From mskremote@yahoo.com Thu Sep 22 19:25:37 2011
Subject:Re: Slightly OT: Vintage KeyBlog - A question that might interest you, and my stab at an answer...
Hi Simon,
Due to the humid climate around coastal Australia (where 90% of the pop. lives then and now) compared with Europe from where most of the early pianos were imported from Australia developed a booming industry in piano manufacture in the 19th Century using timbers that were not as susceptible to warping and going out of tune. Beale, based in Sydney went on to become the largest manufactuer of pianos in the southern hemisphere: see http://www.overspianos.com.au/beale.html
Craft based instrument manufacture continues in Australia with the best known being Maton often using timbers unique to Australia in their high end guitars. There are numerous other small luthiers still active in the market as are some some boutique guitar amplifier manuafacturers. Craft based instrument manufacturer continues here and is viable in part due to the high cost of custom shop guitars from the likes of Fender, Gibson and PRS.
In electronics where low price comes with volume our market is too small (pop currently 22 million) to support onshore manufacturer. The best we can do in this era is innovate (Fairlight) in areas where low volume manufacture may be viable - although not even that worked in the case of Fairlight. But with giggable keyboards starting at $Aus $650 new I think all our futures are in the product development hands of the 6 or 7 global brands (Casio, Yamaha, Roland, Clavia, HS, Kurzweill), and a few specialists like Numa (which are not sold here) It is interesting that Numa can produce a competitor to the majors at a similar price so there is some hope that innovation will continue.
However the midi controller/software alternative may make hardcoded sound engine kb's redundant in the future. In my case this is tantilizingly close to reality but not quite there yet. Given my recent experiences midi software seems to have reached the DOS3.1 level of development on PC's. Maybe it is easier for a newby to configure on Macs.
Cheers
Mark
________________________________
From: Simon Beck
To: CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2011 4:50 PM
Subject: Re: [CWSG] Re: Slightly OT: Vintage KeyBlog - A question that might interest you, and my stab at an answer...
Thanks for your interesting comments regarding Australia! I know that Oz has made its own electric guitars (Maton being the best-known example) since the late 1950s, but the earliest (only?) Australian electronic keyboard instrument that I'm aware of is the Fairlight CMI in 1979!
Simon
----- Original Message -----
From: mark k
To: CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2011 3:01 AM
Subject: Re: [CWSG] Re: Slightly OT: Vintage KeyBlog - A question that might interest you, and my stab at an answer...
Hi Simon
I think the responses you will get will vary by country.
Cannot comment with authority on the 50's here in Australia but most of the gigs were for dances at Church, Commnunity Halls or Surf Clubs and in that era most would have had uprights in them for amateur drama etc, so if a band had a pianist they could use it (although the need to mic it may have meant they didn't bother). One of the few prominent artists on keyboard here (the Top 40 here was dominated at that time by artists from the US or UK) was Jerry Lee Lewis and I guess many classically trained musos probably eschewed rock n roll at that time so there would not have many pianists in bands, other than jazz bands, at that time.
By the late 60's the influence of the Animals, Doors and later Deep Purple combined with the availability of the 1st generation of electronic keyboards (Farfisa and Acetone here - I had a Fast 4) lead to an outbreak of bands with keyboards here. One such band, The Groop if I remember correctly, had a console Thomas organ at their peak (Brian Cadd was the keyboard player see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeI8-cHArG4 for an example). Hammonds were a rare item here (and still are) as most churches kept their pipe organs and not many new churches were being built (unlike the US).
Similarly to my knowledge Wurlys, Voxs, Fender Rhodes etc were not common here then or now.
Also in the UK wasn't skiffle the main type of music played by gigging musos in the 50's? And in the 50's and 60's didn't the major studios have resident orchestra's making it easy to fill out pop or rock songs with strings etc rather than use those newfangled electronic devices.
As our music was heavily influenced by UK and US releases I suspect the vast majority of folks here found their way to the blues (where there were many great piano players) via guitar based bands like Yardbirds (I'm a Man), John Mayall, Paul Butterfield, Johhny Winter etc. so it wasn't till the late 60's once the original blues artists that influenced them had been explored that the wider role of keys in contemporary gigging music, other than jazz, was recognised. I seem to recall that the first time I heard a B3 on record would have been on Booker T's Time is Tight. Vanilla Fudges You Keep Me Hangin or Procul's AWSOP may have pre-dated it but I didn't have a clue about Hammonds then - all I knew then was that my Fast 4 didn't sound like it!!
BTW the lack of reliability of the early electronic keyboards may also have discouraged their widespread use. My Farfisa had germanium transistors and when the ambient temp rose above 30 Celsius the octave splitting and doubling function failed leaving one octave of notes regardless of where on the keyboard they were played. The distributor via the retailer I purchased it from advised that there was no solution for that issue.
Cheers
Mark
________________________________
From: Simon Beck
To: px_wk_ctk_keyboards@yahoogroups.com; Wurlitzer_Elec_Piano@yahoogroups.com; rhodes@yahoogroups.com; ComboOrgan@yahoogroups.com; NordElectro@yahoogroups.com; ciep@yahoogroups.com; CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2011 8:18 AM
Subject: [CWSG] Re: Slightly OT: Vintage KeyBlog - A question that might interest you, and my stab at an answer...
Ever wonder where all the Hammonds, Wurlies and Novachords are in classic 1950s rock 'n' roll? Well, there aren't any - it's acoustic piano from end to end. Check the Vintage KeyBlog at www.vintagekeys.co.uk, and maybe throw me some answers...
Simon "Butterfingers" Beck
London, UK
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