Farfisa question.

[Christoph3]

Hi,

I have access to a lot of Farfisa documents. Feel free to contact me via PM.

[tonewheel1966]

As another early Pink Floyd devotee, I spent ~2 years, off and on, restoring a Compact Duo to full working order. That's my way of saying that there's a big difference between an unrestored Duo, even one that works, and one that's been restored to relatively reliable working order. They are not easy to work on.

You do want to make sure, if you find one, that you get the outboard F/AR power supply/spring reverb along with it. I got mine without it, and I had to build a replica. I don't find any completed sales for one on eBay at present, but I think I've seen them go for $600-$700. You should, however, calculate into how much you'd want to pay for one how much you could afford to pay a tech to fix it when the inevitable problems pop up. These organs were not built to last > 40 years. I'm sure I've put over $1,000 worth of work into mine. Most Farfisa Compact series organs brought to me need at least $400 worth of work simply to get everything working.

Also, you may know this, but there are two versions of the Duo. The first has an additional footage, but lacks the tremolo and repeat-percussion found on the second version. The second also has a greatly improved design on the main output board in the organ where bass, lower manual, and upper manual are mixed. It is possible to upgrade the first version to incorporate these output board improvements, but it would be considerably more trouble to attempt to add the effects to the first version.

Rick Wright used the first version on Piper at the Gates of Dawn, but had switched to the second version by Ummagumma.

Sorry to drag up an old thread, but I am interested in David's comments on the output board differences. My newly acquired Compact Duo is a MK1 and is "working". I should be getting a dead MK2 shortly. Does the difference in the output board affect tonality? I understood that the organ outputs across the production run were a flying lead from the F/A-R for normal organ signal, a 1/4 bass output for pedals under the organ and that was it. I won't get my F/A-R for another week or two as the vendor forgot to bring it when we met (we live 600 miles apart) so I would be interested in any more info that you could add.

I know I have a long journey of discovery ahead of me and will change the electrolytics in the organ ASAP. The F/A-R has been totally rebuilt by the vendor who is an organ tech and the organ has been serviced.

Cheers

Dave

[David Anderson]

Yes, the differences in the outboard boards between the Mk1 and MkII Duos have a fairly radical effect on the organ's overall timbre. After repairing a Compact Deluxe for a customer, I was somewhat dismayed by the fact that, after all the work I'd done, my Duo sounded thin and anemic in comparison to the rich, buzzy tone of the Deluxe. The main difference is that the output of the tone filters on a Deluxe drive a high-impedance 12AX7 tube stage in the organ's output module. On the MkI Duo, the tone filters run directly into a typical BJT (bipolar junction transistor) gain stage, which, due to the base-biasing transistors and the transistor itself, has a much lower input impedance than a tube gain stage. The interaction of the low input impedance and the filters sucks the life out of the organ's tone. This was Farfisa's first all-transistor output board, and on the MkII Duo, Farfisa seems to have recognized the problem and added emitter-follower impedance buffers to receive the inputs from the tone filters.

I retrofitted impedance buffers to my Duo, which required installing a flying PCB and some minor changes to the output board. It's not the most elegant-looking thing I've ever done, but it works. The change in the organ's overall timbre is night and day.

[tonewheel1966]

Thanks David. I sent you a PM.

[sfp1954]

http://www.organforum.com/forums/sho...l-Combo-Organs

Take the virtual Farfisa plug-in, open it up in Garage Band - run it through either the Vox or Fender Twin amp simulation and add some insert reverb.
Works for me.

[jdoc]

what is everyone's take on a Top 5 Ace Tone? Been decades since I played one and I have a line on one......value in good shape?
little OT I know..........Blue Rodeo was the only pro band i saw with one and that was in an old video from 90's

[tonewheel1966]

http://www.organforum.com/forums/sho...l-Combo-Organs

Take the virtual Farfisa plug-in, open it up in Garage Band - run it through either the Vox or Fender Twin amp simulation and add some insert reverb.
Works for me.

I used to use Combo F, the freeware VSTI - really good quality.

[tonewheel1966]

David, would you be able to elaborate on the type of desoldering pump/system that you mentioned in an earlier post about the Compact Duo? I have a good solder station but for desoldering at the moment I only have a spring loaded pump which is probably not at all suitable for the job ahead!

[David Anderson]

I made my own desoldering vacuum, using parts (like the ceramic filter) from a similar Hakko device. The vacuum comes from a shop-vac, but the solder is filtered out in a box I made with vacuum fittings on both ends.