Clavioline Concert (c.1960)

Our Clavioline Concert was purchased from the late Byron Elwell in two separate units that were joined together by his service engineer, Ken, and then our engineer Steve Christie finished the job.

It is a tube / valve monosynth, very similar in design to the Univox J6 and also, to a certain extent, the Ondioline. It has a contact for every note, and a legato or percussive sound. Unlike the Univox, it doesn’t have a choice of other envelope sustain times.

It features a rich variety of tone filters (the white tabs), 3 types of interactive Vibrato and a Vibrato Amplitude tab. The ‘Concert’ model (as opposed to the slightly more basic ‘Auditorium’) features a Sub I and Sub 2 bass function. You can get very bold, brassy sounds from this unit - and big fat basslines - it sounds very like the Ghostbusters synth bass!

There is an octave slider below the Clavioline badge,which moves the octaves up or down, enabling 5 octaves of the fundamental tone, and then a total of 7 when you include the Sub 1 and Sub 2 functions.

Famously used by John Lennon on The Beatles’ ‘Baby You’re A Rich Man’, and Joe Meek’s ‘Telstar’ track by The Tornados.