Steely Dan's " plastic" organ?

[BlueOliveB3]

The instrument used on the first instrumental break is an electric sitar. This is followed by an organ solo. Donald Fagen used a primitive keyboard called a plastic organ for his solo. The song was among the first in popular music to include an organ solo featuring a pitch-shifting technique.

As was noted above, the "plastic organ" credited in the liner notes was a Yamaha YC-30.

TP

[Sweet Pete]

I seem to recall some serious polyphonic pitchbending on 'Chest Fever'.......Garth Hudson is a genius.'Shape I'm In' also features this effect. A Lowery Festival through some 'tallboys'.........

[jdoc]

Genius doesn't begin to describe his chops...........I have never heard anyone play like him.....he plays like a carnival looks?

I seem to recall some serious polyphonic pitchbending on 'Chest Fever'.......Garth Hudson is a genius.'Shape I'm In' also features this effect. A Lowery Festival through some 'tallboys'.........

Saw him on a local TV show doing a concert with some folks in London, ONtario.....brilliant

[Sweet Pete]

The least known and unrecognized genius besides Garth,was certainly Robbie King.That's him on the intro of 'Stop In The Name of Love',Supremes 1965.He was 16.Known best for his Hometown Band
work on 'Flying' and if you haven't heard his solo on 'I'm Ready' by the 'Hometown Band' you should youtube it to check it out.BTW that's my long time friend/drummer Geoff Eyre on the 70's stuff.
The president of Roland built a 'one off' 2x61 manuals and 25 pedals for Robbie.It had 40 drawbars and 20 presets.That I know of,the only one ever built.He used two full sized Revo cabs with it.The best.

[Hammond Cheese]

Hi. I am new to the forum here, but I own that 'plastic organ', and it is indeed a Yamaha YC-30 with Portamento Strip. Donald played the portamento strip with all voices on for the second solo, and the weird pitch thing is a strange feature on the organ. It has a manual vibrato effect that is activated by wiggling your fingers sideways while playing. You can do this slowly and it sounds like an off-center LP. I am going to be selling this instrument soon.
YC-30_1.jpg