instrument would be more balanced and feel much lighter, the tuners could be positioned in
the body and strings with balls on both ends would make string change much quicker and
tuning more stable. The body shape could also be minimalistic to reduce weight, and
advanced materials such as graphite, carbon fiber and composite resins would be used.
Steinberger introduced the resulting L-Bass design to several manufacturers but they all
turned him down so he finally decided to set up his own company to produce them. Despite
its high cost the instrument was an immediate success and soon bassists like Tony Levin,
Geddy Lee, Mike Rutherford, the Dixie Dregs’ Andy West or Sting were playing
Steinbergers.
Geddy Lee playing a Steinberger L-Bass

Guitar versions followed in 1984 and they were also adopted by musicians such as David
Gilmour, Allan Holdsworth, Steve Howe, David Bowie or even Eddie Van Halen. Another
revolutionary feature was the Transtrem tremolo bridge which besides maintaining all
strings in correct relative pitch during even extreme pitch bends with the whammy bar,
allowed transposing the tuning through 6 keys with instant locking. Already in the 2000’s
Steinberger introduced the also innovative Transcale integrated capo system.
Steve Howe with a Steinberger GM3T guitar

Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour in 1987 with a Steinberger GM3T guitar
Eventually Steinberger sold his company to Gibson and started another project, NS Design,
which besides headless basses focuses mainly on electric instruments which can also be
bowed, their line-up including double bass, cello, viola, violin or the 'omni-bass' which can
be played either as a normal strapped plucked bass or bowed in vertical position.
Tony Levin with an NS Double Bass
Allan Holdsworth has always remained a big supporter of headless guitars and besides
genuine Steinbergers he has also played Carvin guitars (also models with headstock such
as the HF2) as well as custom made guitars by luthiers Bill DeLap or Ed Roman following
the Steinberger principles (Ed Roman used to work for Steinberger).
Allan Holdsworth with a headless Carvin HH1X

Another curious instrument is Jon Anderson’s custom MIDI Backpacker, which he built
together with a company called L.R. Baggs based on the body of a Martin Backpacker, the
neck scroll of a viola attached to the headstock and MIDI electronics with which he can
trigger 5 different instrument sounds.
Jon Anderson playing his MIDI Backpacker

John Mitchell from Arena / It Bites / Frost etc used to play Ibanez but more recently he uses
mostly Cort and PRS guitars
John Mitchell playing a Cort G254

Saga’s Ian Crichton is another guitarist with a highly personal sound, all the more
impressive since he barely uses any effects at all. Besides an Ernie Ball Music Man, his
other main guitar is a Lado.
Ian Crichton playing his Lado guitar in Loreley in 2011
Another quite special guitar is Uli Jon Roth’s Sky Guitar which he himself designed,
featuring an exceptionally long fretboard and a body design without lower horn, allowing
reach to exceptionally high notes (it has 6 octaves range in its 7-string version). The highest
frets should be so narrow that actually there is a metal fret wire only every two semitones.
He has versions with 6 and 7 strings, and a limited run of endorsed replicas has been
produced by Dean Guitars.
Uli Jon Roth playing his 7-string Sky Guitar

Resonator Guitars (Dobro)
Resonator guitars, often generically called Dobro guitars which was the main manufacturer
together with National, were not common in Prog but they may deserve a short mention.
They were developed in the late 1920’s to produce a louder sound than the pre-electric
acoustic guitars so that they could be audible among horns and other brass-band or
orchestra instruments, this was achieved by integrating metal cones (resonators) in the
body. The body itself may also be made of metal but not necessarily. They became mostly
used in Blues and Bluegrass (frequently for Steel playing) and more recently they became
familiar to the large public due to one (a Beltona Southerner) featuring in the album cover of
the Dire Straits’ Brothers In Arms album.
Steve Howe with a resonator National Resophonic Student Model 1133
Not relevant for Prog as far as I know, but a curious (and unsuccessful) instrument
developed in the 1970’s was the Guitorgan. Guitorgans were electric guitars which included
also additional circuitry to trigger the sounds from an electric organ (in some models the
organ sound generator being integrated in the guitar body itself, or otherwise sending the
signal to an external organ sound module). The metal fret wires were split in 6 sections and
each section was a switch closing the circuit to produce on an organ the note being played,
so when pressing a string on the neck the pressure on the fret wire would close the circuit
and trigger the organ sound. If the string was picked at the same time, the note sounded in
both the guitar and organ sound simultaneously. The guitar sound and the organ sound
were independent so they could be played individually or both combined.
Advertisement of an MCI Guitorgan and detail of the fret wires split in 6 switch sections
A Godwin Guitorgan from 1976, notice the many knobs and switches
DOUBLE NECK GUITARS / BASSES
As part of the frequent Prog maxim of ‘more is better’, many Prog Rock guitarists and
bassists embraced double-neck instruments, and although some people may say that it
was more for the show than anything else there is no denying that especially for live playing
they offered the musicians an increased sound versatility.
Although Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page was the first to really popularize the double neck
guitar with his candy-red Gibson EDS-1275 (6 and 12 string guitar, which allowed him to
play the different sections of Stairway To Heaven live without having to swap guitars), the
EDS-1275 had actually existed since 1963, but it was so unsuccessful that it was even
discontinued by the time Page commissioned his one to Gibson.
Jimmy Page with his Gibson EDS-1275
The EDS-1275 is actually older than what some people think… (the version in this picture
featuring two 6-string necks of different scale length is strictly speaking an EBS-1250
model)
Steve Howe with a Gibson EMS-1235, mandolin plus 6-string guitar
In the 1970’s double neck instruments became popular, the configuration depended on
each musician’s taste, bass and 6-string guitar, 6-string and 12-string guitar, bass and 12-
string guitar, which one was on top and which one at the bottom etc.
A common problem was weight, making them tiring to play for a long uninterrupted period
of time.
Notable users include Genesis Mike Rutherford, Rush’s Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson or
Led Zeppelin Jimmy Page.
Mike Rutherford had a curious double neck, a Custom Shergold Modulator which could be
assembled as a double neck (bass and 12-string guitar) or disassembled and played as two
separate instruments.
Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee playing their double-neck instruments (a Gibson EDS-1275
and a Rickenbacker 4080/4-12 respectively)
Steve Howe playing a double-neck Gibson EDS-1275

One of Mike Rutherford’s double-neck Shergolds
Greg Lake and his double-neck Zemaitis

Mike Rutherford’s Custom Shergold Modulator disassembled
Mike Rutherford playing the assembled Shergold Modulator

Mike Rutherford has also had custom double necks combining two instruments from
different manufacturers. For the 1974 Selling England By The Pound tour he commissioned
luthier Dick Knight to put together two instruments Mike had, a 1965 4-string Ric 4001 bass
and a 1973 12-string Ric 360/12 guitar. This was before Rickenbacker had released the
stock 4080 double neck, and it had the guitar neck on top and the bass below, opposite to
what the stock Ric 4080 would have. A bit later for The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway tour
he had another double neck made combining a Micro-Frets 6-string bass (actually more a
baritone guitar) and a Ric 12-string guitar, and for the Trick Of The Tail tour he had another
double neck consisting of Micro-Frets baritone 6-string and 12-string guitars. As from then
he used mostly the Shergolds, but for the 2007 tour he had another custom double neck
combining a 12-string Gibson guitar and a 4-string Yamaha bass.
Mike Rutherford with several of his double necks through history, left to right and top to
bottom: custom Rickenbacker 12/4 (used in Selling England tour), custom Rickenbacker /
Micro-Frets 12/6 (used in The Lamb and part of Trick Of The Tail tours), custom Micro-Frets
12/6 (used in Trick Of The Tail tour), Shergold 12/4 Modulator (used from 1977 to 1982),
Status headless 6/4 (used in the Mama tour) and custom Gibson / Yamaha 12/4 (used in
2007).
Another famous double neck guitar is John McLaughlin’s Rex Bogue ‘Double Rainbow’
12/6. McLaughlin had been playing a standard Gibson EDS-1275 until then (it was 1973, in
his Mahavishnu Orchestra period), when luthier Rex Bogue built him this unique piece of art
roughly inspired in the Gibson but much more elaborated with those amazing carvings and
inlays and clever design for the 12-string headstock so it would look symmetric to the 6-
string one. Eventually Ibanez released a stock double neck loosely inspired in the ‘Double
Rainbow’, the 2670 Artwood Twin.
John McLaughlin playing his Rex Bogue ‘Double Rainbow’

Allan Holdsworth maintained his predilection for headless guitars also for double necks. In
the picture below we see him with a custom headless double neck made by luthier Ed
Roman following the Steinberger principles, with two 6-string necks, a baritone on top and a
standard below. Baritone guitars have a longer neck (typically with a scale length of 27 to
28 inches compared to the standard guitar scale length of 24.75 or 25.50 inches) and are
tuned lower (typically a 4th lower in all strings).
Allan Holdsworth with the Ed Roman headless double neck
Given the huge success of Fender’s both guitars and basses it is perhaps surprising that
Fender never seemed to care much for double necks, although some have been built under
their Custom Shop moniker.
Yngwie J. Malmsteen with his signature Fender double neck STW230-YM 12/6
CHRIS SQUIER’s TRIPLE NECK WAL AND OTHER TRIPLE NECK INSTRUMENTS
When Rick Wakeman was preparing his Journey To The Center Of The Earth tour, he
wanted something special for the show and he commissioned Wal guitars to manufacture a
triple-neck instrument (according to some sources it was the King Arthur tour, I’m not
certain which is right). The monster was played by his bassist at the time Roger Newell but
it belonged to Rick and when he returned to Yes for the Going For The One album he took
it with him and lent it to Chris Squire.
It had a (lined) fretless bass at at the bottom, a fretted bass in the middle and a 6-string
guitar at the top. It became Chris’ choice instrument for the live performance of Awaken,
and when Rick left Yes again he gave it permanently to Chris.
The original Wal was very heavy and Squire eventually got a lighter replica made in Japan
and donated the original to Hard Rock Cafe where it stands today in New York.
The Wal triple-neck played by Roger Newell

The Wal triple-neck played by Chris Squire
Other Prog musicians to have used triple-neck instruments include Led Zeppelin’s John
Paul Jones and Jimmy Page (in their case 6 and 12-string guitars plus mandolin,
manufactured by luthier Andy Manson).
John Paul Jones playing his Andy Manson triple-neck

Another triple neck guitar which is reasonably playable is Steve Vai’s white Ibanez (which
he uses for performing ‘I Know You’re Here’) with a lined fretless 6-string at the bottom, a
fretted 6-string in the middle and a 12-string at the top, but other guitars with three or more
necks frequently tend to be oriented to add some show rather than actually contributing to
the musical depth (such as Michael Angelo Battio’s Dean ‘Quad’ 4-neck guitar, the multi-
neck guitars from Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen or even Steve Vai’s own older triple-neck
‘Heart’ Ibanez).
Steve Vai playing his triple neck white Ibanez

Steve Vai with his older triple neck ‘Heart’ guitar

Prog Reviewer
THE CHAPMAN STICK
The Chapman Stick was created by Emmett Chapman in 1974. It consists of a long and
wide fretboard where the musician taps with both hands. Several models have been
produced with 8, 10 or 12 strings. A particularity of the Chapman Stick is that unlike in a
guitar the lowest pitch string is located in the center of the fretboard.
Tony Levin was the pioneer in incorporating it to Prog Rock. Trey Gunn is another notable
Status: Offline player.
Points: 4087
Tony Levin playing the Chapman Stick
THE WARR GUITAR and NS/STICK
The Warr Guitar is a hybrid of a guitar and a Chapman Stick. It allows playing it like a
Chapman tapping with both hands but it also allows other common guitar techniques such
as strumming, picking with a plectrum or slapping. Different version exist with different
number of strings, typically 8, 10 or 12. Most players use a string setup like in the Chapman
with the lowest pitch string in the center of the fretboard although some choose for a
standard guitar setup with the lowest pitch string at the top.
Trey Gunn is the most notable Prog Rock player.
Trey Gunn playing the Warr Guitar
A similar instrument is the NS/Stick designed in collaboration by Chapman and Ned

Steinberger (yes, the one from the headless basses and guitars), with 8 strings.
Don Schiff from the Rocket Scientists playing an NS/Stick

PAT METHENY’s PIKASSO GUITAR
Another unique and curious string instrument is the Pikasso guitar made by luthier Linda
Manzer for Pat Metheny. It has 42 strings. The main 6-string neck is used to play the
background chords by tapping (it can control his Synclavier to produce keyboard-like or
other sounds) and the melodies are played by plucking other strings as in a harp.
Pat Metheny’s Pikasso guitar

PAT METHENY's ORCHESTRION
Always an experimenter, Metheny's most ambitious project to date is probably the

Orchestrion. His fascination for mechanical instruments started as a kid with his
grandfather's player piano, and the Orchestrion is the culmination of this fascination. It
consists of a huge array of instruments which play mechanically driven by solenoids
triggered by Metheny's playing on the guitar and loops / sequencers. So it's a one-man
orchestra with which Metheny alone can play complete multi-intrument musical pieces in
real time.
It includes piano, marimba, vibraphone, bass, drums, cymbals and various percussion
instruments, blown bottles... He recorded the Orchestrion album with it in 2010 and more
impressively he dared to tour live with it, with great success.
Pat Metheny with his Orchestrion

ACOUSTIC DRUMS AND PERCUSSIONS
There’s not much to say about traditional acoustic drum kits and percussions except that in
1970’s Prog, size did matter. Again the ‘more is better’ philosophy seemed to call for a race
for which drummer would have the biggest and most spectacular drum kit. As usual in Prog
though, the great thing is that drummers did really take their skills to the limit to use
effectively all those elements (unlike other music styles where sometimes a huge drum kit
was present but hardly taken advantage of).
Double bass drums, more than one snare for different nuances, lots of toms, floor toms and
cymbals were the norm. Drummers frequently complemented their drum kits with assorted
percusssions, chimes, tubular bells, cowbells, gongs, bells, xylophones or glockenspiels…
Up to the present many manufacturers have made good drums but in the 1970’s the most
appreciated brands were probably Ludwig, Tama, Pearl and Premier.
Regarding cymbals Paiste, Zildjian and Sabian were the most common.
One of Terry Bozzio’s drum kits (notice the bass drum pedals)
Mike Portnoy with one of his kits
Neil Peart with one of his kits

CARL PALMER’s STAINLESS STEEL DRUM KIT
It’s not the purpose here to go into any detail about particular drum kits, but if one deserves
mention is Carl Palmer’s 1973 rotating custom drum kit made of stainless steel (its
construction was sponsored by British Steel). The drum shells were of half-inch thick steel
sheet and he asked jeweler Paul Raven to manually carve drawings on them using a
dentist drill. It featured also the bell on its top which he famously played by pulling the rope
with his teeth. The whole thing weighted 2.5 tons and several stages had to be reinforced to
hold its weight and in some cases gigs had to be cancelled altogether. Although it was an
acoustic kit it included a synthesizer processing the sound from the microphones (the
famous effects in the Toccata solo), effectively making it the first electronic drum kit. He
didn’t use it for long.
Carl Palmer’s stainless steel drum kit

THE ROTOTOMS
Rototoms (also spelled Roto Toms) are toms consisting only of a drum head held by a
circular frame, without shell. Modern Rototoms were first marketed by Remo although the
idea is derived from mechanisms applied to bongos and symphonic drums since as early
as the 1920’s. The characteristic idea behind Rototoms is quick and precise tuning for
melodic percussion. Normal tom heads need tuning by adjusting several tuning bolts in the
perimeter of the frame (the number of bolts depending on the tom brand and diameter but
typically around 6) and this makes precise melodic / chromatic tuning cumbersome and
time-consuming. Rototoms on the other hand are mounted on a threaded central bolt and
tuning is adjusted by simply turning the tom frame clockwise or counter-clockwise. This
allows very easy and fast precise tuning. The sound of the Rototoms is not deep but rather
trebble and percussive, ideal for starting a long fill and then switching to normal lower-pitch
toms.
Bill Bruford was an early embracer but many other drummers have used them.
Rototoms in Bill Bruford’s kit

THE TAMA OCTOBAN TOMS
Tama released the Octoban toms in 1978 and although the name is Tama trademark the
term Octoban has become generically used for this kind of toms, although they are also
sometimes called tube-toms, quarter toms or Rata Toms which is the trademark from
another manufacturer DW Drums.
They are deep shell, single-headed toms where the pitch variation comes from change in
shell length instead of from change in shell diameter. The diameter is fixed and small (150
mm in the original Tama model).
The term Octoban makes reference to ‘eight’ and ‘octave’ since the original Tama Octobans
range consist of a set of 8 different shell lenghts ranging from 280 to 600 mm tuned
melodically covering one octave range (frequently drummers installed only 2 or 4 of them in
their kits).
Simon Phillips, Bill Bruford or Stewart Copeland have used them frequently.
The complete set of 8 Octobans

Octobans in Stewart Copeland's kit
ELECTRONIC DRUMS
Although some purists may despise electronic drums, they offered a path for innovation in
the 1980’s and several great Prog drummers have made excellent use of them including
Neil Peart, Bill Bruford, Nick Mason or Phil Collins.
The first commercial electronic drum kit was the Simmons SDS-5 released in 1980, famous
for the hexagonal shape of its drums which allowed positioning them in a honeycomb
pattern, and Simmons continued releasing upgraded versions until its demise in the late
1990’s when mostly Roland (and to a much lesser extent Yamaha) took over the electronic
drums market. A main problem of Simmons drums was that the response of the heads to
the drummer’s sticks did not feel natural compared to acoustic drumheads, causing many
drummers to not feel entirely comfortable and getting fatigue.
Roland released its first electronic drums called ‘Compact Drum System’ in 1992 and
although technically superior to the Simmons in many respects, they still suffered from
uncomfortable feedback from the heads to the drummer’s hands. Roland understood that
this was the main problem for real success and set out to cooperate with Remo, the top
manufacturer of acoustic drum heads, to find a solution. Together they developed a new
head material they called ‘mesh drumhead’ which among other properties could be
tensioned in the way traditional acoustic heads are tuned but without affecting the pitch, just
in order to adjust the feedback to the drummer’s preference. This plus further innovations in
the electronics culminated in the V-Drums of 1997. Since then Roland V-Drums have
become the most popular electronic drums.
Originally the electronic cymbal sounds were rather poor and even today many professional
drummers still use acoustic cymbals even when playing electronic drums, but the sound
quality of electronic cymbals has improved a lot and is now fairly realistic.
Drummers who have tastefully integrated acoustic and electronic drums include Bill
Bruford, Neil Peart or Nick Mason, sometimes having rotating kits which depending on the
orientation are mostly an acoustic kit or mostly an electronic kit.
Simmons Drums in Bill Bruford’s kit
Neil Peart’s kit in the Hold Your Fire period, combining Ludwig acoustic and Simmons
electronic drums
OTHER DRUMS
Perhaps worth a short mention is Led Zeppelin John Bonham’s Ludwig ‘Vistalite’ amber
translucent kit, one of the first with the shells made of translucent plastic rather than wood
or metal (or opaque fiberglass such as the Fibes). The Vistalites were released in 1972
(Fibes would also release their translucent or transparent version ‘Crystalite’ in 1977).
Jethro Tull’s Barriemore Barlow had also a Ludwig Vistalite kit, in his case a blue one.
John Bonham’s Ludwig amber ‘Vistalite’ kit

Barriemore Barlow and his blue Vistalite kit
A quirky percussion element were the North drums first released in 1972, with the tom
shells made of fiberglass and fitted with a single head. The toms and floor toms had a horn
shape with the mouth directed to the front, the idea was to focus the sound projection
towards the audience, and indeed these drums sounded very loud to the audience in front
of the stage. However this characteristic was probably not too important in the professional
world where drum kits were amplified anyway, and on the negative side their sound was not
to everyone’s taste (someone described them as sounding like ‘banging on a big
Tupperware’) and they were not easy for the sound techs to mic and mix.
Billy Cobham and Yes Alan White used them shortly but North drums never achieved much
success, although a similar concept carried on in the Staccato drums released in 1977 and
still in production, albeit also with little commercial success.
Yes Alan White’s kit in the 1978 Tormato tour, featuring two red North toms
Billy Cobham pictured with some North toms
A Staccato drum kit

Another very special drum kit was the one played by Utopia’s Willie Wilcox around 1980
and nicknamed ‘Trapparatus’. It was a sort of ‘drumming capsule’ mounted on a frame and
with Willie sitting in a car-style seat with his feet leaning forward. The bass drum and toms
were very small and triggered electronic drum sounds. In some version he added a sort of
exhaust pipes resulting in the whole kit resembling a custom motorbike.
Willie Wilcox and his ‘Trapparatus’ drum kit

Prog Reviewer
THE TUBULAR BELLS
Despite the iconic cover of Mike Oldfield’s debut album, tubular bells are straight vertical
tuned pipes mounted on a rack and played with wooden hammers. The idea behind Mike
Oldfield’s album artwork was a destroyed tubular bell.

Location: Barcelona Spain Tubular Bells
Status: Offline
Points: 4087
THE HARP
Personally I would have liked the harp to be more prominent in Prog Rock since I love its
timbre, but its appearances were limited. The best known use is perhaps by Yes Jon
Anderson, who while not being a harp virtuoso produced some nice accompaniments for
example in the middle section of Awaken. A more thorough use of the arp was done by the
Swiss Andreas Vollenweider.
Queen’s Brian May is credited with playing the harp in some Queen songs but reportedly
he could not really play it, he recorded each chord one at a time and then they were put
together in the studio.
Yes Jon Anderson playing the harp

Andreas Vollenweider
THE VIOLIN
Bowed string instruments have also had their place in classic Prog Rock with bands like
Gentle Giant using Violas, Cellos etc, the violin being probably the most prominently used,
either amplified or in fully electric form. Key users of violin were Kansas Robby Steinhardt
(later substituted by David Ragsdale), Eddie Jobson from UK and Jethro Tull, King
Crimson's David Cross and Jean-Luc Ponty.
Eddie Jobson with his famous transparent violin
Gentle Giant live in 1975, with Ray Shulman playing a violin and Kerry Minnear playing a
cello
THE FLUTE AND RECORDER
The archetypal flute player in Prog Rock is Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson, but also Peter
Gabriel made great use of it in early Genesis, as well as Focus Thijs Van Leer. Gentle Giant
used also both flutes and recorders.
Peter Gabriel playing the flute
Camel's Mel Collins and Andy Latimer in a flute duet performing The Snow Goose in 1977
THE SAXOPHONE
The Sax was most widely used as a main instrument in Jazz-Rock / Fusion than in
standard Prog Rock but it surely deserves a mention. David Jackson from Van Der Graaf
Generator is perhaps the most notable classic Prog musician dedicated to Sax, but Sax has
also played an important role as soloing instrument, Pink Floyd’s ‘Money’ being a classical
example. Ian McDonald and Mel Collins were also remarkable classic Prog sax players.
David Jackson with his famous two saxes
THE BAGPIPE
The Bagpipe, or its variants such as the bowel-blown Irish Uilleann Pipe, has had some
presence in Prog since the days of early Mike Oldfield (or even earlier with bands like East
Of Eden), and it has also been used by other Celtic-influenced bands like Iona, Mostly
Autumn or the Prog-Folk of Alan Stivell.
Iona's Troy Donockley playing the Uilleann Pipe

THE TALK BOX
The Talk Box, sometimes called ‘the talking guitar’ was not very used in Prog but it has
been occasionally used by David Gilmour (in ‘Pigs’ for example), Steve Morse and others.
While there were older similar devices the modern Talk Box was created by Bob Heil in
1973 and made popular mostly by Joe Walsh and Peter Frampton. In a Talk Box the sound
signal from the guitar (or other instrument) amp is sent to the box which contains a small
speaker driver connected to a plastic tube which goes up into the mouth of the performer,
who has a microphone in front of him. The sound of the guitar enters the mouth where it is
altered by the mouth’s shape and is then picked up by the microphone. By changing the
mouth’s shape and tongue position the performer can alter the frequency spectrum and
harmonics of the sound in different ways, and if he mouths words the resulting sound
seems as if the guitar is talking.
A Talk Box
David Gilmour playing with a Talk Box
THE VOCODER
The Vocoder produces a sort of robotic voice. The basic concept was originally developed
in the 1930’s for encoding voice telecommunications but it eventually got also into the
music world, with Robert Moog once again being one of its first developers for music in the
late 1960’s.
The system’s input consists of a microphone (called the ‘modulator signal') and a ‘carrier
signal' (usually a synthesizer producing any sound). The performer talks or sings into the
microphone at the same time as he plays the synth, the spectral characteristics of the voice
are analysed and mapped into the synth source sound, producing a hybrid signal between
both, with the synth sound adopting some of the vocal qualities, and depending on the
synth sound used sounding more or less as a talking synth.
Kraftwerk used it frequently for example in the ‘Autobahn’ album, other users have been
Alan Parsons in ‘I Robot’, Pink Floyd (the barking dog in ‘Dogs’) or Mike Oldfield (for
example in ‘Five Miles Out’).
Several manufacturers produced Vocoders including Moog, Korg, EMS or Roland.
A Korg Vocoder
SOUND EFFECTS
Soon after the electrification of instruments, musicians and engineers learnt that the sound
could be altered in different ways, sometimes unwantedly such as when an electric guitar
sounded distorted if the signal gain was too high, sometimes by electromechanical means
such as producing reverberation by inserting a spring between a transducer and a pickup in
a spring reverb effect, or by purely electronic means, and gradually started to use these
techniques in their favour in order to deliberately manipulate the sound.
Effects were mostly used on electric guitars although they gradually became commonly
used with keyboards, basses and any other instruments.
Nowadays there is a huge range of effects available, Boss alone which is one the classic
manufacturers has 56 different stompboxes in their line-up, and digital sound technology
has pushed the boundaries of sound manipulation to the point where there are no limits
anymore, so here I will mention only the most common single effects used in the 1970’s
and 1980’s (which in any case remain the main ingredients of most modern complex
effects).
Effects processors come in different formats, stompboxes are the classic single-effect
pedals which can be connected in series and they were the most commonly used in the
1970’s, their main advantage being flexibility, you can combine them from different
manufacturers and connect them in different sequences. Later on floor multi-FX
pedalboards became popular because among other things they allowed storing multi-FX
combinations as user presets which could be called at a press of a pedal switch. Rack-
mounted effects can offer more sophisticated technology without the size limitation of floor
units. Finally effects can also be built-in in the instruments themselves or amps.
Boss Stompbox Effects Pedals

The main classic effects can be classified by the kind of sound alteration they produce:
a) Distortion / Overdrive / Fuzz: all these work by increasing gain and clipping the ends of
the wave amplitude making it more ‘square-wave’ and modifying the harmonics. Overdrive
is a kind of mild Distortion which appears at higher volumes but sounds cleaner at low
volumes. Fuzz is no so much based on adding gain but mainly on clipping the wave shape,
producing that typical late 1960’s sound which while distorted, it does not sound ‘Heavy
Metal’.
b) Reverb / Delay: These add echoes to the original sound. Reverb reproduces the natural
echo of a spatial location where the sound waves are reflected by the walls and ceiling and
gradually fade out. Delay is a more artificial echo where the sound is simply repeated after
a time interval, once or multiple times (often the delay time is in the order of miliseconds, so
it is not always obviously heard as a repeated note). A Loop effect would be another
modern effect in this category.
c) Modulation effects: these would include Chorus, Flanger, Tremolo, Vibrato and Phase
Shifters. These effects typically split the sound and to some of the signals alter slightly the
timbre, pitch, phase or amplitude, and then recombine them all together, resulting in a
richer, more ‘rippling’ sound.
d) EQ / Wah-Wah: these alter the equalization across the frequency spectrum. The Wah-
Wah does so dynamically in real time at the musicians will using a potentiometer pedal. The
Talk-Box could be included in this category as well.
e) Pitch-Shift: these would include Octavers, Pitch-Shifters and Harmonizers.
f) Volume-related: these would include Volume pedals, Compressors (which dampen the
attack and amplify the sustain, smoothening the sound) and Noise Gates (which eliminate
sounds below a certain volume threshold to reduce hiss and noise).
by Gerard Bassols
Edited by Gerinski - November 15 2014 at 09:29

floflo79 Posted: June 30 2014 at 05:56
Forum Senior Member
What a great work ! Impressionant !
Joined: March 21 2013

Location: France
Status: Offline
Points: 245
moshkito Posted: June 30 2014 at 09:25

Forum Senior Member
Hi,
It is a very nice and impressive work, and I have not read a whole lot of it yet, but promise
that I will.
I only have one concern here ... it's like saying that no one else EVER used any of these
instruments and it's not true at all. Progressive music, or anything else, is not the only
mode that is experimenting with instruments. In fact, most of them we can't even handle
when we first hear it.
Joined: January 04 2007
Location: Grok City So s synth by this and that person is important, but by Carlos or Tomita it is not. I still think
Status: Offline
that this fits way better as the development of instrumentation in modern/rock/jazz music!
Points: 7895
Does not fit as "progressive".
... none of the hits, none of the time ... now you know what the art is all about!
www.pedrosena.com

Prog Reviewer
moshkito wrote:
Hi,
It is a very nice and impressive work, and I have not read a whole lot of it yet, but
promise that I will.
I only have one concern here ... it's like saying that no one else EVER used any of these
instruments and it's not true at all. Progressive music, or anything else, is not the only
mode that is experimenting with instruments. In fact, most of them we can't even handle
Status: Offline when we first hear it.
Points: 4087
So s synth by this and that person is important, but by Carlos or Tomita it is not. I still
think that this fits way better as the development of instrumentation in modern/rock/jazz
music!
Does not fit as "progressive".
Hi Pedro,
I'm not quite sure what you are meaning. Obviously this article does not mean that all
these instruments were only used in Prog! (please read the introduction). They were just
instruments from that period, used in Prog as well as in many other genres at the time.

Prog Reviewer
floflo79 wrote:
What a great work ! Impressionant !
Merci mon ami

Status: Offline
Points: 4087
moshkito Posted: August 09 2014 at 10:35

Forum Senior Member
Gerinski wrote:
They were just instruments from that period, used in Prog as well as in many other
genres at the time.
Then the title is WRONG!

It shold use "Popular Music", be it progressive, prog, jazz or anything else, it would fit your
Location: Grok City
Status: Offline
descriptions and magnus opus a lot better.
Points: 7895
I, personally, find it offensive, that we think so little of everything else, and consider "prog
rock" above and beyond many things because of an instrument, that was also used in
every other category out there.
Your fascination with "prog rock" is bringing down the quality of your work.
This is maginificent work and study, and it would be even better if it showed how it
IMPROVED ALL MUSIC ... instead of just "prog rock". Your entry and introduction is lacking
because it is not about the title, either.
www.pedrosena.com
Gerinski Posted: August 09 2014 at 12:13

Prog Reviewer
moshkito wrote:
Gerinski wrote:
They were just instruments from that period, used in Prog as well as in many other
genres at the time.

Then the title is WRONG!
Status: Offline
Points: 4087
It shold use "Popular Music", be it progressive, prog, jazz or anything else, it would fit
your descriptions and magnus opus a lot better.
I, personally, find it offensive, that we think so little of everything else, and consider
"prog rock" above and beyond many things because of an instrument, that was also used
in every other category out there.
Your fascination with "prog rock" is bringing down the quality of your work.
This is maginificent work and study, and it would be even better if it showed how it
IMPROVED ALL MUSIC ... instead of just "prog rock". Your entry and introduction is
lacking because it is not about the title, either.
Re-quote of the introduction:
"For sure a more precise title for this article should be something like “An illustrated guide
to some of the instruments frequently used in classic Prog Rock”, since the list does not
intend to be comprehensive and all these instruments were of course not “Prog Rock
instruments”, they were simply instruments of their period, used in Prog as well as in many
other genres during that period, but the title is intended as a practical shortcut."
moshkito Posted: August 10 2014 at 11:14

Forum Senior Member
Gerinski wrote:
...
Re-quote of the introduction:
"For sure a more precise title for this article should be something like “An illustrated guide
to some of the instruments frequently used in classic Prog Rock”, since the list does not
intend to be comprehensive and all these instruments were of course not “Prog Rock
instruments”, they were simply instruments of their period, used in Prog as well as in
many other genres during that period, but the title is intended as a practical shortcut."
Location: Grok City
Status: Offline
Points: 7895
Whatever ... perfect for the magazine Rolling Stone, for the no-read nothing folks that only
like pictures of stars.
In your case the instruments and pictures are the stars, because the content is mis-leading
via the title!
www.pedrosena.com
The Dark Elf Posted: August 10 2014 at 22:24

Forum Senior Member
Excellent archival document, Gerinski. Fascinating. And the title makes perfect sense for a
prog-rock site; except, of course, for insufferable pr*cks with a bizarre axe to grind.
P.S. Might I suggest an addition under the acoustic guitar category? Ian Anderson's use of
a Martin 0-16NY and other small bodied "parlour" guitars of the Martin New Yorker series.
An iconic look and sound in the 70s.
Edited by The Dark Elf - August 10 2014 at 22:28
VIP Member

Location: Michigan
Status: Offline
Points: 6279
...a vigorous circular motion hitherto unknown to the people of this area, but
destined
to take the place of the mud shark in your mythology...

Prog Reviewer
The Dark Elf wrote:
P.S. Might I suggest an addition under the acoustic guitar category? Ian Anderson's use
of a Martin 0-16NY and other small bodied "parlour" guitars of the Martin New Yorker
series. An iconic look and sound in the 70s.
Thanks and good suggestion, taken! I will see for an update asap!

Status: Offline
Points: 4087
PrognosticMind Posted: August 12 2014 at 06:23

Forum Senior Member
Holy HELL...
...This just might be my favorite thread EVER.
While I don't own an actual mellotron, moog synth, or anything to that degree - I DID
invest in a Roland GR-55 and GK3 pickup for my Ibanez RG Premium, and I haven't looked
back! Also, Parker guitars are absolutely INSANE to play.
Joined: August 02 2014

Location: New Hampshire
Status: Offline
Points: 1195

Prog Reviewer
The Dark Elf wrote:
P.S. Might I suggest an addition under the acoustic guitar category? Ian Anderson's use
of a Martin 0-16NY and other small bodied "parlour" guitars of the Martin New Yorker
series. An iconic look and sound in the 70s.
Anderson's Martin and his even smaller recent parlour added in the entry for acoustic
guitars.
Status: Offline
Points: 4087 BTW, even having re-posted this long article splitting it in separate multiple posts, this
thread is again suffering the strange problem that for some reason it does not shift to page
2, every new post gets added to page 1, I hope this does not cause loading problems for
some people's browsers.

Prog Reviewer
In the polysynths entry I have added Geddy Lee's late 1970's custom keyboard combining
an Oberheim 8-voice synth and a Minimoog.

Status: Offline
Points: 4087
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Gerinski Topic: An Illustrated Guide to Prog Rock Instruments (new

AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO PROG ROCK INSTRUMENTS

Chamberlin 600 1962, the blueprint for the first Mellotron

Mike Pinder with The Moody Blues playing his Mk II in 1967

Sound Sales Mellotron 4-Track

THE HAMMOND ORGAN

Hammond B-3 and Leslie Cabinet

Keith Emerson abusing his L-100

Keith Emerson with a chopped Goff Hammond (topped by a Korg Oasys)

THE MOOG MODULAR SYNTHESIZER

Buchla 100 1963

Early Moog with keyboard and ribbon controllers

The Moog Constellation Ensemble concept

The Lyra prototype

The ensemble of Apollo plus Lyra

Edited by Gerinski - June 10 2017 at 05:52

Gerinski Posted: June 29 2014 at 17:00

THE ARP SYNTHESIZERS

Jimmy Page endorsing the ARP 2500

Pete Townshend with his ARP 2500

Jon Lord playing an ARP Odyssey

Joe Zawinul endorsing the ARP 2600

ARP-Solina String Ensemble

THE EMS VCS3 AND SYNTHI

Many of Pink Floyd’s sound effects were produced with a VCS3.

The EMS VCS3 Mark I

Pete Townshend with his VCS3

The EMS Synthi AKS

The EMS Synthi 100

Fender Rhodes Mk I Stage 88

Wurlitzer 200A 1972

THE RMI ELECTRA-PIANO AND KEYBOARDS

RMI Electra-Piano 300

The RMI Keyboard Computer KC-I

The RMI Keyboard Computer KC-II

The RMI Harmonic Synthesizer

Le Orme’s Tony Pagliuca in 1972: a Hammond organ topped by a Hohner Clavinet C

Robert Fripp with a Hohner Pianet N on top of the Mellotron M400

Chick Corea endorsing the Hohner Duo

Pink Floyd Rick Wright’s Farfisa Compact Duo Organ

PATRICK MORAZ’s ONE-OFF VAKO ORCHESTRON

Patrick Moraz’s 3-Manual Custom Vako Orchestron-X

Gerinski Posted: June 29 2014 at 17:53

POLYPHONIC ANALOG SYNTHESIZERS

E-mu Modular 1973

Panoramic view of TONTO

Moog Polymoog 203a

Kansas’ Kerry Livgren endorsing the ARP Omni-2

Geddy Lee with his 'mashup' of Oberheim 8-voice and Minimoog

Asia live 1982

Keith Emerson at the Steinway Grand Piano

Keith Emerson's spinning piano

Pipe Organ at St. Gilles, Cripplegate

THE HAKEN CONTINUUM FINGERBOARD

Haken Continuum Fingerboard

THE MARCODI HARPEJJI

Jimmy Page and the Theremin

Edited by Gerinski - January 18 2015 at 06:19

Gerinski Posted: June 29 2014 at 18:46