Lowrey organs

[Electrosquid]

I was listening to Garth Hudson of The Band the other day, I know he played Lowreys (and probably still does!)

How did the old ones from the 60s work? Were they electro-mechanical like Hammonds or were they synthesised?

Thanks

ES

[andyg]

It depends which part of the 60's!

Early 60's Lowreys were valve generated - no mechanicals - and from about 63/64 they switched over to solid state electronics. Subtractive synthesis is the technique used. Take a waveform rich in harmonics and then filter out what you don't want.

Very different sound to the Hammonds of the day, very pure flutes, but adding the strings and reeds made them really 'fizzy' through a leslie. After about 1975 there was a marked change in the sound that Lowrey
made, as they changed 'direction' towards orchestral sounds, and I'd
regard the TLO Holiday and GAK series as being the last of the 'old school'
Lowreys. TLO's, GAK's and GAKH's etc can often be picked up for 99p / $1 on eBay these days. Very few of the spinets fetch much more than that, so it can be worth a go. Good valve models include the Heritage and Brentwood.

Andy

[Electrosquid]

How did you program them? Did they have drawbars?

ES

[andyg]

You don't actually 'programme' an organ, ES, but you 'register' it, selecting the stops you want, forming 'registrations'.

Lowreys didn't have drawbars, but organ voices, from the smooth flutes, to things like trombone, trumpet, clarinet and violin. These were controlled by rocker switches on the small organs and tabs on the larger ones and Lowrey had sounds that Hammond just couldn't do. You also had effects like percussion, repeat, sustain etc, that weren't possible on a TWG Hammond.

Google 'Lowrey History' for info, but be aware that even Lowrey's own site has got some of the facts wrong (at least compared with what they were saying in the 60's and 70's!) [:S]

Andy

[dwagar]

I had an early Festival for awhile (abt '62), scored it for free. Eventually gave it away, I didn't have the storage space. And I prefer Hammonds anyway. These guys must've had about 100 tubes in them.

[andyg]

That looks very nice. When you have one of those I guess it heats the room up nicely in winter.[] I was offered one free last year.I nearly said yes until he told me that he thought most of the tubes were shot and the chassis corroded. I don't think there are that many of them over here.