In 1965, Lowrey acquired the venerable Story & Clark Piano Company and for
A little known instrument of Lowrey’s was a full two-manual andģ2-pedal church organ, Model CH-32, manufactured by Rodgers under the Lowrey name. Lowrey introduced the first built-in cassette player, a feature later abandoned by all manufacturers. In the mid-1960s, rhythm instruments were added that responded to a touch of a pedal or the lower keyboard. This is now a standard feature in entertainment organs. Also, the first Lowrey theatre organs aĪ Lowrey innovation is Bass Guitar, a plucked, sustained 8’ tone on the pedals. was introduced, but the important landmark of the year was the change to transistors. Automatic Orchestra Control, later renamedĪutomatic Organ Computer, came on the scene in 1963. In 1961, Lowrey’s first home organ with a built-in Leslie speaker appeared as the Holiday Deluxe Model LSL. The Glide dropped the pitch of the organ about a semi-tone and cancelled the vibrato. Of a trombone, the glissando of singing strings and the effect of a calliope. In 1956, the Glide, a foot switch located on the left side of the expression pedal, was introduced, permitting the effects of a Hawaiian guitar “glide”, the smear Unlike the B-3, the Festival had its speakers mounted under the tone generator. The Festival Model FL, also from 1959, was a full console with no bottom like a
Lincolnwood 25 Model SSO-25 with two full 61-note manuals and a 25-note pedalboard.
Another spinet model at the same time was the Lincolnwood Model SS, but in 1959, this would become the It had two 44-note manuals and aġ3-note pedalboard, and was very popular for home use. In 1955, Lowrey came out with its first commercially successful electronic organ. Unlike the Solovox, which used unconventional stop terminology, the Organo used conventional stop names like Flute, Principal, etc. This was a very successful and briskĬompetitor of the Hammond Solovox. In 1941, Lowrey put on the market the famous Organo, an organ-like keyboard placed on the front of a piano keyboard.
In the late 1940s, the Eccles-Jordan circuit was developed, a very stable generator that was a Lowrey exclusive. If you get the chance to try one of these organs, hit that marimba repeat tab and you will quickly realise how it inspired Pete to come up with this fabulous keyboard part.In 1906, when the vacuum tube was invented, research into the art of electronic music began almost immediately.įrederick Lowrey produced a working model of an electronic organ in 1918, and until World War II, experimented with many different tone-generating systems It’s often been reported that Pete recorded the part at half speed, making playback sound fast and frantic (Terry Riley often did this), and again sounds possible but it is performed in real time. It’s not that obvious in the Who’s Next version as it’s only being used as a tone control but in Pete’s original demo, the effect is used in the regular way. In addition, a setting called Wow-Wow is used, much like a guitarist’s wah-wah pedal. For example the following group of notes sound on the beat when these keys are held F-G, B-C#, and these other notes G#- A#, D-E repeat off the beat creating the alternating pattern heard on Baba O’Riley. Pete is using a setting called “marimba repeat.” This is different from a normal repeat effect in that certain notes are repeated either on or off the beat creating a much more complicated repeat pattern. The model Pete used was a TBO-1, but for anyone wishing to recreate Baba O’Riley, just pick one up the following models to do the same job: TLO, DSO, TLS, TSO 25 and HR and GAK (seems to be the nearest). It certainly sounds like it could have been! It’s hard to believe that the sound we hear on Baba O’Riley is really a Lowrey home organ. I’d always thought this was programmed into Pete’s huge modular ARP 2500 synth/sequencer.